The Tech Update

According to DxOLabs, the Galaxy S4 outperforms the camera of the iPhone 5 after a series of tests on both phones.

The war continues.

Apple and Samsung have been the prizefighters of the tech world for a while, and recent bouts of which-is-the-better-phone have been progressing more each day.

The Galaxy S4 received stellar ratings (as did the iPhone), but the S4 (praised for “impressive detail preservation in bright light conditions, fast and accurate autofocus, good auto-exposure, rich colors, and good image quality with flash) recieved a slightly better rating.

Galaxy S4

The iPhone 5 also received much praise from DxOLabs (“good color and exposure in most lighting conditions, good retention of detail in bright lighting conditions, accurate and consistent autofocus and broad dynamic range).

iPhone 5

Interestingly, DxOLabs gave both phones the exact negative feedback: “Cons were significant loss of detail in low light, strong ringing artifacts, and slight color shading under low tungsten light levels.”

What do The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Bloomberg News, CBS, and “60 Minutes” all have in common (besides outstanding news delivery, of course)?

Each of their Twitter accounts has been hacked in the past few months.

Following a series of Twitter hacks from several high profile Twitter accounts, Twitter has rolled out a new, two-step login to help users prevent unwanted intrusions.

“It’s one thing when Twitter is free for brands,” said brand strategist Adam Hanft. “It’s another when there’s an advertising contract in place, and hacking can disrupt the service a brand has paid for. There’s an implicit agreement that Twitter will serve its customers and keep them protected.”

This optional two-factor verification system will ask users to register a phone number, e-mail account and six-digit code that would have to be entered, via text message, each time they log in to the site.

Many strategists say this optional security addition will likely be embraced by many personal and small business accounts, but not so much for massive entities like national and international corporations.

“Media organizations who share breaking news via social media typically have many staff, around the globe, who share the same Twitter accounts,” Graham Cluley of Sophos Security commented.

“They can’t all access the same phone at the same time.”

Twitter is urging users to adopt this new security protocol. If you think your Twitter account is in danger, then what are you waiting for? Go change it before you start telling everyone President Obama got assassinated.

HTC has been struggling to compete with Android and Apple smartphone sales for quite some time, and this quarter isn’t just bad – it’s the worst one yet.

The phone company reported its lowest quarterly profit ever causing HTC to yet again miss revenue targets. HTC’s first-quarter net income plummeted a whopping 98%, which marks the sixth-straight quarterly decline.

The company’s quarterly earnings totaled a mere $2.8 million on $1.4 billion in sales.

Over the past quarter, HTC’s  vice president of global communications Jason Gordon has resigned, as well as global retail marketing manager Rebecca Rowland, director of digital marketing John Starkweather, and product strategy manager Eric Lin.

Even HTC CEO Peter Chou has announced that he will resign if HTC’s seemingly last ray of hope the HTC One flops.

After very positive initial ratings, sales of the HTC One have dropped since its release, removing HTC’s hope that the HTC One would save the company from the largely unsuccessful HTC First (aka “the Facebook phone”) released earlier this year.

For massive tech companies like HTC, constant flops in a short period of time won’t just affect sales – flops damage the company’s reputation as a competitive tech company, almost persuading customers to find another option.

If HTC doesn’t get back on their feet soon (and by the looks of it, they may be almost finished), HTC users might find their provider changed to a different company – whoever wants to take over HTC after its end.

It doesn’t matter what kind of phone you have; whether a waterproof Xperia ZR or an old-school flip phone a decade old…

You still gotta charge it at the end of the day.

However, 18-year old Eesha Khare showed up teenagers everywhere by inventing a tiny device dubbed a “supercapacitor” that could potentially charge a cell phone in 20-30 seconds flat.

The tiny device can fit inside a cell phone battery and can apparently go through about 10,000 charge cycles, outpacing traditional battery packs by a factor of 10 (how long does it take to charge your phone? A few hours? Mine too).

Khare was awarded a $50,000 scholarship for this momentous invention. So far, the supercapacitor has only been through some basic field work, charging an LED light (which it did with flying colors), but more developments are expected for 2013 and beyond.

Talk of using the device to charge car batteries has been buzzing, but mobile phone charging is the most immediate possibility.

Khare is the 2nd of 2 recipients of the Intel Foundation Young Scientists Award of 2013. The other winner, Henry Lin, created a model that simulates thousands of galaxies.

Not bad for someone who just graduated high school.

Google Glass has a rival, and it’s not who you would expect.

Ever since Google co-founder Sergey Brin explored the city streets of Palo Alto wearing his never-before-seen Google Glasses, the tech world has been in a buzz about the advent of “smart glasses.” However, no other company has really made a big splash about following the trend – that is, until today.

No, it wasn’t Apple, Facebook, or any other well-known tech giant. Modest tech company Recon has made an Android-friendly Google Glass alternative called Jet, and they don’t use Google Glass technology.

Seen in these pictures, Recon glasses have some key differences – a sleeker design, the reticule module seems to be underneath the eye instead of above, the you can detach the “smart” section.

Jet’s heads-up display unit includes a dual-core processor, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, GPS and movement sensors, and a high-definition camera, to name a few features. Those wearing Jet-equipped glasses can even track and film their movements in first person, and upload them online.

Unlike Google, Recon is already selling eyewear with heads-up displays – those with Google Glasses (Google’s “Explorers”) only number in the small amount of pre-released sets.

Top goggle makers, such as Oakley, Smith Optics, and Zeal Optics, among others, include Recon’s heads-up display units in their goggles, charging upward of $450 for a set.

Search “Atari Breakout” in Google Images to bring the good ol’ arcade days right to your computer.

Celebrating the 37th anniversary of the infamous Atari game “Breakout” from 1973, Google lets users play the old-school classic brick game using images as colored blocks. You can even submit your score online through Google+ and compare with other players.

Google is an expert at a lot of things, and keeping users happy and connected is one of their major strong points. Sure, people might interpret this Atari Breakout easter egg as just fun and entertaining, but what Google is really doing is keeping customers happy.

If you think about it, Google offers these games a lot – last year, there was a new game every other day during the Olypmics; since then, we’ve seen various games on just about every major holiday and event (ever try and type in “do the harlem shake” on Youtube?).

Bing doesn’t offer these games, nor does Yahoo!, the big G’s major competitors. Google is using Atari Breakout as more than a fun video game break at work, they’re maintaining their image as the “fun” search engine.

Speaking of which, feel free to play Google’s interactive I/O 2013 homepage; IIOIOOII is a Simon game, IIIOOIII is a two-button cat soundboard and IOOOOOOI is a Pong game.

Fun stuff.

Sony is at it again – their new Xperia ZR phone can take a bath.

Designed to last up to 30 minutes fully submerged, the Xperia can take high-definition photos and videos underwater. The world was only recently introduced to phone cases that make the phones waterproof, but Sony’s smartphone doesn’t even require one.

Boasting a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core 1.5 GHz processor, 4.6-inch HD Reality screen and whopping 13-megapixel camera, the Xperia seems to be prepped to handle most smartphone competition.

But will users go for this latest tech gadget?

Sony’s new phone has a lot of the unique and innovative market covered in the smartphone arena – no other phones can boast waterproof durability without a case. But is it enough to actually garner sales? Or will Sony’s device be a flash in the pan?

True, waterproof smartphone case sales have skyrocketed in the past few years; Sony has yet to announce the price for their waterproof phone.

But will users pay more than say, an iPhone 5, currently going at under $100? I mean, if I really wanted to, couldn’t I just buy a cheaper case for my current phone?

Apparently, Sony thinks they’ve got a solid stake in the market.

“The Xperia ZR pushes the boundaries on where and how consumers can use the full potential of their smartphone,” Calum MacDougall, director of Xperia Marketing at Sony Mobile Communications, said in a statement.

“By combining Sony’s leading camera technology with the highest level of water-resistance, you will never miss another moment.”

According to a report published in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Amazon is feverishly working on two smartphones that are intended to compliment their vastly lucrative Kindle Fire tablet.

Apparently, the device will be one of the most innovative phones the market has ever seen: in addition to a very science-fiction-like eye tracker that could literally scroll in accordance with user’s eyes, the screen will boast glasses-free 3D capabilities, supposedly creating a type of hologram look, “floating” the images above the screen for a complete 360 degree 3D view.

Digital Trends reported earlier today that in addition to scrolling, the eye-tracking tech could also enable menus to be navigated and other features to be controlled using eye movements.

Look, we’re still reeling over a hologram of Tupac performing at Coachella (and apparently Snoop Dogg Lion wants to bring back Bob Marley in hologram form too?); I’m not sure the world is even ready for this. If Amazon goes through with this rumored project, will we be able to make 3-dimensional phone calls like they did in Star Wars?

Still, these phones are “nowhere near ready for commercial use,” Digital Trends reports. Will we be able to see our screenshots in 3-D later this year? What about Youtube? Netflix?

I guess, like everything else in the tech world, we’ll have to wait for it.

Video courtesy of Kickstarter.

The Ouya, a new, innovative video game console run using Android 4.0, is due to be released to the general public on June 25 for $99.

What is the Ouya, you ask?

The Ouya was announced July 3, 2012 as a new gaming device featuring Android’s operating system- taking games on your mobile phone to your television screen. After introducing Ouya on Kickstarter (while exceeding its goal and becoming the second-highest-earning project in Kickstarter history), consumers from all over the world became enticed.

Why did they become enticed, you ask?

Every Ouya is an Android-based developers kit.  With no need to pay licensing, retail and publishing fees, the Ouya gives indie developers and passionate gamers the chance to create original Android applications. However, the Ouya not only appeals to devs and gamers, but to hackers and rooters as well. Designed with simplicity and creativity, the Ouya allows hardware hackers to create their own peripherals and modify their console without voiding Ouya’s warranty.

Image courtesy of Ouya.

According to Kickstarter, Ouya’s specifications are as follows:

- Tegra 3 quad-core processor

- 1GB RAM

- 8 GB of internal flash storage

- HDMI TV connection (support up to 1080p)

- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n

- Bluetooth E 4.0

- one USB 2.0 port

- one wireless controller with standard controls and a touchpad

- Android 4.1

- Ethernet

Ouya advertises the chance to try every video game (through demos or free-to-play games) before purchasing. With games such as Final Fantasy III on the Ouya games launch list, the console has a chance to be considered amongst other big-name video game devices.

Overall, the Ouya seems to be a new, inexpensive, sleekly-designed, powerful console. Although there seems to be a long road ahead for Ouya, the future is seemingly promising for the new gaming machine. For $99, we at Tech Update may have to pick one up!

It seems like the Ouya is making the latest technology news headlines with good reason. E3 2013 is nearing. Both Sony and Microsoft are expected to release the Playstation 4 and Xbox 720 by the end of 2013. How do you think the Ouya will affect the console gaming world?

Less than a year ago, Facebook announced that it bought the tiny 12-person company Instagram for no less than $1,000,000,000 dollars.

They’re about to spend another billion.

The Israel-based app “Waze” is a new mobile application that uses satellite signals from members’ smartphones to generate maps and traffic data, which it then shares with other users, offering real-time traffic info. According to Israel-based business newspaper Calcalist (through TheNextWeb), talks between Waze and Facebook have been ongoing for the last 6 months.

Waze now counts around 45 million users. In March, 1.5 million people downloaded the mobile app, according to Calcalist. If Facebook and Waze hash out a deal, a large portion of Facebook’s 80 million users will probably download the traffic app as well.

Still – though Facebook is currently valued at about $80 billion dollars, will the social media juggernaut really be worth over $1 billion more after the acquisition of this real-time traffic GPS? Where’s the money in that? Sure, it’s going to be helpful and a lot of people will probably really enjoy knowing to take the other route to work when traffic is bad, but…a billion dollars?

The answer is, surprisingly, an overwhelming yes.

The answer is the same one that answered the question, “Why Instagram?” Sure, people could apply some hipster-artsy setting to a picture of a sunset, but every smartphone is already equipped to do that. But here’s the thing – everything is going mobile. That means that in a few years, more people will be using mobile devices to go online than actual computers. Savvy companies will be preparing to accommodate their users going mobile.

Facebook wants to add another user-friendly mobile app to keep their users happy. Why? If Facebook can give their users another reason to stay active on Facebook (users are currently valued at around $100 each: 80 million users x $100 each = $80 billion dollar worth), they’ll be retaining their revenue from ads, apps and traffic.

Facebook’s entire reasoning behind acquiring Waze is to to keep their users happy. Happy users mean more ads, exposure, traffic and ultimately revenue. Instagram accomplished just that, ensuring a simple photo-to-profile platform for users to enjoy; Waze’s interactive GPS system will (Facebook hopes) keep more users happy and keep bringing in the dough.