Showing posts with label will. Show all posts
Showing posts with label will. Show all posts
Friday, April 3, 2015
Windows Phone 8 will soon run on existing Android hardware
The Windows Phone operating system will soon be capable of being run on existing Android hardware, Microsoft has confirmed.
Teasing upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 features during MWC 2014, Microsoft has revealed that the forthcoming platform update will see system requirements for the Windows Phone OS changed. As such, manufacturers will be able to port the Windows Phone OS to existing Android hardware.
With Microsoft having recently offered Windows Phone 8.1 update hints, Greg Sullivan, Microsoft’s Director of Windows Phone has discussed in further detail with TrustedReviews the effects this will have on the platform, not just for consumers but manufacturers too.
Detailing some of the upcoming improvements, he revealed that the Windows Phone 8.1 update, which is still to be officially named, will see “support for Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 and 400 chipsets” added.
On top of this, the reworked OS will allow “support for soft keys so that you don’t have to have physical hardware buttons.”
Looking to the larger benefits of these seemingly small changes, Sullivan stated: “One of the important things there is that an OEM can now take a device – an existing device that they are shipping with Android on it today – and install Windows Phone on it.”
He added: “They can leverage and get scale with their investments, they don’t have to go and build a separate thing that costs more, it’s going to eliminate a lot of barriers and make it more efficient and economically feasible for more OEMs to get into that business.”
The Director of Windows Phone went on to tell us: “There is a change in how we are engaging our OEM partners.
“With Windows Phone 8, we shrunk the number of OEMs we worked with relative to Windows 7.5. That was intentional as we knew we were going to the new Kernal underneath and we wanted to focus our engineering resources on fewer OEMs to make sure that we got it right.
“Now we can turn our attention to growing the ecosystem, growing the install base, and having a wider range of support for new devices.”
Despite claiming big things are in store for the future of Windows Phone, the third OS as it has widely become known, was scarcely represented at Mobile World Congress this week.
With a mass of Android handsets and a fleet of Firefox OS devices unveiled, Microsoft’s mobile OS was completely overlooked by leading manufacturers.
Read more »
Teasing upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 features during MWC 2014, Microsoft has revealed that the forthcoming platform update will see system requirements for the Windows Phone OS changed. As such, manufacturers will be able to port the Windows Phone OS to existing Android hardware.
With Microsoft having recently offered Windows Phone 8.1 update hints, Greg Sullivan, Microsoft’s Director of Windows Phone has discussed in further detail with TrustedReviews the effects this will have on the platform, not just for consumers but manufacturers too.
Detailing some of the upcoming improvements, he revealed that the Windows Phone 8.1 update, which is still to be officially named, will see “support for Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 and 400 chipsets” added.
On top of this, the reworked OS will allow “support for soft keys so that you don’t have to have physical hardware buttons.”
Looking to the larger benefits of these seemingly small changes, Sullivan stated: “One of the important things there is that an OEM can now take a device – an existing device that they are shipping with Android on it today – and install Windows Phone on it.”
He added: “They can leverage and get scale with their investments, they don’t have to go and build a separate thing that costs more, it’s going to eliminate a lot of barriers and make it more efficient and economically feasible for more OEMs to get into that business.”
The Director of Windows Phone went on to tell us: “There is a change in how we are engaging our OEM partners.
“With Windows Phone 8, we shrunk the number of OEMs we worked with relative to Windows 7.5. That was intentional as we knew we were going to the new Kernal underneath and we wanted to focus our engineering resources on fewer OEMs to make sure that we got it right.
“Now we can turn our attention to growing the ecosystem, growing the install base, and having a wider range of support for new devices.”
Despite claiming big things are in store for the future of Windows Phone, the third OS as it has widely become known, was scarcely represented at Mobile World Congress this week.
With a mass of Android handsets and a fleet of Firefox OS devices unveiled, Microsoft’s mobile OS was completely overlooked by leading manufacturers.
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Cutting the cord why wireless charging will finally power up in 2014
Wireless power today is mostly about convenience; not having to fish out a cable and get it the right way round when you plug it in. But once it becomes ubiquitous, it will change the way devices are designed; they can have smaller batteries or save space by not needing the power port at all.
This year at CES, as well as seeing the latest wireless power products and the next step in wireless charging technology, we also got some good news on getting more users and businesses on board with wireless power - 2014 will definitely be a big year for wireless charging.
There are over 60 different phones that have Qi wireless charging (the inductive charging standard) built in today - and 40 million of them have been sold - and because its a standard, you can put your phone down on any Qi charging surface and it will just start grabbing power.
If your phone doesnt have Qi built in, Incipio introduced a line of wireless charging pads and protective cases at CES that add it (including Lumia models like the Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 1520 that have a connector designed to simplify adding a charging case).
That surface doesnt have to be a pad on your desk either. It could be a light or a mouse mat: silicon valley startup Kudos Tech had prototypes for both, although no dates for putting them into production yet.
You dont have to only charge a phone; IDAPT has added a Qi charging module to its clever Modulo battery system, which lets you connect up to five external 2000mAh batteries to charge your phone or tablet.
Snap on as many batteries as you need to take with you and drop it onto a wireless charger to keep them topped up before you leave.
Or it could be a car cradle (Nokia has a wireless charging cradle already and Tylt was showing off a prototype of its own at CES, with a perpetually sticky surface to hold your phone in place) or a tray built into your car. Both have NFC which can trigger your phone to launch a specific app, like GPS navigation, or pair with the cars Bluetooth automatically when you start charging it.
Car makers like that, John Perzow of the Wireless Power Consortium says, because it will let them take information from your phone – like your personal music collection – and display that on the screen on your dashboard. "They want a path for extending your personal device into the car and shifting some of the load to your phone, but you can only do that if you can charge the device."
The Jeep Cherokee will have a wireless charging shelf in the 2014 model, Toyota will put it in the Avalon and Prius and the German auto consortium that advises Mercedes, Volkswagen, Audi and BMW is recommending Qi, after a three year study on wireless charging.
We even saw an FAA-approved wireless charger for use on planes; expect to see it in private jets first rather than on your next economy flight though.
So with a standard like Qi and products already in the market, why is wireless charging still not common?
Perzow says that confusion over standards has been slowing adoption. Yes, theres the Qi standard, but there have been plenty of other wireless charging launches that havent been part of Qi. Even Qualcomm has its own wireless charging system for electric cars (it charges the motor, not your smartphone, but still, its something else to confuse people).
The WPC is trying to tackle that by bringing new wireless charging developments into the Qi standard, and we saw some of that at CES.
Today Qi uses near-field coupling, between the coil antenna inside your phone and the one inside the charging mat; you have to either put multiple coils in or rely on people lining up devices in just the right spot.
The latest Qi mats give you a little more freedom of movement but to be able to put devices down anywhere on the surface and to be able to fit the charging pad underneath a thick surface like a table or a kitchen worksurface requires the next technology to be included in the Qi standard, magnetic resonance.
Resonant charging lets you put the phone off to one side of the charging spot or have something else in the way and still get charge.
We saw a new charger from Convenient Power that has resonant charging thats fully backwards compatible with Qi, so we were able to stack two notebooks on the charger and put a Nokia Lumia on top of them and have it charge. Bolt the pad under a table and you can charge through the surface.
Convenient Power also showed us a five-device charger that automatically detects the power requirements of the phones and tablets you put on it and delivers the right charge, and again you dont need to worry about lining them up neatly.
New Zealand wireless power experts PowerByProxi also creates resonant chargers, although it will licence its designs to other companies rather than selling them directly like Convenient Power. Phones will need to have a new charging antenna but theyll still charge on older Qi pads.
The big advantage of the PowerByProxi system is that it puts devices in charge of setting the power level they need, and it can send different power levels to different devices. That means your almost-flat tablet can get lots of power instead of just the trickle of power needed to top up your almost-fully-charged phone
Getting new developments into a backwardly compatible standard like this is vital if we want to see wireless charging on offer at Starbucks and every hotel the way wireless networking is – something that would really make wireless power ubiquitous and something Perzow is working on.
"Infrastructure has been stalled because its a very conservative market. A hotel wants maximum usability and long life before theyre going to put this on every night stand. There needs to be an experience that adds value beyond charging," he says.
The new chargers that can be bolted under tables without having to chisel out a slot will help, as will more freedom of positioning. "You just put the phone down on the charger; you dont have to get the placement just right."
And so will management software that shows which devices are sitting on a table, charging, and whether the power is getting through to them properly. Making wireless power easy to fit, easy to support and easy to use could be what we need to see it everywhere in the next couple of years.
Read more »
This year at CES, as well as seeing the latest wireless power products and the next step in wireless charging technology, we also got some good news on getting more users and businesses on board with wireless power - 2014 will definitely be a big year for wireless charging.
There are over 60 different phones that have Qi wireless charging (the inductive charging standard) built in today - and 40 million of them have been sold - and because its a standard, you can put your phone down on any Qi charging surface and it will just start grabbing power.
If your phone doesnt have Qi built in, Incipio introduced a line of wireless charging pads and protective cases at CES that add it (including Lumia models like the Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 1520 that have a connector designed to simplify adding a charging case).
That surface doesnt have to be a pad on your desk either. It could be a light or a mouse mat: silicon valley startup Kudos Tech had prototypes for both, although no dates for putting them into production yet.
You dont have to only charge a phone; IDAPT has added a Qi charging module to its clever Modulo battery system, which lets you connect up to five external 2000mAh batteries to charge your phone or tablet.
Snap on as many batteries as you need to take with you and drop it onto a wireless charger to keep them topped up before you leave.
Or it could be a car cradle (Nokia has a wireless charging cradle already and Tylt was showing off a prototype of its own at CES, with a perpetually sticky surface to hold your phone in place) or a tray built into your car. Both have NFC which can trigger your phone to launch a specific app, like GPS navigation, or pair with the cars Bluetooth automatically when you start charging it.
Car makers like that, John Perzow of the Wireless Power Consortium says, because it will let them take information from your phone – like your personal music collection – and display that on the screen on your dashboard. "They want a path for extending your personal device into the car and shifting some of the load to your phone, but you can only do that if you can charge the device."
The Jeep Cherokee will have a wireless charging shelf in the 2014 model, Toyota will put it in the Avalon and Prius and the German auto consortium that advises Mercedes, Volkswagen, Audi and BMW is recommending Qi, after a three year study on wireless charging.
We even saw an FAA-approved wireless charger for use on planes; expect to see it in private jets first rather than on your next economy flight though.
Making wireless power resonate
So with a standard like Qi and products already in the market, why is wireless charging still not common?
Perzow says that confusion over standards has been slowing adoption. Yes, theres the Qi standard, but there have been plenty of other wireless charging launches that havent been part of Qi. Even Qualcomm has its own wireless charging system for electric cars (it charges the motor, not your smartphone, but still, its something else to confuse people).
The WPC is trying to tackle that by bringing new wireless charging developments into the Qi standard, and we saw some of that at CES.
Today Qi uses near-field coupling, between the coil antenna inside your phone and the one inside the charging mat; you have to either put multiple coils in or rely on people lining up devices in just the right spot.
The latest Qi mats give you a little more freedom of movement but to be able to put devices down anywhere on the surface and to be able to fit the charging pad underneath a thick surface like a table or a kitchen worksurface requires the next technology to be included in the Qi standard, magnetic resonance.
Resonant charging lets you put the phone off to one side of the charging spot or have something else in the way and still get charge.
We saw a new charger from Convenient Power that has resonant charging thats fully backwards compatible with Qi, so we were able to stack two notebooks on the charger and put a Nokia Lumia on top of them and have it charge. Bolt the pad under a table and you can charge through the surface.
Convenient Power also showed us a five-device charger that automatically detects the power requirements of the phones and tablets you put on it and delivers the right charge, and again you dont need to worry about lining them up neatly.
New Zealand wireless power experts PowerByProxi also creates resonant chargers, although it will licence its designs to other companies rather than selling them directly like Convenient Power. Phones will need to have a new charging antenna but theyll still charge on older Qi pads.
The big advantage of the PowerByProxi system is that it puts devices in charge of setting the power level they need, and it can send different power levels to different devices. That means your almost-flat tablet can get lots of power instead of just the trickle of power needed to top up your almost-fully-charged phone
Getting new developments into a backwardly compatible standard like this is vital if we want to see wireless charging on offer at Starbucks and every hotel the way wireless networking is – something that would really make wireless power ubiquitous and something Perzow is working on.
"Infrastructure has been stalled because its a very conservative market. A hotel wants maximum usability and long life before theyre going to put this on every night stand. There needs to be an experience that adds value beyond charging," he says.
The new chargers that can be bolted under tables without having to chisel out a slot will help, as will more freedom of positioning. "You just put the phone down on the charger; you dont have to get the placement just right."
And so will management software that shows which devices are sitting on a table, charging, and whether the power is getting through to them properly. Making wireless power easy to fit, easy to support and easy to use could be what we need to see it everywhere in the next couple of years.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Alcatel We will launch flexible phones if consumers want them
French smartphone maker Alcatel has stated that it will launch flexible phones similar to the LG G Flex, but only if consumers demand them.
Read more »
With the affordable phone manufacturer looking to future smartphone technologies, the company has told TrustedReviews that while the flexible phone market is not yet developed enough for it to jump aboard, it would consider producing bendy phones if the public demanded them.
“If curve displays or flexible displays become something that is a really desired by consumers, and we see real consumer benefits then we will go there,” Dan Dery, Alcatel’s Global Vice President of Market told us.
Although flexible phones are on the company’s radar, Dery believes there are improvements elsewhere that are currently more important.
“I feel we have a more lot of things to do in innovation before we do flexible,” he said.
“I have nothing against the curved display but I still struggle to see what it does for consumers except that you can’t put it in your pocket anymore.”
Late last year the LG G Flex became the world’s first flexible phone, with the vertically curved handset boasting a malleable display and body that could be flattened or curved by applying relatively forceful amounts of pressure.
Originally landing as a South Korean exclusive, the LG G Flex is now UK-bound, with the futuristic phone having already been made available for pre-order on British shores alongside a near £700 price tag.
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