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NBBJ Designing Samsung's new silicon valley campus

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:35:00 -0700

As Apple and Facebook have proven, corporate complexes are all the rage these days in Silicon Valley. Samsung (Apple’s phone nemesis) is the latest tech titan to add to the roster of architectural Bay Area campuses, rivaling Apple’s planned circular headquarters and Facebook’s Gehry-designed West Campus. The company plans to build a 1.1 million square foot sales and R&D headquarters on its current North San Jose site. Designed NBBJ, it will include a 10-story tower, an amenity pavilion, and a parking garage.

RENDERING OF SAMSUNG’S NEW SAN JOSE CAMPUS. (COURTESY NBBJ)

Based on renderings released to the Silicon Valley Business Journal last month, the tower will contain three distinct volumes wrapping around an open courtyard; the parking structure will be covered in living walls; and the five-pronged pavilion will showcase a perforated roof design. Design documents also reveal that various floors will house open-offices, 300+ work stations, a fitness room, and several terraces.

Facebook revamps site, tweaks mobile apps

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:05:00 -0700

Facebook wants to cut clutter.

The social media site, which has more than 1 billion users, on Thursday announced a newly redesigned news feed that blows up photos and visual content, and adds categories that focus on specific types of content. The Web version of the social network now looks much more like the mobile apps, which are also getting a revamping.

Facebook announced the changes during a media event at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The new Web version will roll out slowly to users starting Thursday, and updated iOS and Android apps will be available in the coming weeks.

Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg compared the revamped feed to a local newspaper and the new channels to the traditional sections, such as sports and business, you'd find there.

"I think that there's this important and social place in this world for this customized newspaper," Zuckerberg said.

He didn't note the irony of comparing Facebook to an industry that his site and others are marginalizing.

The news feed is the first, and sometimes only, page people see when they log on to the Facebook website or fire up a Facebook mobile app. The nerve center of the Facebook experience, the news feed fills the middle of this home screen with updates, photos, articles and other content and activity from your friends, such as likes and app updates. Interspersed among that somewhat-chronological content are posts from pages you follow and targeted ads.

The main page, which Facebook is calling the "front page" to go with its newspaper metaphor, is adding categories so people can look at a more narrow feed of specific types of content as an alternative to the all-in-one view. There are views for all friends, most recent, close friends, music, photos, games and following.

Photos will show every single image your friends post as well as the photos posted by the pages you follow, including anything shared to Facebook from Instagram. The music channel will show a combination of nearby concerts, feeds from musicians you follow and the songs friends are listing to with third-party apps such as Spotify. The channels will appear on the mobile apps and Web versions of Facebook.

"Everyone's going to start on the front page like they do today. This just gives people more power to dig into the topics they care about," Zuckerberg said.

The individual elements that populate the news feed have been redesigned to fill the page better, the company maintains. Text is taking a back seat to visual content, which now makes up almost 30% of the content in the news feed, according to Zuckerberg. Photos, videos and albums are bigger. Shared articles show a bigger image and larger summary along with a logo for the publisher. Content in the feed about individuals and pages will show a little slice of their timeline, including their cover photo and a button to add them as a friend or to like the page. Maps and posts for third-party apps such as Pinterest have also been cleaned up.

Previously, the news feed occupied less than 40% of the real estate on the Facebook home page, according to Julie Zhuo, Facebook's director of design. To cut down on clutter and give the feed more room to breathe, navigation elements on the left have been slimmed down to a narrow black column of icons, similar to the mobile interface.

One thing that's not changing is the algorithm that decides what posts are displayed in a feed, which has received some criticism. Zuckerberg defended the practice of not showing a full and complete chronological feed of all content, saying people benefit from more important content, such as major life events, being given a more prominent place in their feeds.

The filters might be great for users, but they could have a negative effect on companies that have sunk money into promoting their pages and gathering fans, said one analyst. Those fans can switch to a more narrow feed of just their friends (or music content or photos) that doesn't include brand pages, potentially making it more difficult for companies to reach their followers.

"It's going to continue to erode the value of companies having Facebook pages and fans," said Forrester analyst Nate Elliott. "Facebook is walking a really fine line, they're not providing enough value."

Ads will still be featured on the friends-only feeds, so companies and brands that want to reach people who switch to those views can by buying advertising from Facebook. Elliot says this could be interpreted as a "bait and switch" by marketers.

Ads -- which are included in the redesign -- are Facebook's primary source of income. The company made $4.2 billion off advertising in 2012, which accounted for 82% of the social network's total revenue, according to Engadget. Most of that ad money comes from the Web version of Facebook, and 23% was from ads on mobile devices.

The company may get money from advertisers, but it needs to keep the users who click on those ads engaged, active and happy on the network.

By Heather Kelly, CNN

Facebook Tips very Useful about Privacy

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 04:21:00 -0700

1. Limit Sharing to Friends Only

This suggestion is diametrically opposed to Zuckerberg's famous "the age of privacy is over" declaration in 2009 in which he decided that everyone should share everything they posted on Facebook with everyone else. Later he retreated on this statement. The FTC stepped in, especially as the Timeline era approached. Facebook users can set the default to "friends only," and that's exactly what Downey suggests.
"If you're sharing with 'friends of friends,' you're exposing your info to an average of 150,000 people," says Downey. "When your data is open to the public, it can - and does - end up anywhere: the Girls Around Me app or Spokeo.com are two creepy examples."
To change the settings to friends-only, go to Privacy Settings, and select "Friends" or "Custom." Adjust the settings according to whom you would prefer sees your posts. Note that if you check the "Friends of those tagged" box, you are allowing Facebook to share the post on your wall with the friends of the person tagged.

2. Don't Let Your Friends Share Your Info

Pay close attention to requests from random Facebook social apps like BranchOut. (Plus, do you really want to do "career networking" on Facebook? Casual networking is one thing, but for purely professional connecting, go to LinkedIn.)
"BranchOut requests your basic info; your email address; your profile info: education history, location and work history; and your friends' profile information, including their education histories, locations and work histories," says Abine. "Even without your permission, BranchOut can access your friends' permission."
This is not only intrusive, yes, but also indicative of something more important: As soon as you become Facebook friends with another user, you are allowing them to access a great deal of information about you. This is even more reason to watch what you share on your Facebook profile and who you become friends with.
To change this setting, go to Privacy Settings > Apps, Games and Websites. Then select "How people bring your info to apps they use." Go through and uncheck information about yourself that you don't want your friends to share via social apps and games.

3. Take Care of Your Taggage

That's right, I said taggage, not baggage. It's all kind of the same these days, though. Unlike Google+, which asks users if they'd like facial recognition turned on in photos, Facebook offers "tag suggestions." This means that when a photo that looks like you is uploaded to the network, Facebook suggests adding a tag. It says that this helps "save time," especially when many photos are uploaded from a single event. It does not tag you automatically, but this sort of thing does count as facial recognition. If you would like to opt-out of this feature, change the "who sees tag suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded" option to "no one."
If you don't mind keeping it within friends, select the "friends" option. You can also adjust the Timeline and Tagging options, turning on the review tags and review posts friends tag you in.

4. Limit Audience for Past Posts

The switch to Timeline caused many to promptly wipe and clean up their Facebook profiles, making them shiny new and pristine for friends. Changing the privacy settings on old posts means that you're making a conscious decision to share even past posts with only your current Facebook friends. This includes posts you've previously made public, or posts you've shared with people who you may not be friends with anymore. It poses an interesting question - do you want to change your Facebook past? That photo of an ex that you've since Facebook defriended, or perhaps a friend that you needed to unfriend for a time? If those photos represent memories, is it really necessary to go for a one-size-fits-all vision of your Facebook past?

"Think of this button as a one-stop shop to edit visibility of all your past Facebook posts," says Downey. "Anything that was open to the public or friends of friends will change to friends only."

5. Make Your Subscriber Search Private

Do you want your Facebook profile to be a community space, or a subscriber-based stream of you? Removing the public Subscribe option will help keep random strangers out of your publicly facing community.

Badgeville's Director of Marketing Adena DeMonte was the eighth person to comment on Mark Zuckerberg's announcement of the Subscribe button. Since then, she has accumulated 76,000 public subscribers, a dramatically greater amount than the 10,000 who discovered her Twitter over the years. It seems like a great way to promote herself as a blogger, and her company as a whole. Right?
"The experience has been extremely poor, especially from a privacy standpoint," says DeMonte. "While among my 76,000 subscribers I have a sizable amount of intelligent people who I'd like to engage with, the majority of my subscribers are middle-aged men from countries that do not speak English, mostly in Indonesia, Malaysia, and India. That alone is not bad, but the amount of inappropriate content produced by these men and shared on my wall is overwhelming."
As a result, DeMonte has blocked comments by her subscribers. That's not where the drama ends, however. These men have friend requested many of her female friends, including her own mother. Her real friends started unfriending her, too, and actually got upset with her. Sometimes, a massive social media presence comes at a price.
"Unless you turn off Subscriber Search, anyone can subscribe to your public posts, whether you know them or not," says Downey. "This means that your 'public timeline' will show up in search engine results and let anyone look up your timeline by name."
To change this, go to Account Settings > Subscribers, and uncheck the "allow subscribers" box.

Why Facebook is making people sad

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 04:16:00 -0700

As Facebook becomes a more powerful influence in our digital lives, researchers are looking into how the social network changes our perception of the lives of friends and family members.

According to a new study conducted by sociologists Hui-Tzu Grace Chou and Nicholas Edge at Utah Valley University, research showed a correlation between a Facebook user’s disposition about their life and the amount of time spent on the social network. Approximately 425 students were asked to identify how much they agreed or disagreed with statements like “Life is fair” and “Many of my friends have a better life than me.” In addition, the students were asked about how much time they spent on Facebook, their number of Facebook friends as well as how many of those friends they had actually met in person. The researchers also attempted controlling for factors like relationship status, gender, religious beliefs and race.

Seeing a pattern emerge, the two sociologists discovered that as people spend more time on Facebook, they start to believe that others have a better life than they do. Within the paper, Chou and Edge stated “Those who have used Facebook longer agreed more that others were happier, and agreed less that life is fair, and those spending more time on Facebook each week agreed more that others were happier and had better lives. Furthermore, those that included more people whom they did not personally know as their Facebook “friends” agreed more that others had better lives.”
Published in the Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking journal, the study also concluded that people that spent less time socializing on Facebook and spent more time with real-life friends were less likely to be unhappy. Since Facebook users are far more likely to depict the happiest times of their lives through carefully curated photos rather than catalog depressing events, many users are more likely to believe that happiness is a constant in their friend’s lives. An earlier study conducted last year by the American Academy of Pediatrics also found that children and teenagers can develop “Facebook Depression” when being overwhelmed with positive status updates and photos of happy friends.

Here is why Facebook bought Instagram

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 03:57:00 -0700

You might have heard by now that Facebook has acquired Instagram for nearly a billion dollars in cash and stock. Incredible, isn’t it? I have received text messages of awe and shock from many people in the Valley, for no one saw this coming.
A few days ago it was rumored to be valued at $500 million. A few months ago it was $300 million. Its last round — just a year ago – valued the company at $100 million. The rising valuation of the company was reflective of the growing audience it has been garnering, despite being just on the iPhone. It had reached nearly 30 million registered users before it launched an Android app, a turbo-charging event for the company.
So the question is: Why did Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s level-headed but mercenary founder, buy Instagram at twice the valuation that professional venture investors were putting on it? The answer is found in Zuckerberg’s own blog post:

This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.

Facebook was scared shitless and knew that for first time in its life it arguably had a competitor that could not only eat its lunch, but also destroy its future prospects. Why? Because Facebook is essentially about photos, and Instagram had found and attacked Facebook’s achilles heel — mobile photo sharing.

Here is what I wrote when Instagram launched the Android app.

It is pretty clear that thanks to the turbocharge effect of Android, Instagram’s user base is going to blast past the 50 million mark in a couple of weeks. Just before the company launched its app in October, I had pointed out that there was going to be a mobile-only, photo-oriented social platform that will challenge the established social giants. It will be a summer to remember for this tiny company.

Here is another little bit from one of my Om Says newletters:

The company had announced an API in February, and since then a raft of new apps have come up to capitalize on it. While filters might have jumpstarted Instagram, the company, which already has over 4 million subscribers, has to focus on its core value proposition – community and the social interactions around unique visual experiences. I hope Instagram allows more apps to export directly to its network. By opening itself up to other apps and services, it has the potential to slowly become the hub of our mobile photo experiences. And in the end, that’s what would make Instagram so much more valuable and in the process become the Flickr of mobile photos.

In other words, if there was any competitor that could give Zuckerberg heartburn, it was Systrom’s posse. They are growing like mad on mobile, and Facebook’s mobile platform (including its app) is mediocre at best. Why? Facebook is not a mobile-first company and they don’t think from the mobile-first perspective. Facebook’s internal ideology is that of a desktop-centric Internet company.

Instagram is the exact opposite. It has created a platform built on emotion. It created not a social network, but instead built a beautiful social platform of shared experiences.

Facebook and Instagram are two distinct companies with two distinct personalities. Instagram has what Facebook craves – passionate community. People like Facebook. People use Facebook. People love Instagram. It is my single most-used app. I spend an hour a day on Instagram. I have made friends based on photos they share. I know how they feel, and how they see the world. Facebook lacks soul. Instagram is all soul and emotion.

It is one of the reasons I connected with the app even before it launched. It went deeper than just a photo app. Over the years, Kevin shared his grand ambition about Instagram and building a much larger platform, so from that perspective I guess I am a little surprised – though I thought Kevin and his team would go a lot further, for as Erica pointed out last week, the best is yet to come for mobile photos.
More importantly, it cracked the code where Facebook itself failed: viral growth on mobile. From that perspective I wonder if Kevin sold too soon, though I know it is easy for me to say. But then the road from product and a platform to a business is long, twisted and full of potholes. Perhaps that explains why the Instagram team decided to cash in their chips.

iPhone 5 mystery release date elicits carrier 4G conspiracy plot

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Fri, 20 May 2011 23:07:00 -0700

If the four major U.S. carriers haven’t conspired, separately or collectively, to delay the iPhone 5 release date until later this year, then it sure as heck looks a lot like they have. While most signs point to the iPhone 5 (here’s the scoop on iPhone 5 features) arriving the latest of any new iPhone generation in its respective year, no clear reason for a delay on Apple’s part have surfaced. Even as Apple attempts to extend the iPhone 4 era with the white iPhone 4, the Verizon-specific iPhone 4, and whatever other iPhone 4 tricks might be up its sleeve, it’s still a mystery as to why the iPhone 5 apparently isn’t on track for summer 2011 release, even as customers prepare to feel the burn. For insight as to what’s really going on, one might best look at those who have the most to gain from a late iPhone 5 arrival, and their primary motivation for it. The latter is clearly 4G, and the former comes in the form of Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and even Sprint.

Why would all four carriers want the iPhone 5 to arrive late? They don’t, per se. But what they do want is for the 4G era to officially commence in the minds of the public. Each carrier appears to believe, for various reasons, that it has the upper hand when it comes to the 4G era. Sprint already has a sizable 4G network; Verizon has the marketing lead on the faster 4G LTE variant; AT&T is acquiring T-Mobile which should give it a combination of homegrown 4G LTE combined with a broader non-LTE 4G base. The trouble is, outside of geeks and enthusiasts, few care about 4G or even understand what it is. That won’t change until there’s a 4G enabled iPhone. So while Apple doesn’t like to adopt technology while it’s still largely in the vaporware stage (4G LTE barely exists on Verizon or AT&T), Apple may nonetheless feel the pressure to make 4G happen with the iPhone 5. And oddly enough, each carrier potentially benefits from a 4G iPhone 5 happening later than sooner.

First there’s Verizon, which is in the process of betting its reputation on a 4G LTE network that it’s barely begun building. The millions of Verizon customers who just bought the Verizon iPhone 4 when it launched earlier this year are going to be more likely to upgrade to the Verizon iPhone 5 if more time has passed since the launch of the former. Then there’s AT&T, which still has almost no 4G presence at all. The carrier needs time to integrate T-Mobile’s network into its own, which will allow it to offer “4G” of one kind or another in various places. Assuming the iPhone 5 includes multiple 4G variants, AT&T could be the big winner – but not until the merger is sufficiently complete; a 4G LTE iPhone 5 launch right now could do AT&T more harm than good. And then there’s Sprint, which is about to become the only major U.S. carrier without the iPhone, and the smallest. Sprint is unlikely to add the iPhone to its lineup until 4G happens, so if Apple needs more time to make a 4G enabled iPhone 5 happen, then so be it. Bottom line, the carriers desperately want 4G to be accepted by the public, as it’s their collective best shot at continuing to upgrade cycle of new smartphone hardware this year and next, even as speeds and capacities begin to surpass what a pocket sized device might reasonably need. And because the public will begin caring about 4G at the precise moment the iPhone gains 4G, the behind the scenes pressure on Apple to release a 4G iPhone 5 is enormous. If pulling that off takes a little longer than expected and the iPhone 5 release date is held back by a season as a result, the public may be less than thrilled but the carriers won’t mind a bit. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

Samsung Galaxy S II features Corning® Gorilla® Glass

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Fri, 6 May 2011 00:14:00 -0700

Corning® Gorilla® Glass have partnered with Samsung to bring their leading cover glass technology to the GALAXY S II. Corning Gorilla Glass is a lightweight environmentally friendly alkali-aluminosilicate thin-sheet glass that specifically functions as a cover glass for high-end display devices such as smartphones, tablets, notebook PCs, and TVs. It has enabled super-slim mobility on the Galaxy S II's high-quality touch display, Super AMOLED Plus.

This specialty glass is highly-damage resistant as demonstrated on many stress-test videos on YouTube, including this Ball-drop test.

The Galaxy S II is currently Samsung's most powerful smartphone and has received rave reviews from some of the leading technology blogs such as Engadget ("The Galaxy S II's screen is nothing short of spectacular") and Techradar (Number 1 in "20 best mobile phones in the world today"), amongst many others. It is a dual-core-smartphone powered by the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) platform and is currently the slimmest smartphone. South Africans can expect it to be available in June/July 2011.

Find out more about the Samsubng Galaxy S II at http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxys/

Apple Vs Android – Apple iPhone market climbs is hurting Android

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Fri, 6 May 2011 00:10:00 -0700

The competition between Apple [AAPL] and Android is finally becoming more egalitarian, with the introduction of the iPhone for Verizon in the United States, boosting Apple’s market share and reach increasing at the expense of its rival. With new mobile devices expected in the wing of a likely launch in September, the competition between the two is expected to intensify, with Apple taking over its rivals on price, functionality and reliability. Android has not won.

Apple climbs
Check out the latest data from Strategy Analytics. Released the next day, she reveals that ZTE has surpassed Apple in Q1 of 2011 to become the world’s largest maker of handsets in the fourth row, up to sixth place a year ago.
Strategy Analytics said: “Apple has sold a record 18,600,000 phones worldwide in Q1 2011, has more than doubled from 8.8 million units in Q1 2010 Apple captured fourth place in the phone deliveries from sixth last year and jump .. ZTE rival Apple continues to enjoy strong operator subsidies and co-marketing, enabling its global handset share to achieve a healthy 5 percent for the quarter. ”
The 5 percent of the market on the basis of what is now four types of phone: the iPhone iPhone 4, 4 Dell Vostro 1310 Battery Verizon, iPhone White 4 (available at the time) and the iPhone 3G. However, four of these devices provide a consistent user experience that nature can not promise Android.

New records
The Apple iPhone sales record in its last quarter, 18650000 iPhones during the quarter ended March 26. This represents an increase of 113 percent compared to 8.75 million phones in the same period next year.
The only way (at least for now) is in place, with rumors claiming Apple will introduce a new iPhone in September, also hopes to be where the company should diversify its portfolio further with the addition of phone features to its line iPod.
Consider this: an iPod phone is no iPhone, lending flexibility in features – but it would probably be popular, probably put the “innovation” just for movies Apple phone market and help Apple continue its growth strategy clear construction in developing markets. In other words, the growth of Apple.
[This story is from Computerworld Apple blog Holic. Follow us on Twitter or subscribe via RSS to ensure you do not miss a beat.]

Compare the market
What was the competition? Not good. As I always say, this is not Apple brand is competing with Android – is another. It is a difficult task that
* Not Nokia, which shipped 108 500 000 phones worldwide in Q1 2011, a 1 percent per year – a growth model below the average firm has held for eleven quarters. Apple has exceeded revenue by Nokia for the period.
* LG has sent a less than expected 24,500,000 mobile phones worldwide in Q1 of 2011, up 10 percent from the previous year. Seller phone shipments were below the industry average and its worldwide market share fell to 7 percent, the lowest level since Q1 2007.
* 68,900,000 Samsung mobile phones shipped worldwide in the first quarter of 2011, up 7% from 64.3 million units last year. Despite the hype around the Android market leader, Samsung HP Pavilion dv6000 real market share of the handset battery has slipped from 22percent to 20 percent. 16 percent of phones are smartphones from Samsung and the company is struggling with HTC “in the Android market leadership,” said Strategy Analytics.
* The large companies in Africa and Latin America, China’s ZTE mobile phone maker shipped 15.2 million phones worldwide in Q1 2011. The company will make strides in the manufacture of phones based on Android this year – and bad news for Samsung and LG in the Android space, more of a challenge for Microsoft and Nokia, and more changes in the force RIM.
A quick review of market conditions (by Strategy Analytics)
“The mobile phone shipments grew 17 percent annually and reached 350 million units in Q1 2011, driven by rising smartphones in mature areas and popular multi-SIM models in emerging markets. This year is the first year in each quarter is over 300 million units. The first quarter of 2011 was marked by disturbances in the supply chain linked to the tragedy of the earthquake in Japan and during mild stress component in areas such as touch screens, memory and cameras. We hope that the shortage of global component chosen to continue at least for the next 6 to 9 months, resulting in restricted volumes or prices of inputs for some mobile phone manufacturers. But at this stage, in general, the operational challenges posed by these constraints minor parties remain central to most players. ”
So we can anticipate a shortage in products, but Apple already control much of the capacity, do not be surprised to see competitors fail once the company starts to really cut iPhone prices during the quarter.

Apples and Oranges
Listen, there is no such thing as a generic Android phone. Just a lot of different devices, all with different characteristics, all marketed under a dimorphic entity, called Android. Apart from the operating system, there is no benchmark for systematically comparing the large number of Android devices to Apple, at best you look at the iPhone Android phones, and the Acer Aspire 5520 Battery selling the iPhone one of them.
With the switch to Verizon, we now see a fairer competition between Apple and Android devices.
National Development Plan claims have boosted sales of Apple’s iPhone Verizon to become the third mobile phone brand in the U.S. before HTC, Motorola and RIM. Analysts believe the iPhone has had 14 percent of U.S. market in the first quarter of 2011, behind Samsung (23 percent) and LG (18 percent).
Apple is gaining share of mind, too. A comScore report says that if you include all units in the United States using IOS (iPhone, iPod touch and IPAD), Apple reached 37,900,000 people. Android has come to 23.8 million phones and tablets. Apple has 59 percent.
In Europe, Apple has Android 116 percent. As noted by colleague Jim Dalrymple, “This is the truth.”
So when Apple’s next smartphone?

* Media of the cloud through iTunes
IPhone Diversity *
* The price reduction
* Continue efforts to market development
* More improvements to the software function
* Quad-core processors with more advanced graphics.
Meanwhile, competitors are in the grip of an online advertising company, chose to rely on their busines. Google is now the vein for future development and innovation of software for mobile phone manufacturers in the world – but how long that innovation latest announcements reduction for income?

Canalys: Android now 35 pct of global smartphone market

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Fri, 6 May 2011 00:06:00 -0700

Canalys says Android has extended its lead in the smartphone market to 35 percent, with the strongest growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

Market analysis firm Canalys has published its worldwide figures for smartphone market share, finding that Google’s Android platform leads the world for the second quarter in a row—and extended its smartphone share to 35 percent. Overall, Canalys finds Nokia, Apple, RIM, Samsung, and HTC were the top five smartphone vendors during the first quarter of 2011, but while Apple continues to expand its market share, RIM saw its share drop as the company worked on launching a product line refresh.
Canalys attributes Android’s global dominance of the smartphone market to strong performances from several vendors, including HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson, with each vendor shipping more than 3 million devices. LG Electronics took over Motorola’s sixth-place standing worldwide owing to strong sales of its Optimus smartphones.
The United States remained the largest market for smartphones, with Apple seeing a 150 percent increase in its market share year-on-year and capturing 31 percent of the market. However, Canalys crowns Android as the dominant platform in the United States with a 49 percent share, and HTC as the leading Android device vendor in the U.S. market at the number-two smartphone vendor overall.
“Shipments of [HTC's] EVO series, Inspire 4G, and Thunderbolt enhanced HTC’s strong performance in this quarter,” said Canalys VP and principal analyst Chris Jones, in a statement. “The vendor has a wide and regularly refreshed portfolio, covering multiple network technologies, which puts it in a strong position both in the U.S. and worldwide.”
In another interesting note, Samsung shipped some 3.5 million smartphones running its own Bada platform during the first quarter of 2011; that’s over a million more Bada-based phones sold during the quarter than Windows Phone devices from all vendors. Canalys noted Samsung’s success with Bada indicates the smartphone market can accommodate multiple operating systems, and vendors can benefit from keeping tight control over device development “to hit the right markets and price points.”
Canalys also noted that, while Nokia is struggling to shift its smartphone strategy, the company’s sheer size and momentum still make it a formidable player. “[Nokia's] worldwide reach, however, should never be underestimated,” said Canalys principal analyst Pete Cunningham. “Canalys’ country-level data shows that the vendor remains number one in 28 countries, including mainland China.”

I can rate my professor now :) Nice site !!

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 03:18:00 -0700

In this site, you can rate your professor or search the professor who you want to contact to join his lab.
You can get the information like this professor is very arrogant or that professor is sweet blah blah ...

I think it's very nice site for students like me :)
I strongly recommend and attached this screen shot for you
Have a nice day ~

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/SearchProfs.jsp

Some electronic equipments will disappear as technologies develop

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 23:02:00 -0700

I think some electronic equipments will disappear as technologies develop !
There are five devices I guess . . .

1. Desktop Computer : Most people will use laptop or tablet computer in the future

2. Cable TV : We might watch movies and sports through internet

3. Analog Camera : High quality Digital Camera will replace it

4. Camcorder : Smart phone will replace it too

5. USB drive : Wireless communications like bluetooth will replace it

Because technology varies very very fast these days ~!!
How do you think ?
These 5 equipments will still be used after 5 years?
Comment your opinion plz thank you :)

Color CEO on Funding and the Future of Social Networking

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:38:00 -0700

Color has captivated the technology world. The mobile app has only been publicly available for 24 hours, but it already has hundreds of articles dedicated to it and currently sits at #26 (and rising) on the iTunes Top Free apps list.
Why is Color getting so much attention? Perhaps it's because of its unique location-based social networking features, or maybe it can be attributed to the company's all-star lineup of founders, including former Lala CEO Bill Nguyen and former BillShrink CEO Peter Pham.
The hype could also be explained by the company's jaw-dropping $41 million in pre-launch venture funding from Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital and Silicon Valley Bank. Whatever the reason, Color's launch on iPhone and Android has the tech world's attention.
Color's launch hasn't been smooth sailing, though. The app has gotten some harsh reviews and has received mixed review in the App Store (around two out of five stars). That hasn't deterred Nguyen and his team though; Color is a company they intend to turn into a billion dollar business by becoming the social network of the future.

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Rocky Road
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As we reported earlier, Color will directly address the criticism that the app has a terrible user experience when nobody else is around. Nguyen in fact agrees with the criticism; he says that it's simply meant for groups. "That's how we've always designed [Color]," he told me.
That's why the company will be releasing a major update to the app next week. It will incorporate a principle of "dynamic network" to determine who is near your location. While the app currently chooses people within 150 feet of your location, the new app could choose a distance of half a mile or more, based on population density. The app will also lock itself down if there is nobody in the vicinity using the app.
The team worked on the app for nine months, so it's understandable that Nguyen and his team took some of the criticism personally. "My feeling are hurt that not everybody got it, but what are you going to do?" he stated.
As for the criticism that Color should have launched at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin earlier this month, Color's CEO had a simple response: "I hate conferences." Elaborating on his comment, Nguyen explained that while he now gets the opportunity SXSW could have presented, the sheer volume of startups competing for attention and pitching to countless venture capitalists and journalists simply would have made it feel "inorganic."
While Color may prove useful at tech conferences, it's clearly not Color's target market.
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A Research-Centric Company
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So why did Color take $41 million before it even launched? Sequoia capital, which chipped in $25 million, didn't even give that much money to Google, which required thousands of servers and data engineers in order to expand its ability to crawl the web.
Color's CEO contends that a similar problem faces his startup. "We're a research company," Nguyen claimed during our interview. When I asked him to elaborate, he gave the example of a birthday: you're going to meet people you don't recognize, but you want to know things like how they are friends with the birthday girl and what they have in common.
What does that have to do with research and data? The answer is simple: Nguyen wants to make discovering this type of information a painless and intuitive process, but in order to do that, the company needs to gather, track and analyze huge amounts of data. Not only that, but the full power of Color isn't truly unleashed until you and your friends have used it for several months.
Perhaps that's why Nguyen recruited D.J. Patil, the former chief scientist at LinkedIn. His data expertise has been crucial to creating and tweaking the precise algorithms that determine proximity and friendship. And as the company grows, so will its need to gather and process data, an expensive affair that Nguyen expects will require even more money.
"We need the money," he succinctly states. Be believes the $41 million is money that the company will need to push the boundaries of social technology and data.
"I'll tell you something about the funding and the mission: they're very correlated to each other."

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The Mission and the Future
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At its core, Color is not a company about photo sharing. You won't find Instagram-like filters because that's simply not the point of the app. When I asked Nguyen straight up to enumerate the core goal of Color, his responses was, "to make small communities."
Color's team believes that "friending" and "following" are archaic ways of determining who is in your social graph. Why go through all that work maintaining a social graph when Color can (and should) do it for you?
Instead, Color helps create small communities of friends and strangers. His thesis is that people do actually want to meet strangers in the same location, but they're often not comfortable simply approaching someone. Color provides a conduit where you can find out who's in the room and what they're like, making it easier to start a conversation and meet new friends.
Central to all of this is the phone. "During my time at Apple, We spent a lot of time thinking about the post-PC world," he said, explaining that smartphones are devices capable of collection loads of unstructured data. It's his job and his team's job to take the data they collect and turn it into something useful for the average user.
Color isn't your typical app and it isn't your typical company. Because of its blockbuster funding, the media will be keeping a close eye on developments with the company's apps for a long, long time. Nguyen and his team will have to prove that they can spark mass user adoption, keep them consistently engaged, and find a business model within a short time frame. And it will have to do it under the glaring eyes of the media and the pressure that comes with a $41 million bet that you're the next Google.

The bulls are back in Silicon Valley in a variety of ways — too soon?

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:21:00 -0700

The bulls are back in Silicon Valley in a variety of ways. Let’s hope reports of the recovery are true and that the optimism doesn’t get overheated too fast and turn into a bubble of the dot-com era’s scale.

The front pages of the San Jose Mercury News and the New York Times both have stories today about the return of good times in Silicon Valley (and let’s not forget the Los Angeles Times). They point to both hard figures in unemployment data and anecdotal evidence of a recovery, rather than a bubble.

One of the most astounding anecdotal signs of the good times is that Yuri Milner, the Russian investor who runs DST — which invested in Facebook, Zynga and Groupon — has bought a home in Silicon Valley’s Los Altos Hills for $75 million. The 25,500-square-feet home once belonged to chip pioneer Fred Chan. The good thing is that Milner’s spokesman denied rumors that he paid for it with Facebook stock. That would have been a sure sign of an overheated bubble. The purchase price was the largest ever in Silicon Valley’s history.
State data shows that Santa Clara County — which includes the greater San Jose region of Silicon Valley — saw new job growth that was stronger than usual for this time of year, with the unemployment rate falling to 10.3 percent, compared to 11.8 percent a year ago and the lowest level in two years. San Francisco county is at 9.5 percent and San Mateo County is at 8.4 percent. Overall, California’s unemployment rate is 12.2 percent and the nation’s is 8.9 percent.
So the region isn’t yet better off than the rest of the country when it comes to jobs. But tech led the local job growth in February. The jobless level is better than the peak unemployment rate of 12.1 percent for Santa Clara County in January, 2010. But it’s far above 4 percent in December 2006 and the 2.2 percent in November, 1999. As the numbers suggest, there are a lot of people out there who haven’t yet seen the fruits of any recovery in the region.

The improving economy explains in part why the tech job recruiting picture is starting to look so good for skilled workers. The New York Times says the perks at places such as Google routinely include free meals, shuttle buses, and stock options. Zynga offers free haircuts and iPads to recruits. Instagram offers personal food and drink orders from employees. Starting salaries at Google for computer scientists are $90,000 to $105,000. HP, which had been stingy under its previous CEO Mark Hurd, restored cut pay under the new boss Leo Apotheker to stay competitive.

The Los Angeles Times says Google has 24,000 employees and plans to increase its workforce by 25 percent to more than 30,000. Facebook has 2,000 employees, 1,400 in Silicon Valley. It is growing about 50 percent a year and so it is moving this summer a short distance away from Palo Alto to a 57-acre campus in Menlo Park, Calif., where Sun Microsystems once had a big campus. Social gaming firm Zynga has more than 1,500 (we hear it’s more than 1,700) and expects to more than double that in the next year. Twitter has more than 400 employees and wants to grow to more than 3,000 by mid-2013. Job site Dice.com has more than 5,000 open positions in Silicon Valley, up 41 percent from a year ago.

Salaries have been going up for at least five months, when Google gave all of its employees a 10 percent pay raise in a war for talent. Steve Blank said last week “we’re now in the second internet bubble” and that “hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble” (although based on the unemployment numbers we’ve cited, that’s not exactly true). Fred Wilson, a blogging VC at Union Square Ventures, said that you can see evidence of the war for talent in Silicon Valley all over the place, particularly as companies struggle to win the hearts and minds of independent developers to support platforms.

Facebook’s baby-faced founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was Time’s Person of the Year in 2010, and lots of young graduates want to follow in his footsteps by starting their own firms. Shannon Callahan, a recruiter for the portfolio companies of Andreessen Horowitz, told the New York Times that a third of the engineers she calls upon ask for financing for their own startups instead of taking jobs at existing firms.

Exacerbating the shortage is the fact that a lot of foreign-born engineers are still having trouble getting visas to work in this country. Among startups, the valuations are starting to get big, with Zynga reportedly raising a round of $500 million at a valuation of $10 billion (that deal is still a rumor), and social pictures firm Color unveiling its $41 million this week. Others can laugh at such valuations if they want; but if that war chest is used to buy something with a lot of recognized value, it becomes much more real. That’s what happened in the last bubble when AOL bought Time Warner.

Tim Draper, managing director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, said this week that there isn’t a bubble yet and that a recovery that could last five years is just getting started. I tend to agree that most people haven’t yet seen the fruits of recovery yet. The dotcom era, if you recall, lasted from 1994 to 1999. Lots of people who predicted a bubble in 1994 — and therefore stayed out of the frothy stocks and investments — didn’t get rich during those days because they were overly cautious, or “sitting around and biting our nails,” as Wilson said.

In other words, the period of recovery will likely last for some time before the craziness of a complete and utter bubble takes over. We don’t have to completely panic yet, since many of the hottest companies right now are nicely profitable. If we’re in a bubble, there’s still a lot of potential for the bubble to get a lot bigger based on continued momentum. Recognizing that you’re in a bubble shouldn’t paralyze you. Rather, you have to be aware that there’s a game of musical chairs happening. When the music stops, you don’t want to be the one without a chair.

Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andressen Horowitz, wrote on his blog that everybody is overly worried about today’s bubble compared to the dotcom bubble. He says, “high valuations are fine if the underlying value is there.” He notes that the valuation multiples of the bubble era were ten times higher than current multiples, suggesting that the company valuations today are based on real revenues and profits. He also notes that the flow of money into venture capital today is a quarter of what it was during the dotcom bubble. What we have instead, he said, is the long-awaited arrival of the internet boom.

The dangers of a bubble are always plentiful. If this ball gets rolling too fast, we’ll surely head into some event that will trigger a bursting of the bubble. That would be a shame, since a bursting bubble would stifle a recovery and stop the fruits of that recovery from reaching the wider group of unemployed workers out there. Yes, don’t ruin the party for the rest of us.

On Google Trends you can search on the words “tech bubble” and find that there are more people typing those search terms now, but not as many as in late 2008. In the meantime, check out the post on question-and-answer site Quora where a number of folks asking about whether we’re in a bubble. Steve Case, co-founder of AOL and one of the folks who popped the first internet bubble with the AOL Time Warner deal, explains what led to the bursting of the last bubble. Please take our poll below on whether we are in a recovery or a bubble, and leave a comment explaining your vote.

Verizon Wireless will begin taking orders for a Novatel USB-style 4G LTE Modem March 31, in addition to the Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot subscribers can already pre-order.

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 05:13:00 -0700

Verizon Wireless is hard at work building out its 4G capabilities. After beginning to take orders March 29 for the Samsung 4G Long-Term Evolution Mobile Hotspot, the wireless company announced it will also accept orders for a new Novatel Wireless USB-based 4G LTE wireless modem, starting March 31.
The Samsung Hotspot, which can act as a WiFi hotspot for five devices, measures 2.32 by 3.54 by 0.45 inches, weighs 2.7 ounces and offers 216 minutes of use per charge. It's compatible with enterprise VPNs and 4G SIM cards. With a two-year contract, and after an online $50 discount, Verizon has priced it at $100. (Without the discount or contract, expect to pay $270.)
Similarly, the Novatel Wireless USB will sell for $100 after a $50 mail-in rebate and with a new two-year agreement on a 4G Mobile Broadband plan—which begins at $50 a month for 5GB. It supports Windows XP 32-bit, Vista 32/64-bit and Windows 7 32/64-bit operating systems, as well as Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. On Verizon's 4G network, users can expect download speeds of 5 to 12M bps and upload speeds of 2 to 5M bps. Launched in December 2010, it covers 38 cities and 60 airports—an area, according to Verizon, that reaches one-third of all Americans. By 2013, the carrier plans to expand its 4G offering across its full 3G footprint—which users of the modem, in non-4G areas, would revert to.
Verizon, releasing details of its planned LTE launch in December, also offered 4G LTE USB modems from LG Electronics and Pantech, along with monthly data plans, starting at $50 for 5GB of data or $80 for 10GB, with each additional GB coming at a cost of $10.
Announcing that the 4G network would be "10 times" faster than Verizon's 3G network, Verizon CTO Tony Melone said that to prevent bill shock—the terrible moment of discovering one's monthly fee is far more than expected—Verizon has “a system in place that proactively [lets] users know when they’ve hit different percentages.”
On March 17, Verizon began selling its first 4G-enabled smartphone, the HTC Thunderbolt, which features a 4.3-inch capacitive touch-screen, a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for video calling. It runs Android 2.2, HTC's Sense 2.0 user interface, can act as a WiFi hotspot for up to eight devices and, as a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) device, can wirelessly send content to other DLNA devices—for example, stream an HD movie to an HDTV.
At $250, it also has a higher price than most smartphones.
"[Verizon] justifies the higher price not only with LTE, but also with 32GB of storage—equivalent to the $299 iPhone 4," Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart told eWEEK at the time of the phone's launch. "The user experience is also different. HTC Sense provides widgets and customizability, while the iPhone"—ever the phone to beat—"is deliberately simple."

Verizon Wireless is hard at work building out its 4G capabilities. After beginning to take orders for the Samsung 4G LTE (long-term evolution) Mobile Hotspot March 29, the wireless company announced it will also accept orders for a new Novatel Wireless USB-based 4G LTE wireless modem starting March 31.
The Samsung Hotspot, which can act as a WiFi hotspot for five devices, measures 2.32 by 3.54 by 0.45 inches, weighs 2.7 ounces and offers 216 minutes of use per charge. It's compatible with enterprise VPNs (virtual private networks) and 4G SIM cards. With a two-year contract, and after an online $50 discount, Verizon has priced it at $100. (Without the discount or contract, expect to pay $270.)
Similarly, the Novatel Wireless USB will sell for $100 after a $50 mail-in rebate and with a new two-year agreement on a 4G Mobile Broadband plan — which begins at $50 a month for 5GB. It supports Windows XP 32-bit, Vista 32/64-bit and Windows 7 32/64-bit operating systems, as well as Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.
On Verizon's 4G network, users can expect download speeds of 5 to 12Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5Mbps. Launched in December 2010, it covers 38 cities and 60 airports — an area, according to Verizon, that reaches one-third of all Americans. By 2013 the carrier plans to expand it its 4G offering across its full 3G footprint — which users of the modem, in non-4G areas, would revert to.
Verizon, releasing details of its planned LTE launch in December, also offered 4G LTE USB modems from LG Electronics and Pantech, along with monthly data plans starting at $50 for 5GB of data or $80 for $10GB, with each additional GB coming at a cost of $10.
Announcing that the 4G network would be "10 times" faster than Verizon's 3G network, Verizon CTO Tony Melone said that to prevent bill shock — the terrible moment of discovering one's monthly fee is far more than expected — Verizon has “a system in place that proactively [lets] users know when they’ve hit different percentages.”
On March 17 Verizon began selling its first 4G-enabled smartphone, the HTC ThunderBolt, which features a 4.3-inch capacitive touch screen, a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for video calling. It runs Android 2.2, HTC's Sense 2.0 user interface, can act as a WiFi hotspot for up to eight devices and, as a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) device, can wirelessly send content to other DLNA devices — for example, stream an HD movie to an HDTV.
At $250, it also has a higher price tag than most smartphones.
"[Verizon] justifies the higher price not only with LTE, but also with 32 GB of storage — equivalent to the $299 iPhone 4," Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart told eWEEK at the time of the phone's launch. "The user experience is also different. HTC Sense provides widgets and customizability, while the iPhone" — ever the phone to beat — "is deliberately simple."

Nexus S 4G Pre-Orders Begin At Sprint

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 02:47:00 -0700

Sprint and Samsung have alerted the world that their upcoming Nexus S 4G, a WiMax version of the original Nexus S that came out in December, is now available for pre-order.
Over at Sprint’s Nexus S splash page, there is a little bubble announcing the fact that the upcoming device is available for order at any Sprint store. To get your name on the waitlist, you’ll have to buy $50 Sprint gift card.
Fortunately, you’ll be able to use said gift card towards your purchase of the Nexus S 4G which will be hitting shelves at an unspecified date this spring.
For those that aren’t caught up with the Nexus S 4G, it’s essentially a Nexus S but with a few differences. One, it runs on Sprint’s 4G WiMax network. Two, it features an on and off box in the settings for 4G and three, it’ll be a little wider and a little heavier than the original.

Like the original Nexus S, the Nexus S 4G will come sporting a 4 inch Contour display, a single core 1GHz Hummingbird processor, front facing VGA camera, a 5MP rear facing shooter, 16GB of internal memory, and NFC (near field communication) capabilities.

4G Nexus S !!! 4G will be very fast maybe :)
I want it ~!!

Samsung Galaxy S II is Coming Soon

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:39:00 -0700

Samsung announces the GALAXY S II world’s thinnest smartphone that will let you experience more with less and have a dual-core 1GHz CPU with 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus.Galaxy S II would be using an NVIDIA Tegra 2 SOC and will indeed have a Samsung chip……
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd announced the Samsung GALAXY S II (Model: GT-I9100) a beautifully thin (8.49mm) and lightweight, dual-core smartphone that combines an unmatched viewing experience with incredible performance.Samsung GALAXY S II uses Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the latest version of the world’s fastest-growing mobile operating system. The next generation smartphone includes access to Samsung’s four new content and entertainment hubs, seamlessly integrated to provide instant access to music, games, e-reading and social networking services.

Incorporating a dual-core application processor and advanced wireless network (HSPA+ 21) connectivity, the Samsung GALAXY S II has the speed and power to provide an unrivalled mobile performance. Dual-core application processor delivers compelling features such as fast web browsing, multi-tasking comparable to a PC-like environment, supreme graphics quality and instantly responsive 3D user interface on the large screen. The GALAXY S II also delivers seamless multitasking, switching between applications instantly. Superior 3D hardware performance makes games and video incredibly fast and smooth. With super-fast HSPA+ connectivity, the GALAXY S II offers rapid mobile download speeds while BlueTooth 3.0+HS considerably reduces data transfer times.

Samsung GALAXY S II has been equipped with an 8MP, high-profile camera and camcorder with 1080p full HD recording and playback. With Samsung’s patented AllShare technology, customers can capture, create and then share their experiences hassle-free.Samsung GALAXY S II has been equipped with Samsung’s new crystal-clear Super AMOLED Plus screen, the most advanced mobile visual display ever created.Super AMOLED Plus introduces the best in quality in color gamut, contrast ratio and edge sharpness. Using RealStripe screen technology and a greatly increased sub-pixel count, Super AMOLED Plus complements the mechanics of the human eye to recognize images look clearer and more detailed than ever before. With a wider viewing angle and increased visibility in outdoor, the Samsung GALAXY S II provides a more vibrant viewing experience than any other mobile devices.

Even with its unrivaled performance, the innovative Super AMOLED Plus display does not compromise battery performance. A significant reduction in power consumption from Super AMOLED display means it is also more energy-efficient than other comparably-sized devices, allowing Samsung to minimize device weight. Samsung has introduced a new range of enterprise mobility solutions, expanding the business capabilities of the Samsung GALAXY S II and helping enterprise customers empower a flexible and connected mobile workforce. Samsung has partnered with IT industry leaders to offer the most relevant enterprise solutions to the Samsung GALAXY S II, working seamlessly on the Android Gingerbread platform and paying special attention to securing data and network. These solutions include enhanced conferencing and connectivity services from Cisco, the most comprehensive mobile implementation of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and secure remote device management from Sybase.
Samsung has selected the Samsung GALAXY S II as its premium mobile product with which to launch Samsung Hubs – integrated mobile applications designed to fit every element of your life. With Samsung Hubs, the Samsung GALAXY S II delivers rich catalogues of books and magazines, music, advanced mobile games and control of your online social life.Samsung GALAXY S II gives customers more choice in personalizing their smartphone experience. New for the Samsung GALAXY S II, Samsung has introduced Live Panel a service that aggregates live web and application contents to a single customizable home-screen. Customers can design the lay-out of their own Live Panel, online services and mobile apps to appear on-screen.
With the enhanced voice technology on the Samsung GALAXY S II customers will be able to do more with less. From opening the app to controlling the messaging, social media, email and calling, Samsung Voice Solution will recognizes voice and convert it to text and vice versa. Customized Voice Translation application makes the Samsung GALAXY S II the perfect travel companion, translating voice or text into and from a range of languages: simply speak a word or phrase into the handset and it will instantly translate it with audio and text output.For swift and simple device management, Samsung has introduced Kies Air. With Kies air consumers can manage their smartphone contents from their PC via local WiFi connections. download photos taken on the built-in camera, listen to music, check missed calls and send messages in the web browser on their PC. WiFi Direct allows consumers to connect to wireless-enabled PCs and printers without the need for wireless access points.GALAXY S II is able to incorporate Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to support emerging mobile payment service and other services with mobile operators.

Verizon Wireless seems to be planning to release new 4G LTE smartphones this fall, including the Samsung Galaxy S2 and Motorola Droid X2

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:06:00 -0700

When will the Verizon Wireless smartphone you're waiting for be released? Phandroid has posted a list of upcoming models with release dates that are subject to change. We guess most of these dates could change, but it should then be a matter of days or weeks rather than months.
First up is the Samsung Droid Charge, which still seems to be pegged for an April 7 release. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and HTC Trophy are aimed for April 14 and April 15, respectively. The latter is powered by Windows Phone 7 and has yet to be officially announced.
Another unannounced model, the upcoming HTC Droid Incredible 2, is currently slated for release on April 28. Both the Incredible 2 and Trophy are said to offer global GSM and 3G network support. Lastly, the LG Revolution could be the third 4G LTE smartphone out of the gate, as it's scheduled to be released on May 5.
Phandroid's source also lists three models without exact release dates, including the Motorola Droid Bionic, Motorola Droid X2 and Samsung Galaxy S2. The former is said to be released in May, and if that doesn't hold up, let's not forget that Motorola has promised to release it by the end of June.

The Droid X2 and Galaxy S2 are both said to offer 4G LTE connectivity, though neither models have been officially announced. They could both simply be 4G LTE models Verizon Wireless plans to release in the third quarter of 2011 as part of a late summer / early fall splash - just in time to compete with the upcoming iPhone 5.

How to Study for the GRE

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:55:00 -0700

1. Familiarize yourself with the overall format of the test. The GRE tests three main areas: verbal ability, mathematical proficiency and analytical ability. There will be two sections for each of these areas, plus an extra unscored section. The content of the unscored section will vary.

2. Take as many practice GREs as possible. The more practice you get, the more familiar you'll become with the test's format, and the more comfortable you'll be when you actually take it.

3. Review the directions for each section of the test before you take it. Skipping the directions will save time during the test.

4. Remember that you will have 30 minutes to complete each section of the exam. Each verbal section will have 38 questions, each math section will have 30 questions, each analytical section will have 25 questions and the unscored section will have 25 to 30 questions, depending on content.

5. Familiarize yourself with the question formats for each section. The verbal section has four types of questions: antonym, analogy, sentence completion and reading comprehension. The math section contains quantitative comparisons and basic problem-solving, and the analytical section features analytical reasoning and logical reasoning questions.

6. Increase your vocabulary. The verbal portion of the GRE is essentially a vocabulary test.

7. Review basic math such as geometry, algebra, proportions, fractions, percents, decimals, the order of operations and anything else you might have learned in high school math.

8. Try solving a few logic puzzles and games to prepare for the analytical portion of the exam.

Read more: How to Study for the GRE
eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_843_study-gre.html#ixzz1I8NKXNeM

Stanford proposes high-tech campus in New York City

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:30:00 -0700

Stanford University has unveiled plans to build a campus for applied science research and graduation education in New York -- in response to an invitation by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The proposal, which will compete with others from 26 other institutions, outlines a high-technology campus that could be built in phases over 25 years to provide graduate degree-granting programs for students in engineering, computer science and business.
The university proposes starting construction on the first phase in 2013 and enrolling 440 master's and doctorate students by the fall of 2015. In time, Stanford envisions the possibility of as many as 2,200 graduate students and 100 faculty members at a New York City location.
The proposed "Stanford New York" campus would draw from various schools, centers and programs, including the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.
Of four possible locations offered by the city of New York, Stanford has used a Roosevelt Island site as a model for its proposal. The land is located in the middle of the East River between Manhattan and Queens. Facilities built on the site would include academic and research space, as well as housing for students and faculty members.
Funds for capital costs would be expected to come from a combination of philanthropy, New York City and Stanford University.
Stanford President John Hennessy will discuss Stanford's proposal at his annual address to the Academic Council on April 14. The address will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the NVIDIA Auditorium of the Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center.

Two Twitter Founders Trade Places

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:23:00 -0700

As Twitter tries to manage its explosive growth, two of the company’s founders have traded roles.
Jack Dorsey, who conceived the idea for Twitter but was ousted as chief executive in 2008, said on Monday that he was returning to the company as head of product development. He has remained a Twitter director but has not been involved in daily operations.

Evan Williams, who had been overseeing products, has stepped back from working at Twitter on a daily basis, though he will remain a director, according to the company.

It is a crucial time for Twitter, which has faced criticism from users over the placement of ads and from software developers over its changing rules for building applications. With Mr. Dorsey, the company is returning to its roots.

“It was a tragedy for the period of two years when he wasn’t involved with the company that we were missing the founder,” said Peter Fenton, a board member and a partner at Benchmark Capital, an investor in Twitter. “Getting Jack back kind of completes the picture of getting us focused on the next phase of the company’s growth.”

Mr. Dorsey’s return is also a personal triumph. Until recently, he has spent little time at Twitter, and his relationship with Mr. Williams has been tense at times.

Mr. Dorsey started a new company, Square, which turns cellphones into credit card readers. He will remain chief executive there.

Mr. Williams, meanwhile, has been spending a sabbatical at Lake Tahoe in California, where he is considering a new start-up idea, according to people with knowledge of Twitter’s internal operations.

Twitter confirmed that Mr. Williams, who remains the largest shareholder, had been less involved for a couple of months but said that he continued to provide strategic advice. When he stepped down as chief executive last year and gave the role to Dick Costolo, a more business-minded executive, he said he was most passionate about building new products.

While Mr. Williams has been away from the office, Mr. Dorsey and Mr. Costolo forged a close relationship and suggested to the board that Mr. Dorsey return. Mr. Dorsey declined to comment, but privately he has said that he has regretted not being a part of Twitter’s recent growth and that Twitter has made some mistakes in designing the simplest product and not listening enough to what its users wanted.

People who have worked with Mr. Dorsey say he has an uncanny eye for technology product innovations. His role will also be to ensure that advertising does not diminish Twitter’s core product.

Mr. Dorsey’s title will be executive chairman. “Twitter’s three co-founders — Ev Williams, Biz Stone and Jack — have unselfishly played whatever role was most needed at the time to nurture the company and help the product reach its full potential,” the company said in a statement.

Mr. Dorsey will split his time between Square and Twitter, whose offices are walking distance from one another in San Francisco. Kay Luo, a spokeswoman for Square, said, “Square remains his top priority.”

Fittingly, Mr. Dorsey confirmed his new role, which The New York Times reported last week, in a post on Twitter on Monday. “Today I’m thrilled to get back to work at @Twitter leading product as executive chairman. And yes: leading @Square forevermore as C.E.O.,” he wrote.

Job Posting: Facebook – Growth Manager :)

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:14:00 -0700

Are you passionate about making Facebook the best global communication platform?
Facebook is seeking a Growth Manager who is obsessed with technology, social media and business strategy. The ideal candidate will have experience in the consumer Internet and mobile space in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, an extensive network of contacts in the space and a heavy emphasis on marketing, strategic analysis, product management and is a great executor who can make things happen.
The Growth Managers at Facebook are responsible for supporting the execution of growth initiatives, identifying growth opportunities that help with the distribution of the Facebook brand online and offline and adding value to the Facebook user experience. The position is a 6 to 11 months contract position based in Lagos, Nigeria.

Responsibilities

*Drive local execution of growth initiatives

*Provide market insights – identify and monitor strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats relevant for Facebook’s adoption in Africa

*Influence and Improve the Facebook experience of users in Africa by identifying product / market fit gaps

*Explore, Identify and Evaluate strategic growth opportunities

*Manage mobile, media and developer partnerships

*Be an advocate for developers and for users in Africa

Requirements

*Self-driven, comfortable with a fast-paced, always-on, highly ambiguous start-up environment

*Extensive knowledge of online and mobile business models and Internet/consumer technology

*Proven track record with high standards of professionalism

*Exceptional interpersonal skills and ability to develop strong working relationships inside and outside Facebook

*Creative, resourceful, detail-oriented, highly organized

*Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English

*Ability to meet multiple objectives in an entrepreneurial environment with little supervision

*Extensive experience dealing with partners

*Prior experience working in a high-growth or startup technology company preferred

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Firefox 4 on Android will make iPhone users jealous

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:04:00 -0700

latest mobile browser, Firefox 4, officially launches today after months of testing.

The browser brings features like Firefox Sync — which synchronizes tabs, personal data, and settings from Firefox 4 on any other platform — and a new interface that does away with distracting menus and icons. And of course, it’s also blazing fast.

Firefox 4 for Android shows just how innovative apps can be with an open mobile OS like Android. Apple’s iPhone OS doesn’t allow for any third-party browsers to use rendering engines of their own, which means that it would be impossible for Mozilla to release the browser on the iPhone as it is. Undoubtedly, Firefox 4 is one of the few Android apps that will inspire envy among iPhone users.

Mozilla does offer an iPhone app, Firefox Home, which includes the Firefox sync feature. But it relies on Apple’s WebKit browser rendering engine, which means that in practice it isn’t that much different from the iPhone’s native Safari browser.

One aspect of the mobile Firefox 4 that I really appreciate is its ingenious user interface that lets webpages fill the entire screen. To access open tabs, you simply swipe right on your device’s screen. To access settings, swipe left. The address bar is at the top of the screen, natch, but it also disappears as you scroll down a page. On mobile devices, where screen real estate is precious, I appreciated Mozilla’s concerted effort to make as much of the screen available as possible.

Mozilla claims that Firefox 4 is up to three times faster than Android’s built-in browser. After testing the browser on a Samsung Galaxy Tab, the speed difference was noticeable. Mozilla even managed to include extensions support in the browser, which the desktop version of Firefox popularized.

Firefox 4 also brings support for advanced HTML5, which will allow Web publishers to implement features like location-aware browsing (using your device’s GPS), device orientation (which would allow sites to show you different content based on how you’re holding your device), and even build games completely out of HTML.

The browser doesn’t include support for Adobe Flash at the moment — which is the biggest knock against it, since Flash support is one of Android’s big selling points. Mozilla says it’s looking to add Flash in the future, it just wasn’t fast enough to include in time for Firefox 4’s launch.

For some reason, Mozilla is also releasing Firefox 4 on Nokia’s Maemo platform today, an operating system that’s only available on Nokia’s N900 smartphone.

Could an Android app make you rich?

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 05:47:00 -0700

Conventional wisdom dictates that if you want to get rich designing applications for mobile phones, you should definitely be designing applications for Apple iTunes – not the rival Android apps marketplace. After all, more than a billion iPhone and iPod Touch apps have been downloaded in recent years, and the market shows no sign of slowing anytime soon, especially as the launch of the Apple iPad draws near.

But there's some new evidence that there's money to be made on other platforms, too. Consider the story of Edward Kim, the creator of an Android app called Car Locator. (The app works exactly as you'd imagine.) Kim says that he's logged 70,000 downloads of the free version of Car Locator, as well as 6,590 downloads of the paid version. That comes out to about $13,000 a month, plus some prize money Kim picked up at a sponsored contest for Android developers.

"Clearly, I'm on cloud 9 with these numbers, but where does it go from here?" Kim wrote on his blog. "Sales of about $13k/month is awesome income for any one person, so it may sound ridiculous for me to think it can go even higher. However, I still think that Android is only a fraction of what it will eventually become. Each release of a new Android handset gets me excited, as it means a wider reach for the Marketplace."
As Kim hints, there are bigger issues at play here. The health of a platform, be it Android Marketplace or Apple iTunes, is measured in part by the number of interested developers. And profitability is a major lure. If folks such as Kim can show there's money to be made on Android Marketplace, that will only draw more developers, which might boost sales of phones running Android. And if Android sales soar, so do sales of applications. It's a happy little circle.
Late last year, a majority of developers were frustrated with Android Marketplace. Is that changing?

Best of Top Ranking Colleges in the USA for Computer Science

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 05:33:00 -0700

This is the list of the best Colleges and Universities in the United States of America for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering. Amongst these colleges and universities are some of the world's schools such as the MIT, Stanford and University of California, Berkeley. The order in which the colleges are listed on the site are quite representative of their rankings. However, the order should not be strictly construed to be rankings assigned to these schools. The order may vary from that listed by other ranking services.

1.Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Electrical engineering was originally taught at MIT in the Physics Department. A new degree program in Electrical Engineering was started in 1882. The Department of Electrical Engineering was formed in the fall of 1902, and in 1973, it recognized its growing activity in computer science by changing its name to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
The EECS Department is the largest in the School of Engineering with about 700 graduate students in the doctoral program. The department offers four graduate degree programs: Master of Science (SM), required of students pursuing a doctoral degree, Master of Engineering (MEng), for MIT EECS undergraduates only, Electrical Engineer (EE)/Engineer in Computer Science (ECS), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)/Doctor of Science (ScD), awarded interchangeably.
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (also CSAIL) is a research laboratory that complements theoretical studies. CSAIL's research activities are organized around a number of semi-autonomous research groups, each of which is headed by one or more professors or research scientists. These groups are divided up into seven general areas of research: Artificial Intelligence, Computational biology, Graphics and Vision, Language and Learning, Theory of computation, Robotics, Systems.

2.Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Stanford University's Computer Science Department is part of the School of Engineering. The department offers the degrees Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy. Founded in 1965, the Department of Computer Science is a center for research and education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Strong research groups exist in areas of artificial intelligence, robotics, foundations of computer science, scientific computing, and systems. Basic work in computer science is the main research goal of these groups, but there is also a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary research and on applications that stimulate basic research.
The Master’s Degree in Computer Science (MSCS) students can choose to specialize in one of ten areas including: AI, Biocomputation, Computer and Network Security, Database Systems, Human-Computer Interaction, Numerical Analysis, Real-World Computing, Software Theory, Systems and Theoretical CS. Students are required to complete a minimum of 45 units at Stanford.

3.University of California--Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

During the early 60's computer systems research led to one of the first practical time-sharing systems, implemented commercially in 1966 as the SDS 940 (later, Xerox 940) series of computers. In 1968 a group of Electrical Engineering faculty members transferred to the College of Letters and Science to participate in establishing a Department of Computer Science. A 1973 merger formed the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences.
The M.S. and Ph.D. are academic degrees with an emphasis on research. It is possible to complete the M.S. degree in a single academic year, but most students take three to four semesters. The median time of completion for the Ph.D. is five and a half years. The following degrees are offered: M.S. / PhD in Engineering, M.S. / PhD in Engineering Science, M.S. / PhD in Computer Science.
Ph.D. students may choose to add a designated emphasis to their program. Designated emphases are available in: Communication, Computation and Statistics, Computational and Genomic Biology, Computational Science and Engineering, Nanoscale Science and Engineering, New Media.

4.Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

Carnegie Mellon has entered the global educational and research arena with campuses in California and Qatar, and programs in Australia, China, Greece, India, Japan, Korea, Portugal, and Taiwan. The ECE Department has added several ECE focused research and education partnerships with Taiwanese government-sponsored universities and research institutes, with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research of Singapore, and the Information Communications Technology Institute of Portugal among others.
Currently, the School of Computer Science offers a masters degree in the following areas: Masters in Machine Learning, Masters in Language Technologies, Masters in Robotics, Masters in Entertainment Technology, Masters in Human-Computer Interaction, Masters of Information Technology in E-business Technology, Masters in Software Engineering, Masters in Software Engineering Management, Masters of Science in Information Technology, Specialization in Very Large Information Systems (MSIT-VLIS), Master of Science in Information Technology in Robotics Technology (MSIT/RT), Masters of Science in Information Technology--IT Service Management (MSIT/ITSM), Masters of Science in Information Technology--Embedded Software Engineering.

Why Study in the United States

noreply@blogger.com (byungjin) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 05:07:00 -0700

The United States is the number one destination for international students seeking higher education abroad. In fact, about 30 percent of all current international students in the world are studying in the United States.
What makes a U.S. education so popular?

Reputation

The U.S. higher education system has an international reputation for quality:
Distinguished programs are available at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in almost every field of study. Many universities attract world-renowned faculty and are at the forefront of research and technological development.

State-of-the-art facilities include libraries, laboratories, computers, and other resources.
Diversity of institutions and programs

The range of educational opportunities available in the United States is immense. No matter what kind of learning environment your students seek, they will find ample choices from among the 3,600 diverse higher education institutions in the country.

Your students will want to consider:

Size: Institutions range from less than one thousand to more than fifty thousand students.
Student body: Most universities are coeducational, but there are sixteen for men only and fifty-six for women only.
Selectivity: University admission policies range from highly selective to open admission.
Setting: Campuses are located in small and large cities, suburban areas, and rural communities as well as in a variety of climates.
Field of study: With hundreds of major fields of study to select from, your students are likely to find a program that suits their personal interests.

Type of institution: Choices include liberal arts colleges that emphasize broad preparation in academic disciplines, and schools that provide professional, career-related training. Some offer technical programs that develop vocational skills, and a growing number of colleges offer options in distance learning.

Academic life

One of the hallmarks of U.S. education is flexibility. Education professionals tend to value creativity, individualism, and inclusiveness.
At the undergraduate level, universities emphasize a broad, well-rounded education. Students are offered a wide range of classes—in math, science, the arts, social science, and languages—before finally having to decide on a specialization.
Even at the graduate level, courses might be offered in related fields. Students are actively involved in designing their course schedules because so many options are available.
It is even possible to combine academic classes with work experience that will be recognized as part of the degree program. Most institutions have qualified staff on hand to help students make the best course decisions to attain their academic goals.
In the classroom, students are encouraged to be active participants in the learning process. Faculty welcome, and generally expect, student input and encourage students to develop and express their own ideas and questions.

Campus life

A successful college experience involves more than academic work. Students will find a wide range of activities outside the classroom to match their interests, such as internships, clubs, and social, cultural, and sports activities. These opportunities give students a chance to make friends while they develop team and leadership skills that they will utilize in future careers.