Sunday, May 11, 2008

China's Huawei May Sell A Stake Abroad.

China's Huawei may sell a stake abroad.
HONG KONG -- Huawei Technologies Co. is considering the sale of a multibillion-dollar stake in its mobile-devices division to a foreign investor that could help the closely held Chinese telecommunications-equipment maker navigate the North American market, according to people familiar with the situation.


The sale, which could rank among the largest foreign investments in a Chinese company, is at an early stage, the people said. Later this month, Huawei plans to invite strategic investors and private-equity companies to make bids for a significant stake in the business, with a foreign investor possibly taking a majority shareholding in the business.


Thursday, May 8, 2008

Verizon Launches The Samsung Glyde.


Verizon launches the Samsung Glyde.
One of the worst-kept secrets in Verizon's stable is finally getting official today; that's right, ladies and gentlemen, meet the Glyde from Samsung. Wearing CDMA guts underneath its F700 clothing, the fashion-friendly QWERTY slider offers a 2 megapixel cam with flash and autofocus, GPS, the full range of Bluetooth profiles, microSD slot, and a true HTML browser. Unlike its crosstown competition -- the LG Voyager -- the Glyde doesn't offer support for Verizon's VCAST TV service, but we imagine most folks will consider that a minor (read: nonexistent) inconvenience. Look for the phone to start circulating into retail channels this week for a princely $249.99 on contract after $50 rebate.
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Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Google Holds Verizon’s Feet To Fire On 700MHz Open Access

Google holds Verizon’s feet to fire on 700MHz open access.
The struggle over the Federal Communications Commission's 700MHz auction's C Block just flared up again. Google has written a stern letter to the FCC demanding that the agency force the block's winner, Verizon, to honor the spectrum region's open platform provision.


"The rule requires openness for 'Any Applications, Any Devices'—not 'Any Applications, Except on Verizon Devices,' as Verizon would interpret it," a small squad of Google attorneys told the FCC on Friday. "The Commission must ensure that Verizon understands that this license obligation means what it says: Any Apps, Any Devices."
Google wants the agency to make Verizon promise to adhere to the C Block rules—in writing.



Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Is It A Challenge Or Phishing.

Is it a Challenge or Phishing.
Is the Android Challenge legit or an elaborate form of phishing,or even an outright scam of sorts?It seems that the challenge has a few glaring problems:
The rules favor teams and/or individuals with financialbacking or resources. The Challenge is scored in 4 areas. I suggest that Originalityand Indispensibility are areas that favor contributors equallywhether they are poor individuals or well funded teams.However "Effective Use of the Android Platform" and "Polish and Appeal" penalize those with limited financialresources. These qualities require more time to implementthereby favoring those who could spend more time on thechallenge than those who responded to the challengein the "Willy Wonka" spirit (believing all had a chance)and had to work on the challenge in their spare time.2) Google discontinued support for the Challenge userswhile continuing to support OHA and other stakeholders(e.g., device manufacturers, MIT) thereby marginalizing/under supporting the Challenge members.
Using the Android platform, whichdespite being Linux and Java, is no picnic or walk in the park.The processing model is different (and I'll question it's necessity on a Linux platform in another post), the SDK has bugs, thedocumentation has inconsistencies (e.g., look at the variousplaces where TableLayout and table row are documented),pieces of the SDK were missing (e.g., BT, etc.) and so on.And while independents were toiling away trying to slog throughthe Android'isms and bugs, Google was actively supporting membersof the OHA (are they really on the same SDK version as we are? Are all submitters really isolated from those who had moreinside information? Access to the source. Participants who fail to win in round 1 stand to lose even more.

When you made your submission you agreed that if Google or any of the Judges developed your idea you had no recourse.What if Google/Judges never had the idea before you submitted it?Had not yet visualized it on the Android platform before the entries were submitted? Do you think you can get your idea to market faster than the multi-billion dollar Google juggernaut?In it's most perverse form isn't it all really a way for Googleto potentially get 1700+ original ideas for which they only need to pay for 50.