LG admits initial Snapdragon 810 issues, says they are fixed now

In another episode of the Snapdragon 810 saga we now witness LG's acknowledgement of issues faced with the chipset's "initial sample". The Korean company restates, however, that all problems have been resolved and the G Flex2 will get its timely release.

The information comes from a press conference held at LG headquarters on Q4 2014 financial matters. Unsurprisingly, questions were raised, regarding the chipset's problems with heat, and in light of recent developments, the company determined it best to come clean.

A legal battle between LG and Qualcomm over a reported dedicated Samsung version of the chipset was deemed out of the question. After the apparent loss of the Samsung Galaxy S6 as a vehicle for its top-of-the-line SoC, Qualcomm will be delighted to know that LG is still on board.

The future LG G4 model has also popped up in conversations at the press conference. Its launch schedule should remain unaffected by the Snapdragon affair, the company insists. On the matter of a possible metal body, a vague answer has been given, stating that it will be decided by market demand.

WSJ: Microsoft will make an investment in Cyanogen

According to report in The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft will make an investment in Cyanogen Inc. The Redmond giant is expected to become a minority investor in a $70 million round of equity financing.

The latest round of funding is said to value Cyanogen Inc. “in the high hundreds of millions.” Spokespeople from both Microsoft and Cyanogen Inc. declined to comment on the matter.

Cyanogen made quite a splash a few days ago when the company’s CEO Kirt McMaster told an audience in San Francisco that the company wants “to take Android away from Google.” The ambitious startup plans to create a version of Android, which isn’t dependent on Google Play apps and services.

The round of financing for Cyanogen could grow further. As it turns out, more strategic investors have expressed interest in the company now that its plans to loosen Google’s hold on Android became clear.

Considering the roughly 3% market share Windows Phone holds, it is hardly a surprise that Microsoft want a piece from the action in the Android realm. The tech giant surely wouldn’t mind further exposure for its Bing search engine.

OnePlus names its Android ROM 'Oxygen'

After things with Cyanogen went a bit sour, OnePlus announced that it is working on its own Android ROM for the OnePlus One. The company also released an alpha version, with a stable version arriving in February.

The company has now announced the name for the ROM, and it will be called 'Oxygen'. Oxygen, OnePlus says, is, "all around us. It’s part of us and everything we do. It creates the water that carves out valleys and moves mountains. By itself, it’s simple and pure—a fundamental building block. But, as a part of something greater, it can do amazing things. Just like us."

The company says the OnePlus ROM will be "open, customizable, and free of bloat and unnecessary features."

OnePlus has promised more details on Febrary 12.

Intel says it's time for work without wires The leading maker of PC chips says its new Core vPro processor is now available and offers speedier performance, longer battery life and the need for fewer cords.

Intel is getting one step closer to its goal of eliminating cables from personal computers, saying Thursday that its newest chip for work computers -- which packs in several wire-free features -- is now available.

The fifth-generation Core vPro processor provides improved performance, longer battery life and better graphics than its fourth-generation predecessor, Intel said. On top of that, the chip provides two new functions to power a more wire-free workplace. It includes Intel's wireless display technology, which is designed to let employees share presentations on conference room displays without the need for cords, and wireless docking, which enables users to connect their laptops to a large display, keyboard and mouse. These two features were still mostly in testing in the previous generation.

"We aim to transform the user experience by helping them compute from virtually anywhere without the clutter and burden of wires," Tom Garrison, general manager of Intel's business client platforms, said in a statement.

Intel, the top maker of desktop and laptop chips, has said it plans to create a wire-free PC by next year. A wireless and tangle-free computer has long been a goal in the tech world, but the idea has been slowed by the need to connect to peripheral devices, like a keyboard and display, as well as a power source. In recent years, advances in wireless charging and superfast, short-range wireless connections using WiGig technology have brought the idea closer to reality.

The new chips are also way for Intel to try to stay in step with a growing trend of people using their computers on-the-go and working from home. To help ensure corporate information is still protected, regardless of where a company computer may be, Intel created the Core vPro line specifically for work PCs. These chips include stronger security measures than Intel's consumer chips, and they allow IT departments to access corporate computers remotely, even when they're turned off, so technicians can repair or upgrade devices from any location.

Intel's vision of a wires-free workspace.Intel

Intel is also hoping these new wires-free features can help it keep up demand for new PCs, even as more consumers are using smartphones and tablets for their daily computing needs. After the PC market had been in decline for more than two years, it showed signs of stability in 2014, which has helped boost Intel's profits and stock price.

Along with the Core vPro for business, Intel in recent months also started shipping its fifth-generation Core i-series chips for consumer desktops and high-end laptops, and the Core M chip for laptops and tablets. All three sets of chips use a new 14-nanometer architecture. The Core i-series also includes wireless display features, known as "WiDi," but the vPro provides a stronger set of security measures.

Amazon surprises investors with a gift of profit The e-commerce company posts a $214 million profit for the holiday season. CEO Jeff Bezos says Prime membership got a boost of more than 50 percent in the quarter.

Looks like Amazon got its happy holidays after all.

The company on Thursday reported a profit of $214 million, or 45 cents a share, on revenue of $29.33 billion, exceeding some analysts' estimates of 17 cents a share on $29.68 billion in revenue.

The results show that Amazon learned from the mistakes it made last year when its delivery partners FedEx and UPS ended up with a backlog of packages that caused some shipments to arrive at customers' doorsteps after Christmas. This year, the world's largest online retailer revised its delivery plans and even extended its Christmas delivery cutoff date, getting packages to customers on time, said Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor, which provides analytics and other services to online retailers.

For the current quarter, the company said it expects sales to rise to between $20.9 billion and $22.9 billion, growing 6 percent to 16 percent compared with the first quarter last year. It also forecast that operating income would range from a loss of $450 million to a profit of $50 million. Amazon last year reported $146 million in operating income. Last quarter's profit comes after two consecutive quarters of losses, and investors are buying into the results. Shares surged more than 13 percent in after-hours trading. The stock closed at $311.78, up $7.87, or more than 2 percent.

"They did a really good job of extending the holidays and not repeating the debacle of last year," Wingo said.

Like other retailers, Amazon sees a spike in activity during the season, with big shopping days likeBlack Friday and, in more recent years, Cyber Monday, driving orders.

The holidays also tend to bump up the company's Prime membership, as people take advantage of the program's free, two-day shipping for last-minute shopping. The company in March hiked the price of Prime membership to $99, up from $79.

"When we raised the price of Prime membership last year, we were confident that customers would continue to find it the best bargain in the history of shopping," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. "The data is in and customers agree -- on a base of tens of millions, worldwide paid membership grew 53 percent last year -- 50 percent in the U.S. and even a bit faster outside the U.S.

Amazon did not release specific numbers for Prime. Wingo estimated that Prime membership has grown to roughly 40 million.

Prime is a key component of Amazon's strategy. A subscription service that gives members access to e-books, videos and music in addition to two-day shipping, it keeps customer -- and their dollars -- inside Amazon's vast ecosystem. One study of 2014's fourth quarter found that Prime customers spend hundreds more on Amazon than non-Prime shoppers.

"When a customer becomes a Prime member, they do step up their purchases very considerably," Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said during a call with journalists following the report. He would not say how much more Prime members spend or whether they're watching more streaming videos than other consumers. Amazon has heavily invested in its Prime Instant Video service, which Szkutak said is driving more consumers to Prime.

The real star of Amazon's earnings continues to be its cloud-computing arm, Amazon Web Services. The company said that 1 million people use the service now and that it will start breaking out the service's financials this year, an indication of AWS' growth. Amazon has expanded the service considerably since it launched in 2006. It is a major provider of data storage and computing for several consumer brands, including video-streaming service Netflix, and even government entities like the CIA and NASA.

In the past, AWS sales were included in a miscellaneous category for North America sales called "Other," which saw $1.67 billion in sales in the last quarter.

Analysts say Apple has beaten Samsung to become world's largest smartphone vendor

After recording the biggest quarterly profit by any company ever, Apple might have earned itself another accolade: world's largest smartphone vendor. It's clear that the iPhone maker had a bumper quarter, reporting record sales of 74.5 million smartphones. However, Samsung is only saying that it sold 95 million total handsets, of which, it says, somewhere between 71 million and 75 million (the "high 70 percent") were smartphones.

So has Apple finally beaten Samsung? It's impossible to say with absolute certainty. Samsung isn't likely to give up any more information on the topic, and analysts and industry experts are hedging their bets accordingly. Some are marking it as a dead heatwhile others are claiming Apple as the winner. Counterpoint Research, which polls global distributors for its figures, says the iPhone maker is definitely ahead — pegging Samsung's shipments at only 73.8 million. Ben Bajarin, an analyst for Creative Strategies also gives the win to Apple (see chart above), but Strategy Analytics claims both vendors shipped 74.5 million smartphones in the fourth quarter last year.

However, even if we mark this a draw, Apple still wins. Not only did the company sell a record number of iPhones last quarter — it also increased the average selling price of its devices by $50 from the previous year. That's a massive win whether it's the world's largest smartphone vendor or not.

Robotic glove teaches your hand the basics of drawing

Whether it was after getting hooked on your first comic, taking a college art class, or even idly doodling on your math book instead of paying attention to your teacher, we’ve all experimented with drawing. Unless you’re one of the people that can actually do it well, you likely gave up and moved on, wondering how other humans can mix lines together to create something both recognizable and aesthetically pleasing. If you’re illustrationally-challenged, your salvation may lie not with humanity, but with robotics. A new robotic glove teaches you how to draw by becoming training your muscle memory.

Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design student Saurabh Datta developed the glove as part of his thesis, initially as a way to learn to play the piano. If his human hands couldn’t learn, maybe some robot hands could teach them — and no, the robot hand doesn’t come from the Robot Devil, despite the startlingly similar way the idea was conceived. Called Teacher, the glove-like robot straps onto your hand and fingers, and guides you through specific gestures over and over. If you do it enough, your hand will learn how to do itthrough sheer muscle memory.

Obviously, this won’t teach you instinct or how to transfer something from your imagination to paper, but at the very least, the theory is that it’ll teach you basics — how to make aesthetically pleasing lines.

Now, it only took Datta a week to build the rig. It’s not exactly the teacher after which it’s named, but instead represents the way humans and robots can and do interact when working to achieve the same goal. Despite being presented with the potential to learn how to draw, Datta found that most participants didn’t like when the glove controlled the majority of the movement — they’d fight against the haptic feedback, and constantly readjust their hand within the contraption to find a more comfortable position. To fix the comfort issue, Datta recorded the fidgets made by the testers, and then adjusted the machine’s force feedback to account for them. In turn, this also helped the machine learn about the way humans naturally move.

Datta’s machines won’t suddenly help you create the best DeviantArt page the internet has ever known, but it’s essentially a proof-of-concept for machines doing our learning for us. You can check out the full project over here, including development diagrams and (long) demonstration videos.

How to install Windows 10 in a virtual machine

After last week’s Windows 10 briefing, a brand new build of the Windows 10 Technical Preview was released publicly. Anyone can sign-up for the Windows Insider program and get a taste of Windows 10. Of course, pre-release builds should never be used as a primary OS, so today I’ll walk you through how to run the Windows 10 Technical Preview in a virtual machine. Under normal circumstances I would do this walkthrough with Oracle’s VirtualBox. It’s free, open source, and works on just about any operating system. Sadly, the drivers appear to be broken for the time being. I couldn’t get sound or networking to work at all, and the screen resolution is severely limited. A quick peek at the community forums shows that other people are having the exact same problems, so hold off using VirtualBox for Windows 10 until these major kinks get worked out.After last week’s Windows 10 briefing, a brand new build of the Windows 10 Technical Preview was released publicly. Anyone can sign-up for the Windows Insider program and get a taste of Windows 10. Of course, pre-release builds should never be used as a primary OS, so today I’ll walk you through how to run the Windows 10 Technical Preview in a virtual machine.

Instead, I’ll be using the free VMware Player application. It works like a charm, but it’s only available for Windows and Linux. VMware does offer premium virtualization solutions for OS X, but that’s a large investment just to test a preview build of Windows. I can’t recommend dropping $70 if this is all you’ll be using it for. With all that in mind, let’s jump in.

1. Download the Windows 10 ISO

First off, head over to the Windows Insider site, and sign up. Once you’ve agree to the terms of service, proceed to the download page, and pick which disc image you want to download. For the purposes of this walkthrough, I’m using the 32-bit English ISO, but go with whatever works for your set-up.

2. Create a new virtual machine

Now, you need to install VMware Player. Head to the download page, pick which platform you want, and complete the installation.

Once the application is installed, launch it, and navigate to Player > File > New Virtual Machine to get this party started.

3. Find your Windows 10 ISO

Next, you need to tell VMware Player where to find the Windows 10 ISO. Select the second option labeled “Installer disc image file (ISO),” and then navigate to the Windows 10 ISO you downloaded earlier.

4. Choose your save location

Pick out a name for this virtual machine, and then select where you’d like it to be saved.

5. Configure your virtual hard disk

On this screen, you need to choose how big you want your virtual disk to be. 60GB is the default, but you can increase it as needed. Just make sure you have enough free space on your actual hard disk.

By default, VMware Player will split your virtual disk over multiple files, and I recommend leaving it that way. Unless you have a specific reason to change it, keep it as is.

6. Customize your hardware configuration

Next, click the “Customize Hardware” button before we finish the initial set-up.

7. Allocate RAM

The default here is 1GB, but more would be better. I have 16GB of RAM in my machine, so I decided 4GB was an appropriate allocation for this virtual machine. Follow the guide on the right of the screen, and don’t go above the maximum recommended memory. If you outstrip what’s available, you’ll end up paging to the hard disk, and making everything slow to a crawl.

8. Configure the CPU

Switch over to the CPU tab, and choose how many cores you want to dedicate to this machine. One is the default, and that’s probably a safe starting point. My machine has four cores, so I usually end up bumping it to two cores for virtual machines, but your milage may vary.

Now, take a look at the button labeled “Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI.” If you’re using the 64-bit version of Windows 10, this is mandatory. Of course, your CPU needs to support this functionality, so use this tool from Microsoft to verify that it will work with your processor.

9. Begin the installation

Close out of the hardware configuration, and “Finish” the initial set-up. Now, boot up your virtual machine, and install Windows 10 just like you would normally.

10. Install the VMware tools

Once Windows 10 has finally booted up, navigate to Player > Manage > Install VMware Tools. It will mount a virtual DVD, and pop up a notification in the bottom right. Navigate to the disc in Windows Explorer, launch the appropriate executable, and follow the on-screen instructions.

Note: If you don’t already have the VMware tools on your PC, follow this process to download them.

11. Reboot your virtual machine

When it’s finished installing, reboot your virtual machine.

And you’ve virtualized Windows 10!

Finally, your Windows 10 installation is ready to use — even in fullscreen mode. Poke around, download the OS updates, and enjoy the cutting edge of Windows. And when something inevitably breaks, it won’t matter. This is just a virtual machine, so toss it, and start over.

Google is a few cities away from becoming your next and best internet provider

Recently, Google announced that it would be launching Google Fiber in multiple new cities throughout the south and southeast. Nashville, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham are officially next on the list for high-speed Internet access. Google is still evaluating other cities — Portland, San Antonio, Phoenix, San Jose, and Salt Lake City are all potential sites, with a decision expected on these cities later in the year.

The next step for the rollout in these cities is to survey them, create a detailed map of fiber locations and deployments, and work with each municipality to create a rollout plan. If previous outcomes are any indication, existing cable and telco customers in these areas can look forward to significant service improvements and/or rate cuts from companies like AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon.

When Google Fiber comes to town

All evidence points in the same direction — when Google announces that it’ll bring service to a new location, the existing companies slash their prices and dramatically improve service tiers. Consider:

• Existing ISPs improved their average performance in Kansas by 86% after Google announced it would bring gigabit fiber to Kansas City (as measured by Akamai). Performance in Wyoming increased by 51%.
• Google’s Austin expansion prompted Comcast to boost its minimum service tier to 5Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream, from 1.5Mbit down / 384Kbit up.
• Time Warner boosted its minimum Austin, TX plan to 2Mbps plan to 3Mbps and its $65 “Ultimate” service from 50Mbps to 300Mbps down. Upload speeds for Ultimate also increased, from 5Mbps to 20Mbps.
• Also in Austin, AT&T began offering customers upgrades from 20Mbps connections to 300Mbps, while simultaneously slashing prices from $208 to $120 per month.

This partly explains why Comcast and its ilk have doubled down on passing laws that would restrict or prevent municipalities from partnering with Google in building networks — the specter of having to provide service at reasonable prices is undoubtedly terrifying.

Google mulling wireless service?

The other rumor making the rounds is that Google might establish itself as an MVNO, or mobile virtual network operator. An MVNO is a company that leases spectrum or line space from a major carrier like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon at wholesale rates, but resells that capacity to consumers at a profitable rate. Prominent US MVNOs include Boost Mobile, Cricket, MetroPCS, Republic Wireless, Straight Talk, TracFone, and Virgin Mobile USA.

Unlike these carriers, which typically license spectrum from a single company, Google is reportedly mulling a plan that would give it access to multiple networks simultaneously and allow it to pick the best provider out of a range of options (WiFi, T-Mobile, and Sprint if rumors are true). Compatible devices would switch between networks on-the-fly to provide best overall service, with seamless integration between the three.

Qualcomm partnered with Airvana for this combined demo

This kind of approach is given credence by some activity on Qualcomm’s side of the fence. Each generation of the company’s modems has integrated more flexible baseband radio. The latest Qualcomm demonstrations have shown how it’s possible to pair an LTE modem and WiFi modem simultaneously, switching back and forth between options depending on congestion or using them both together for maximum performance.

I’m dubious of any proposed MVNO from Google for two principle reasons. First, it’s hard to imagine Google committing to the in-depth, long-term support and service contracts that are part and parcel of offering wireless service. Carriers commit to multi-year support on dozens of devices, with significant fixed costs and operating expenses. Google, in contrast, prefers to move quickly and transition rapidly from device to device or plan to plan. Google Glass went from Next Big Thing to moribund in a few short years. Google’s Nexus device strategies have shifted from offering incredible value to chasing some of the premium market. It bought, then disposed of, Motorola in fairly short order as well. If you want your wireless provider to be staid, boring, and dependable — and on a fundamental level, plenty of people do want that — then Google doesn’t fit the mold very well.

The second reason I’d be wary of a Google-backed smartphone network is privacy-related. It’s hard to imagine that Google wouldn’t be sorely tempted by Verizon’s undeletable cookies or the ad networks that take advantage of them. The ability to track users regardless of personal device settings is an absolute gold mine for a company that derives much of its revenue from search.

At a minimum, Google would have to offer a great many privacy guarantees and reassurances before I’d personally feel comfortable going this route — but if it did so, I’d be sorely tempted. Watching Google do to wireless what it’s currently doing to the gigabit fiber network would be deeply, deeply satisfying.

India sex-test ad ban for tech firms

India's Supreme Court has ordered internet giants Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to block adverts for pre-birth tests that reveal a child's sex.

Such adverts are illegal in India because of the widespread underground practice of aborting female fetuses.

This has led to a skewed gender ratio in much of India.

The court was responding to a petition that noted that gender-test adverts are displayed on major search engines despite being illegal.

Google and Microsoft had argued they were not advertising anything that violated Indian laws.

The court said it would give a more detailed ruling in two weeks.

Technology writer Prasanto K Roy told the BBC that enforcing the ban would be very difficult, if not impossible.

"There are so many ways to get around filters and it will block the genuine stuff. For instance, filters normally would scan the text, but they don't stop graphics and many of the ads would have only graphics," he said.

"Also, the only way to find out which ad is about sex determination would be at the stage when they are accepted, but most of the advertisements are automated so they will have to be looked at manually which will mean additional manpower will have to be deployed to do it."

A further problem, he added, was that "these ads could be uploaded from anywhere in the world, targeting a specific geographical location".

India has admitted that its strategy has failed to put an end to the practice of aborting female foetuses.

The 2011 census showed a serious decline in the number of girls under the age of seven, with activists saying as many as eight million female foetuses may have been aborted in the previous decade.

In 1961, for every 1,000 boys under the age of seven, there were 976 girls. By 2011, that figure had dropped to 914 girls.

The 1994 Pre-Natal Determination Test (PNDT) Act outlawed sex-selective abortion. It was amended in 2004 to include gender selection even pre-conception.

In India, abortion is generally legal up to 12 weeks' gestation. Sex can be determined by a scan from about 14 weeks.

There are estimated to be about 40,000 registered ultrasound clinics in the country, and many more exist without any record.

LG Mobile reports 16% increase in annual revenue in 2014

It's been a hectic several weeks for accountants the world over, and after Apple boasted record numbers, now LG's figures have been published. LG Mobile Communications Company reports a $14.26B annual revenue, a steady 16% increase on a yearly basis.

The rise is fueled in no small part by the North American market, where Q4 2014 marked a substantial 78% increase in units shipped compared to the same period in 2013.

Out of a total of 78.2M handsets sold globally, 59.1M were smartphones, a 24% increase. The smartphone sales are reported to be the reason for the boost in full-year consolidated revenue to $55.91B.

The figures of the mobile subsidiary are only average for the corporation as a whole. LG Home Entertainment Company (the one making HDTVs) is the top dog with a 31% percent increase in revenue to $18.35B.

More importantly, the combined net profit of the conglomerate has skyrocketed to $474.81M, a massive 125% increase over 2013 numbers. Operating profit has seen a notable 46% growth to $1.73B, as well.

Lenovo A6000 selling in bucketloads in India

Lenovo has proudly announced that its recent flash sale of the A6000 budget-minded smartphone was a success, selling out 10,000 pieces in just 2 seconds. The marketing stunt, pioneered by Xiaomi and later adopted by emerging brand Yureka, has proven to work miracles on the Indian market and is now being exploited even by the more established Chinese phone manufacturer Lenovo.

With over 255,000 registrations for the sale on the online store Flipkart, it's no wonder the stock was promptly cleared. The smartphone's attractive price tag of Rs. 6,999 ($113) could be the chief reason for the hype.

That amount of cash lands you a 5-inch screen of 1280x720px resolution in an understated, but reasonably good-looking package. The innards are nothing to write home about, but you still get the popular Snapdragon 410 chipset with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of onboard storage, expandable via microSD.

If you had your mind set on the Lenovo A6000 but were left out of the last flash sale, fret not, for a new batch is coming soon and registrations are already underway.

SA: 1 billion Android devices shipped in 2014 alone

This quarter Apple reached an important milestone – it sold its billionth iOS device (that's since the first one). Meanwhile, 1 billion Androids shipped over the last year alone, as reported by Strategy Analytics. The analyst firm estimates 1.3 billion smartphones were shipped in 2014, of that over 1 billion ran Android (this works out to 81% market share).

Global Smartphone OS Shipments (Millions of Units)	Q4 '13	2013	Q4 '14	2014
Android	227.3	780.8	291.7	1042.7
Apple iOS	51.0	153.4	74.5	192.7
Microsoft	9.6	35.8	11.3	38.8
Others	2.3	20.0	2.6	9.3
Total	290.2	990.0	380.1	1283.5

Smartphone shipments grew 30% compared to 2013 (from 1B to 1.3B). Androids alone went from 0.8B to 1B in that period, while iOS lost some ground in terms of market share. It still shipped around 193 million devices, up from 153 million units in 2013.

The third horse in the race, Windows Phone, kept pace with the growth of the market and stayed at 3% share (shipping just under 39 million units).

Strategy Analytics did not release a breakdown by manufacturer, but we know from quarterly reports that Apple is rolling in the dough with record sales. Earlier the analysts reported that Samsung and iOS sales for Q4 2014 were even in terms of devices sold. Despite this, Samsung has been seen itsearnings slip, but other companies have been bouncing back.

Global Smartphone OS Marketshare (%)	Q4 '13	2013	Q4 '14	2014
Android	78.3%	78.9%	76.7%	81.2%
Apple iOS	17.6%	15.5%	19.6%	15.0%
Microsoft	3.3%	3.6%	3.0%	3.0%
Others	0.8%	2.0%	0.7%	0.7%
Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Total Growth: Year-over-Year (%)	33.7%	41.4%	31.0%	29.6%

BlackBerry did not make it into the report, it falls into the Others category, which has a total share of 0.7% (down from 2% in 2013).