So Who Is Watching and Listening To You?

We live in a world of surveillance, moving ever closer to Orwell’s 1984. We are surrounded by CCTV cameras on buildings, streets and inside shops, some would suggest that our internet messages and activity is also being monitored under the guise of national interest and data gathering by software providers on our every click is commonplace. This new business of ‘big data’ appears to be morphing without control and is often hidden deep within the small print that we don’t read.

Last year we reported on Adobe’s collecting of eBook reading information through their service, which ironically was set up to protect copyright and the interests of their clients - the publisher, but apparently not their other clients - the consumer. LG was also discovered to be collecting details via some of their TVs on their owners' viewing habits and on what devices were connected to their TVs and was sending this back to the manufacturer, even if the users have activated a privacy setting.

Have smart devices now become too smart? Does the technology allow others to look in and to gather data and who and how can we control what we often can’t see and have not authorised?

The latest ‘data gathering news’ is about users Samsung Smart TV users who use voice activation to control their Samsung Smart TV. It is now claimed that the TV doesn’t just ‘listen’ to commands but to everything that is said and may share what they hears with Samsung or third parties, which is believed to be Nuance, the voice recognition specialist. It’s like having a ‘Gogglebox’, or worse still Orwell’s vision in every home. The users are unaware they are being monitored and although this story broke via a story in online news magazine the Daily Beast it questions how big this iceberg may be?

The Samsung policy states that the TV set will be listening to people in the same room to try to spot when commands or queries are issued via the remote. It states: ‘If your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.’

However, like Adobe, Skype and Viper before them, Samsung then send data to third parties without any encryption!

Samsung in its defence state ‘If a consumer consents and uses the voice recognition feature, voice data is provided to a third party during a requested voice command search. At that time, the voice data is sent to a server, which searches for the requested content then returns the desired content to the TV.’

They also go on to state that, ‘Smart-TV owners would always know if voice activation was turned on because a microphone icon would be visible on the screen.’

Does this same logic apply to other voice recognition services which are increasingly being deployed on devices?

But it is not just about gathering data but also about pushing unwanted data onto the consumer. Recently Lenovo was caught out installing adware onto new consumer computers on initial activation of the PC. The Superfish adware which injects third-party ads on Google searches and websites without the user’s permission has subsequently been removed.

Data gathering is done for a number of purposes; to help hone and target product and services to an individual, to sell behaviour and interest information to third parties and to eavesdrop on individuals. The problem is that the technology can often be the same and the lines between moral and not can often blur.

So What Does LG know that the rest of us don’t?

Remember Palm and their operating system WebOS?

It was bought by HP in 2011 for $1.2bn. At the time HP gave it 100% backing, but much like the football Chairman who gets the backs his manager during a bad losing streak, they have decide to change. HP did launch products such as their TouchPad which ran on WebOS, but the result was poor sales.

Palm developed WebOS to run smartphones, Tablets and mobile devices but was swept aside by Apple IOS, Google’s Android and even fell far short of players such as Blackberry.

HP will retain the underlying WebOS patents and technology but will handover the source code, documentation, would be used to power its next-generation smart TV technology. The big question now is whether WebOS will fair any better against the same competitors in the emerging smart TV battleground? Will an Android dominance lead to manufactures want to create their own look and feel, or like Microsoft is doing with Windows 8 will they merely jump ship to the perceived next best thing?

To demonstrate what HP actual thinks they have just launched their first Android-powered HP Slate 7 tablet, at the 2013 Mobile World Congress.

HP is not thought to have recouped the money it paid for Palm for WebOS..

Slimline LG Please

The upcoming CES (Consumer Electronics Show) at the beginning of next year is going to once again excite and stir the market with new innovation in technology.

LG are rumoured to be about to announce and Android smartphone which could be even slimmer than the iPhone 4. It’s claimed by Phandriod to be named the ‘B’.

It’s apparent, that like cat walk models, size does matter and the slimmer you are the greater the potential to gain acceptance. Clearly the days of the brick mobile phone have long gone and now size is not about small and chunky but slim and sleek.
It’s also claimed that the ‘B’s screen is brighter with much greater luminosity than either the iPhone 4 or the Samsung Galaxy S smartphones. This could make a big difference as we increasingly move to the world of permanent mobile connectivity and increased functionality through apps.

LG is not just fighting Apple and RIM but is also fighting a hoard of Andriod players such as Samsung and HTC, both of whom probably have a stronger offer and also Samsung has more sales today.

The one thing that is certain is that the smartphones we see today will not be those that we will be using in just a few years time and the way we use them is also bound to drastically change. The CES shows are going to be even more innovative going forward as they have been in the past.

Unroll the News

Can you imagine sitting on a train unrolling or unfolding your flexible screen and having instant access to whatever newspaper you want and merely rolling it up at the end of the journey?

The technology predictions of many in the past may have now landed today and may make it onto the market in a few years. LG, the Korean electronics giant has been showing off news of its 19” wide display, which is only 0.01” thick s, it's slightly thicker than a piece of paper (about 0.06mm), and weighs in at 4.5 ounces. LG say that the large screen is a prototype and the actual mass produced screen will be 11.5” by the middle of the year.

So we potentially have flexibility in the shape of Skiff, LG and the likes of Sony’s full colour flexible OLED displays. However the screen is only part of the equation and we still need all the ancillary electronics, the power, transistors and circuitry. We still believe that OLED offers more than eInk and with other technology platforms moving towards OLED, eink looks a one trick pony.

LG Offer eBook Readers Solar Power

LG has announced that it has developed a solar panel for a Sony e-book reader. The chip is less that 1 mm thick, 10cm wide and 10cm long and weighs 20 grams and will be on show at the International Meeting on Information Display (IMID) in Seoul. The question is whether eInk devices that already have a long battery life need a solar panel. Will it result in obviating the need to ever recharge the battery and to claim the ultimate green credentials. However, we wondered whether it could prove useful for the iPhone that is constantly in need of recharging.

LG claim that 4 to 5 hours exposure to sunlight would be sufficient to run the e-book reader for 24 hours. The prototype is 9.6% efficient and LG expect to increase this to 12% in the next 12 months and then to 14% by 2012 when it is envisaged that it it would be ready for commercialization.

The World is Not Greyscale

Everyone appears to want colour in the ereader device but as we have previously pointed out this is not a simple switch with the E Ink as it is made up from positively charged white particles and negatively charged black ones in a clear fluid. When a charge is applied, the particles can be aligned to form letters and patterns and remain static until a further charge turns. To achieve colour a filter is placed over the top of the black and white display made up of red, green, blue and white sub-pixels. This obviously leads to a reduction in brightness and the need for a much higher resolution. SiPix has announced the delivery of some color e-ink displays to the market by the end of 2010. It is now down to PrimeView to respond, but the race is clearly on.

However the use and interest in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology continues and could render coloured eInk obsolete before it has dried. The Japanese research center, RIKEN, claims a new method of deploying the technology using electrospray-deposited polymer films rather than the spin-coated films which are used in today's OLEDs. This change results in a smoother display where each pixel on it has a higher intensity, even at lower voltages.

OLEDs are now entering the market place as screens for mobile phones and televisions and if costs and wastage could be reduced by using mass-production and simpler techniques these could be adopted further. The breakthrough made by RIKEN could be the factor that changes the future of OLED and screen technology.

LG has announced that their first OLED TV but it will only be a 15-inch sized screen and won't hit UK stores until next year. It is set to become the largest OLED TV available after topping the 11-inches of Sony’s XEL-1, the world's first and only OLED television available on the market. It will offer a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, a super-fast response rate, low power consumption and a screen guaranteed for 30,000 hours of use. LG has also announced hopes to deliver a 30-inch version some time in 2012.

Meanwhile, back in the world of greyscale and dull. Wes Dearing ,Sony's UK Product Manager for their eReader, speaking at the launch of the Touch and the Pocket, "We have to work out if the public are happy with grey scale papers or want colour. If the consumers demand it; if they are saying 'we want colour Readers' then of course we will listen and provide that option."

Smartphone App Wars

Who will win the mobile app store battles and the associated operating system wars?
Samsung will launch a mobile application store in Europe on Sept. 14 for its Omnia smartphones. They join iPhone, Nokia’s Ovi, Rim/Blackberry and Palm Pre stores and as many operating system battles, carrier exclusives and even device showdowns.

In August Samsung released its mobile widget software development kit (SDK) and its Application Seller Site a month earlier. Users will initially be able to select from about 300 apps, including games and e-readers and they predict that this will increase to around 2,000 by the end of the year. Their SDK is different in that it will let developers create widgets for different Samsung phones using different operating systems, including the company's own proprietary OS.

Nokia is the market leader in terms of phones, smartphones and mobile but has struggled to get third-party developers to develop applications for their phones. They are not alone, after all why do you want to develop 4 apps that each have to be maintained and may not all earn out?

Then we have the formidable LG Electronics, which in July launched an online store for mobile phone applications.

Finally we have Microsoft who is hoping the launch in October of its new mobile phone software, will revive its flagging position in this lucrative market. Today they are estimated to have some 9% share against the 14.3% they enjoyed only a year ago. They are behind RIM’s 20.9% and Apple’s growing 13.7% and a long way behind Nokia’s 45%.

Microsoft’s big card is its ability to run Windows Mobile Office productivity apps such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. But is that enough and a strong enough differentiator today? They claim a trusted brand but is it it trusted enough and although they can line up all the big guns in support we think it too late, too tired and somehow lacking. Will it fully support touch and compete with the new touch environment.

What is clear is that consumers need to keep their options open in what is a dynamic market.

How Thin Is Your TV?

How thin can TVs go? Apparently by changing the underlying technology LG has created what it claims is the world’s thinnest LCD TV panel which is 5.9mm thick or thinner than the average pencil! The screens are only available in 42in and 47in screen sizes and weigh only 6.1kg for the 42in and 7.3kg for the 47in which is claimed to be 50% lighter than similar sized LCDs lit by cold cathode elements.

Instead of placing LEDs behind the screen to light the display the technology uses LEDs placed around the edges of the screen. The technology is not new or unique with Samsung introducing a 32-55in range of edge-lit screens earlier this year.

So TVs may becoming like pictures anyone can hang on the wall and maybe without extra strong fixtures!

Korea Eyes up eBook Market

One day after announcing the Samsung Papyrus ebook reader we hear that other s are potentially waiting in the wings.

JoongAng Daily report that SK Telecom signed a memorandum of understanding with Neolux, a local e-book manufacturer in December. “Looking at Amazon and Google’s cases, e-books have potential to become a new digital convergence model for the mobile telecommunications industry,” said Kim Gwang-hi, head of the new business team at SKT. “We are in the process of seeking collaboration with other e-book companies as well and plan to launch a product this year.”

LG Telecom’s who are behind our favourite 3G Wrist Smartphone is reported to be also planning the join the leap to the e-book market.

The report also shows that we are not alone in getting books digitised and available to sell. Booktopia, Korea’s largest e-book database, has some 120,000 digital titles but only have half of them are available for sale. “In the past, authors and publishers didn’t consider electronic book copyrights when coming up with contracts,” said Choi Jong-su, vice president of Booktopia.

Anything Your Smart Phone Can Do, We can Do Smarter

We wrote only last week about Sony's Idou 12-megapixel camera but it appears that it will be soon joined by a competitor from LG has committed to releasing a smartphone with the same camera specification this year. A 12-megapixel camera phone is likely to generate 3MB files (100 percent quality, 24 bit per pixel) which would be fine for local storage but take time to transfer.

With the clear indication that smartphones will compete head to head with ordinary digital cameras and with no traditional camera entrants such as LG entering the market we could we now see even more sophisticated features such as optical zoom, ISO setting and smart features such as face detection.

The interesting aspect of all this convergence and aggressive mobile competition is understanding what the consumer will expect from the smartphone and what they will expect from a dedicate device or netbook/laptop? A smartphone can phone, text, VOIP, surf the internet, be alert fed, play and record videos, capture images and store a gallery, read and store books, store and play music, interface with the ‘office’ for mail, calendars, tasks, play games, be a calculator, tell the time and date and act as an alarm, provide interactive GPS and mapping etc etc. The list goes on. The longer the list grows the more we realize that it for any standalone device to succeed it will have to offer something special.

Bright Efficient Light – In Colour

Bright screens eat power and this is no more relevant than on the smaller devices such as mobiles. We now read in the New York Times that a number of companies are developing battery conserving technologies in an attempt to save the drain on their limited battery life.

Pixtronix, uses LED bulbs to create their ‘PerfectLight’ image with thousands of tiny shutters. They demonstrated their first prototypes late last year and claim a 75% power consumption saving over a liquid crystal display. It effectively obviates the polarizer impact and colour filters that dramatically reduce LCD and therefore require extra compensating power. Pixtronix expects to now license their technology to display manufacturers.

Qualcomm, MEMS (microelectro-mechanical systems) technology uses the reflective qualities of ambient light. Their new display technology called mirasol is fabricated not on silicon but on glass. They claim the screen works perfectly in full sun and is as low as a milliwat in its consumption. Mirasol will be used in a new waterproof MP3 player from Freestyle Audio and a screen of an MP3 player integrated into a headphone to be sold by Skullcandy.

The E Ink Corporation who supply many of the current black and white family of ereaders is also working on a colour screen that uses ambient light.

We recently wrote about the LG screen developments for notebooks and laptops.

Last year we wrote several times on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen technology which uses organic, or carbon-containing, compounds that emit light when electricity is applied. Sony have launched the world's first OLED TV which is 3 mm thick and consumes 40% percent less power than a comparable LCD, has faster response time, bright colours and a wide viewing angle, but is restricted to a 11” screen.

So many are trying to capture what is a significant market and it will be interesting to watch which get adopted and the key issues that decide who wins and who loses.

LG to Announce a Brighter New Year

Digital Arts report that LG Display has developed LCD screen that it says looks as good outdoors in sunlight as indoors. It plans to unveil it CES in January in Las Vegas. The 14.1-inch display is aimed at the laptop market and has a switch to enable users to flip between the modes according to the light.

Panels in most televisions and laptops are illuminated from a backlight panel behind the screen. This is great indoors but isn’t bright enough outdoors but LG now use reflective panels, a mirror behind the screen, to reflect ambient light for a brighter outdoor image and increasing the contrast ratio from 3:1 to 9:1. The technology also provides extra battery life when in reflective and the backlight is switched off. There is are also transreflective panels that have both a mirror and backlight behind the panel and offer a compromise between the two displays but like must compromises, fall down the middle, neither good enough for one or the other extreme.

The display is still a prototype and there are no immediate plans to put it into production but unlike the eink world we hear so much about today it supports colour, video and everything we enjoy on a laptop /notebook.

4G is Coming Closer

The world of 4G mobile services stepped a little closer with LG successfully testing the world’s first Long Term Evolution (LTE) cell phone chip. The integrated circuit achieved data speeds of 60Mbps. LTE networks plan to compete head-to-head with wired broadband, offering a efficiency, lowering costs, and providing for better integration with open standards. This bandwidth offers much but needs to be fed the appropriate content, applications and consumer demand.

It is easy to now envisage a full online world with cloud computing and this further marginalizes today’s download models and even DRM as we know it today.

Another Day at the Races

Microsoft and LG have signed a strategic collaboration agreement in R&D, marketing, applications, and services in mobile devices. Samsung Electronics announced on the same day the launch of the domestic version of the Omnia touch screen handset model. This is also based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system and will be available under an exclusive deal later this year.

Both these moves are clearly focused on helping Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system defend itself against Nokia’s Symbian a platform and which is used in two-thirds of smartphones. As we have already reported the remaining contenders are RIM’s Blackberry, Apple's iPhone and Google's Android.

In the same way that DOS versus Windows defined and help shape the PC era and Explora versus Netscape the Web browser initial battles the this ongoing smartphone battle will shape the smartphone market and have a significant impact on digital content and presentation in the digital content era. What will be the key is hard to say but Google certainly has been given a significant boost by its recent settlement.

Aligning digital search and discovery, content delivery and synergy with PCs in an online offer that is unique by its nature is something others will struggle to match. It’s a pity the price was so cheap.