Netizen

Intel, Mobile And The Global South

Image representing Intel as depicted in CrunchBase

Lowering the price is always a great innovation in my book. That is the only way to truly reach the masses.

But this is more about Intel and less about the "developing market." Intel won the PC handily, but totally lost out on mobile.

Will the Developing World’s Smartphones Have Intel Inside?

The chip is designed to power Android phones that are cheap compared to those devices sold in rich countries such as the United States. ..... Latin America, Africa, China, South East Asia ... Low-cost smartphones have already begun selling in large numbers in Africa and elsewhere .... those models have been built on processors significantly less advanced than those used in high-end smartphones. Intel believes its new processor will strike the right balance between price and performance

A Good Camera App

English: A collage of an image modified with 16 different Instagram filters (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have been on the lookout for a good camera app for my phone. I already have Instagram, and a free one and a paid one. I erroneously thought an app would increase my phone's zoom capacity. That does not seem to be the case. Not being able to zoom in from far seriously limits your ability to take good pictures.

The 12 best Android camera apps around

several ways a separate point-and-shoot is better than a smartphone camera (and not just in picture quality)

Top 10 Best Camera Apps for Android

you know what they say – “The best camera is the camera with you.”

9 Apps to Transform Your Android Phone Into a High-End Camera
Best Android Camera App 2012

Ubuntu Out In The Open

Official Ubuntu circle with wordmark. Replace File:Former Ubuntu logo.svg. Español: logo de Ubuntu + marca denominativa Français : Logo officiel d'Ubuntu. Remplace File:Former Ubuntu logo.svg. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are billions of people in the Global South waiting to lay their hands on their first smartphone. Android, welcome. Ubuntu, welcome.

Ubuntu Smartphone Aims for Success in Developing Economies

the world’s most popular Linux-based operating system, Ubuntu ..... he expected to make the most progress with the Ubuntu Phone in the developing world, where smartphone sales are only just beginning to take off ..... Ubuntu is already a household name in some of these markets due to its use on desktop and laptops PCs. “We ship on 30 percent of Chinese PCs today” .... models from Dell, Lenovo, and HP. “If you go into a store in India, you will see Ubuntu branding” ..... Canonical coördinates development of Ubuntu and makes money by offering paid-for support to companies using it, with many companies around the world using Ubuntu to run Internet and Web servers. Shuttleworth intends to replicate that model for Ubuntu’s mobile version. .... Ubuntu’s software makes wide use of sideways swiping gestures .... Even though a high proportion of PCs bought in India and China are bought with Ubuntu installed, many are soon wiped, with pirated copies of Microsoft Windows installed instead ... Yesterday Intel announced it would release a new smartphone chip aimed at developing world markets

Ubuntu: One Among Many

Blurring the line between the smartphone and the PC is yet another good thing. And touch can get more magical, sure.

Ubuntu to Offer Smartphone Operating Software

allows a handset to function as a PC when docked .... The new software appears to make even broader use of swipes and gestures than Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile operating systems do .... dock it with a keyboard, screen, and mouse. .... a version of Ubuntu for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone will be available to download “with the next few weeks.”

App Stores In The Way

Tux, the Linux penguin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bringing about the demise of the app store would be a welcome innovation. And with HTML5 the browser is at your service even when you are offline. But that is not to say Android can not swim into a HTML5 reality. Of course it can and will. Google is all about the web. But I am glad it is being pushed in that direction by the competition.

This development is a much bigger threat to Apple than to Google. If Apple loses the app store, what is it left with? Even the demand for iPhones - hardware - is on the decline. Lesson: Soviet control is not a good thing.

The phone will be lighter and correspondingly cheaper. That's good.

New Mobile OSs May Mean the End of the Closed App Store

Firefox OS from Mozilla, Tizen (which came out of Nokia’s MeeGo platform but is now the brainchild of Intel and Samsung), and Ubuntu Phone, based on the wildly popular Ubuntu desktop Linux distribution .... These operating systems are all open source, which means vendors can tinker with them as they see fit and create entirely unique offerings for their consumers. But what’s most important about them is that all will provide for HTML5 applications. Developers will have the ability to quickly port their apps between the platforms, creating a much easier path to revenue-generation. ..... Tizen, Firefox OS, and Ubuntu will attempt to eradicate that paper tiger of controls. The Web will become the basis by which all smartphone owners get their applications. And there won’t be a single entity that will ultimately decide the fate of a respective application. ..... Apple and Google, controllers of their domains, might need to accept that open Web standards truly are the future. And in the process, their control over mobile might ease. .... the Web could win the battle over application control.