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Google Upgrades Search with Knowledge Graph
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=83381
On the heels of major revisions to Microsoft's Bing search engine, Google is revamping its own. On Wednesday, the tech giant announced the launch of its Knowledge Graph, which is intended to help users quickly and easily discover new information.
In a posting on the Google Official Blog, Senior Vice President of Engineering Amit Singhal wrote that, instead of primarily focusing on matching keywords to queries, the enhancement enables the search engine to use an intelligent model that "understands real-world entities and their relationships to one another: things, not strings."
Singhal said the Knowledge Graph "knows about" a variety of things, people, and places, such as landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, buildings, geographical features, movies, celestial objects, works of art, and other subjects. The Graph's current inventory of knowledge, he said, is only the "critical first step" toward creating the next generation of search, which understands the world in ways closer to how people do.
The Graph is more than just calling up data in Wikipedia, the CIA World Factbook, and other supplies of knowledge. It's been populated with more than 500 million knowledge objects, with more than 3.5 billion facts about the relationships between those objects.
The first step in this new kind of search, Google said, is understanding the differences in meaning for a given query. For instance, is the search for "Taj Mahal" about the monument or the musician? The Graph will give choices.
Next, the Graph provides summaries containing key facts that a user might want about a particular subject. The example given by Singhal is Marie Curie. The Graph will deliver birth and death dates, as well as information on her education and scientific discoveries. There's also knowledge about her relationship with other entities, such as her Nobel-prize-winning relatives.
The Graph's ability to determine what is...
Thu, 17 May 12
Samsung Tops Mobile Market In First Quarter, Gartner Says
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=83380
Samsung is king of mobile phones, while Apple owns a not-too shabby 7.9 percent of the global phone market. And Android remains the top operating system, with more than half the market.
Those are some of the findings of a report on the global mobile market in the first quarter of the year by Gartner.
South Korea-based Samsung's sales to end users amounted to 20.7 percent of the worldwide total in the quarter, up from 16.1 percent in the same quarter last year, Gartner said. That growth comes at the expense of Nokia, the Finnish company that saw its share shrink from 25.1 percent to 19.8 percent.
California-based Apple received its accustomed dose of good news with a share that doubled from 3.9 percent to 7.8 quarter over quarter. Considering that Apple makes only a single smartphone (in varying generations and storage capacity), the news is impressive.
Research In Motion dropped from 3.0 percent to 2.4 percent. The Canadian BlackBerry maker lags behind China's ZTE, South Korea's LG and China's Huawei to take up seventh place.
Gartner's report follows one by Strategy Analytics based on vendor surveys that put Samsung at the top of the market with a 31 percent share, toppling Nokia's 14-year reign at the top spot.
Google's Android OS saw substantial growth year over year, from 36.4 percent to 56.1 percent, while Apple's iOS also grew from 16.9 percent to 22.9 percent, according to Gartner. Nokia's fading Symbian platform dropped significantly as the company switches to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, dropping from 27.7 percent to just 8.6 percent. Research In Motion's platforms fell from 13.0 percent to 6.9 percent.
Windows Phone also dropped, from 2.6 percent to 1.9 percent.
Overall, mobile phone sales reached 419.1 million units in the quarter, a decline of 2 percent, Gartner said, marking the first decline in sales...
Thu, 17 May 12
Soaring Mobile App Adoption No Cakewalk for Developers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=83379
With more than 50 percent of U.S. mobile phone users now equipped with smartphones, demand for mobile apps continues to soar. The average number of mobile apps per smartphone jumped from 32 apps to 41 apps during 2011 -- a 28 percent rise in comparison with 2010, according to a new report from Nielsen.
However, U.S. smartphone owners spent about the same amount of time using mobile apps each day in 2011 as they had during the previous year -- 39 minutes per day versus 37 minutes per day, Nielsen said.
Nielsen researchers said 70 percent of the survey's respondents expressed "concern over personal data collection" and 55 percent were "wary of sharing information about their location via smartphone apps." So we asked Al Hilwa, director of applications software development at IDC, what developers need to do to address privacy concerns as well as prod U.S. smartphone users to spend more time using their apps.
Hilwa said he expected to see the development of new app types as well as the further expansion of apps into other areas of life.
"And developers will continue to chase ever narrower opportunities" while hoping to "hit areas that have not transitioned fully from Web to mobile, or aspects of life not digitized fully yet," Hilwa said Wednesday. "But at some point this pace of growth will slow down."
Privacy and security considerations definitely stop some people from using apps.
"And that may be another area where the industry can move to claim more minutes of app usage by increasing the confidence in apps," Hilwa said.
Clearly, users ramp up the most toward app usage in their first few months of smartphone usage.
"After that, a steady state ensues, and it is a challenge for the app ecosystem to keep existing users engaged," Hilwa said. "There...
Thu, 17 May 12
New Xeon Chips Latest of Intel's 22nm Ivy Bridge
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=83378
Intel just rolled out three new Xeon processor families with a range of target uses: the E5-4600 for boosted performance and flexibility, the E5-2400 for small- to mid-sized businesses, and the E3-1200 v2 with improved performance per watt, data security and graphics capabilities for entry workstation customers. Altogether, Intel introduced 28 processors.
As part of the announcement, Boyd Davis, vice president and general manager of the Datacenter Infrastructure Group at Intel, said companies are increasingly dependent on IT to deliver innovative products and services to customers. Intel hopes to be the one to make IT look good.
But will Intel's move to drive Xeon innovations for small business and emerging scale workloads be met with enthusiasm among server makers? If OEM adoption is any signal, Intel could see new profits as both IBM and Dell deliver Xeon-based systems to market targeting these niche audiences.
We caught up with Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, to get his take on the latest news in the x86 data center revolution. He told us the overarching story has been a tale of industry standard upward mobility, pressing and pressuring traditional systems from below.
At the same time, he continued, displacement has been a constant theme in that narrative. Enter Intel's latest fab technology, widely known as Ivy Bridge. King said Ivy Bridge may look to some like just another chapter in an ongoing story but it could actually signal an entirely new era of industry-standard computing.
That, King said, is because not only did Intel's revolutionary new 3D Tri-Gate fabrication technology allow the company to become the first CPU vendor to deliver commercial 22-nanometer based products, the company also executed the process in good time, speeding its traditional "tick-tock" upgrade schedule and establishing a viable, believable roadmap for future tinier transistors.
Thu, 17 May 12
Google's Grand Plan for New Android Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=83367
Google is revising the way it rolls out new Android versions and devices, according to a new report. The move is intended to give the tech giant greater control over features and apps, and to reduce the influence of wireless carriers.
According to a story in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, Google will now give new versions of Android to as many as five manufacturers at a time, and devices using the new version will be sold directly to consumers. Previously, Google's practice was to produce "lead devices" for a new version with a single manufacturer and then roll out to other makers, with devices being sold through carriers or retail stores.
Under the new scheme -- which has not yet been confirmed by Google -- Google would sell the Nexus-brand products from the manufacturers through its Web site and possibly through some retailers. Google has tried direct sales to consumers on a limited basis previously, with limited success.
The amount of involvement that wireless carriers would have in marketing and selling this wave of products is not yet clear. One might assume that phones or tablets sold directly to consumers by Google would not be subsidized by carriers, so, unless Google is ready to pick up that slack, the prices are expected to be considerably higher than what buyers have come to expect.
It would be expected the phones would be sold unlocked, so that they would work on a variety of networks. Unless a contract is packaged with the sale -- something that would seem to counter Google's strategy -- the buyer then would have to find a carrier. But, potentially, a device buyer could purchase a prepaid wireless plan, making the total ownership cost less than currently and not obligating the buyer to a contract.
The new Google strategy, according to the...
Thu, 17 May 12
Cisco Tackles BYOD Challenge with 'Smart Solutions'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=83366
Cisco on Wednesday offered up findings from its "bring your own device" study and used the results as a jumping off point to announce new mobility solutions. But can Cisco carve out a niche in the nascent BYOD services space?
The Cisco IBSG Horizons Study surveyed 600 U.S. IT and business leaders to discover the benefits and complexities of allowing workers to use their own mobile devices on corporate networks. A whopping 95 percent of respondents say their organization allows employee-owned devices on the network.
The study also revealed that the average number of connected devices per knowledge worker is expected to reach 3.3 by 2014, up from an average of 2.8 in 2012. All in all, managers are balancing security and support concerns with the very real potential to reap significant cost and productivity benefits from the BYOD trend.
As Cisco sees it, BYOD is here to stay and managers are seeing the need for a more holistic approach -- an approach that is scalable and addresses mobility, security, virtualization and network policy management -- in order to keep management costs in line and realize savings.
According to Cisco IBSG, Cisco employees pay an average of $600 out-of-pocket for devices that will give them more control over their work experience. The benefits of BYOD vary based on an employee's role and work requirements. Cisco IBSG estimates that the annual benefits from BYOD range from $300 to $1,300 per employee.
While the BYOD trend gains momentum, desktop virtualization is on the rise. Sixty-eight percent of respondents agreed that a majority of knowledge worker roles are suitable for desktop virtualization and 50 percent noted that their organization is in the process of implementing a desktop virtualization strategy.
Cisco's answer to the opportunity and challenge is the Cisco Unified Workspace, which allows everything...
Thu, 17 May 12
Online Tool Helps You Estimate Social Security Benefits
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=83359
If you're feeling nostalgic about the days when you drank Pabst Blue Ribbon beer because it was cheap, not trendy, a new online tool from the Social Security Administration will take you on a walk down memory lane.
On May 1, Social Security launched a feature on its Web site, www.socialsecurity.gov, that allows workers to view an online version of their Social Security earnings and benefits statements. The program also allows you to estimate your retirement, disability and survivors benefits.
You can use this tool to show your kids how little you made when you started working (after you've reminded them that you walked 5 miles to get to school, without an iPod or cellphone). But more important, it can help you receive all of the benefits you're due, and make smart decisions about when to claim them.
Social Security used to mail workers an annual earnings statement, but suspended those mailings last year to save money. Starting in February, Social Security resumed mailing paper statements to workers 60 and older who aren't already receiving benefits. Later this year, it will mail paper statements to workers in the year they turn 25.
Before you can review your online earnings statement, you must go to www.ssa.gov/mystatement and create an account. The program will ask you a bunch of personal questions for security reasons, so be prepared to give up the name of your first pet and answer some multiple-choice questions about your finances. Social Security contracted with credit bureau Experian to provide information for verification purposes.
Once you've established your identity, you can create an account with a user name and password. Social Security recommends reviewing it annually.
Here's what you can learn from the online earnings statement:
Whether your earnings have been reported correctly. It's a lot of fun to reminisce about the year you earned a...
Thu, 17 May 12
Yahoo's Interim CEO Has Tough Job Ahead of Him
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=83358
The newest chief of Yahoo, interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, has carved a career out of making deals. Now, as head honcho at the embattled Internet icon, he needs to make plenty.
Levinsohn inherits an unenviable to-do list from a conga line of recent former Yahoo CEOs. Like Scott Thompson, who was pushed out Sunday over inaccuracies on his resume, Carol Bartz, Jerry Yang and Terry Semel, Levinsohn has to unravel Yahoo's knotty issue with Chinese Internet firm Alibaba Group, of which it owns a stake.
He also needs to shore up relations with Facebook, with whom Yahoo has traded patent-infringement lawsuits. And he must figure out what to do with a quasi-successful search deal with Microsoft.
To be fair, the situation isn't entirely dire. The portal attracts about 700 million visitors a month, which helped it generate nearly $1 billion in ad sales last quarter.
But that business is under siege from Google, Facebook and an armada of start-ups vying for eyeballs and revenue. Yahoo's slice of the nearly $40 billion U.S. online ad market -- at 16% in 2009 -- was 9.5% in 2011 and could slide to 7.4% this year, according to eMarketer.
Levinsohn, who was running Yahoo's Americas business, is familiar around Internet circles. He was president of Fox Interactive Media, when News Corp. acquired Myspace, and helped Myspace land a $900 million ad deal with Google. While in control of Yahoo's U.S. sales operations, he restaffed the team and eliminated middlemen to increase yield on ads sold.
"Ross Levinsohn makes a lot of sense as CEO, because he has a lot of experience in Internet media," says Scott Kessler, analyst at S&P Capital IQ. "A lot of people are hoping he becomes the permanent CEO."
Whether the new CEO and fresh board are the fix remains an open question. Analysts will be closely...
Thu, 17 May 12
Release of Big-Name Video Games Could Revive Sales
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=83357
Two much-anticipated games, Max Payne 3 and Diablo III, [could] bring respite from a five-month slump in video game retail sales.
The arrival of the third-person action game and the PC-based fantasy role-playing game will be welcomed by game fans and retailers, because the release schedule of potential hits so far in 2012 has been underwhelming.
Another sign of slumping sales: Retailer GameStop reported last week that first-quarter sales fell 12.5% on a drop in store traffic due to fewer blockbuster titles.
Overall April retail sales were $630.4 million, down 32% from $930.9 million in April 2011, reports market tracker the NPD Group.
"When we see compelling content come into the market, the games are still selling as well as ever," says NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "We just saw a lot less this April as compared to last."
Other factors in the slump: growth in sales of downloadable games and add-on content, as well as a casual gamer shift to mobile and Web games. Some developers have turned design efforts to the next generation of video game consoles, even though only Nintendo's Wii U has been announced, says Geoff Keighley, host of Spike network's GameTrailers TV.
"Really, the only big game this year," he says, "has been Mass Effect 3," BioWare's science-fiction role-playing game, which has sold about 4 million copies in two months.
With Max Payne 3 ($60, for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PCs, ages 17 and older), developer Rockstar Games (Grand Theft Auto) revived the police detective from two popular computer games out in 2001 and 2003. The success of the new game, coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PCs, "is critical for the video game market, not just for Rockstar," says EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich.
Since the impact of mobile games on interest in premium-price console games is hard to quantify,...
Thu, 17 May 12
Lights Out: LightSquared Files for Bankruptcy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=83356
LightSquared Inc., which hoped to create an independent wireless broadband network in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday.
Regulators blocked its plan this winter because of concerns that its transmissions would interfere with GPS navigation.
LightSquared hasn't given up. Chief Financial Officer Marc Montagner said in a statement that the bankruptcy filing is intended to gain the company "breathing room" while it continues to work through its regulatory issues.
It has said that it has invested more than $4 billion in the network. LightSquared listed assets and liabilities of more than $1 billion each in the filing Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
The company, which is based in Reston, Virginia, is owned by Harbinger Capital Partners, a private-equity firm that made billions betting against subprime mortgages ahead of the collapse of the housing market.
Harbinger bought SkyTerra, a provider of satellite communications services to businesses, in 2010. It then lobbied the Federal Communications Commission to allow it to use the spectrum set aside for SkyTerra for ground-based communications -- essentially, a conventional wireless broadband network, rather than a satellite-based one.
But SkyTerra's licenses were for spectrum adjacent to a band used by GPS satellites. On the ground, GPS units had no problem filtering out transmissions from SkyTerra's satellites, but regulators determined that they could be disrupted by strong, ground-based signals.
LightSquared's CEO, telecom veteran Sanjiv Ahuja, resigned in February.
The company's largest creditors are Boeing Satellite Systems Inc., owed $7.5 million, and telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent, owed $7.3 million, according to the filing.