Xperia Z,?ZL,?ZR, Tablet Z,?SP and Z Ultra to get 4.3 upgrade; some 4.1 devices could jump straight to 4.3
Sony is the first Android OEM to commit to device updates to Android 4.3, less than a day after Google unveiled the new version of Android in San Francisco. The Japanese company says it can confirm that the?Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, Xperia Tablet Z, Xperia SP and Xperia Z Ultra will all get upgrades to Android 4.3, though no specific update timetable is offered.
In addition, Sony says it's looking at upgrading some of its Android 4.1 devices directly to 4.3, leapfrogging 4.2 entirely. (It wouldn't be the first we've heard of a manufacturer possibly jumping straight from 4.1 to 4.3.) Again, Sony's not committing to any timeframes, but says it'll share more details when it's able.
Meanwhile, the Android 4.2 updates will continue rolling out for existing Sony devices. The manufacturer says the Xperia ZR and Tablet Z will start seeing 4.2 push out from early August.
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's mobile advertising success offers a ray of hope for Internet companies trying to make money within the confines of the smartphone's small screen.
The social network's 75 percent surge in mobile ad revenue in a span of just three months not only doused skepticism on Wall Street and Madison Avenue about Facebook's business prospects, some say it could serve as a how-to guide for other Web companies navigating a world where the phone and tablet have fast become the screens of choice.
Facebook's "Newsfeed" ads, which inject marketing messages straight into a user's content stream and are tailored for mobile devices, were the stars behind the social network's stunning numbers on Wednesday.
"You're going to see a lot of companies transitioning and trying to emulate this model because it's working so well. That's why last night was a true watershed moment," said Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie Research.
Internet company executives have long been concerned that mobile advertising is inherently less lucrative than traditional desktop PC advertising, due to the smartphone's limited screen size and possible consumer resistance to a flood of ads on their devices.
Companies from Google Inc and Yahoo Inc to upstarts such as Snapchat are searching for the right formula to monetize mobile services. While Google has developed a mobile ad business generating an estimated $10 billion a year in revenue, it remains much smaller and less lucrative than Google's desktop search advertising. Analysts expect Google to generate $60 billion in annual revenue this year.
That wholesale exploration of "native ads" - or marketing messages intended to blend with a users' personal content, rather than stand out as an ad - has met with varying success.
Twitter, which pioneered the concept of the in-stream ad even before Facebook, may also be well-positioned to benefit from mobile ads. "Sponsored" messages now pop up abruptly in the middle of streams of tweets, but analysts say the frequency is much lower on Facebook newsfeeds.
More than half of the privately held company's revenue will come from mobile ads this year, reckons Clark Fredricksen, at industry research firm eMarketer.
Some are just getting into the game. This week, LinkedIn Corp, the network for business professionals, rolled out in-stream ads on mobile and PC versions of its service. Yahoo has experimented with similar types of ads, and acquired blogging hub Tumblr for $1.1 billion in May, in part to jumpstart efforts at developing new formats.
But it's Facebook, which a year ago had zero mobile revenue, that has most aggressively promoted its mobile advertising business to Madison Avenue - with seeming success.
"Compared to other companies, nobody has come right out and said mobile is our sole focus now," said Angela Steele, CEO of Ansible, part of advertising holding company IPG. "Facebook put all their eggs in one basket."
FOLLOWING SUIT
One longstanding question has been how much tolerance consumers have for ads that disrupt their stream of content. Facebook said it has steadily increased the number of ads in the news stream without noticing a drop in user satisfaction.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that, on average, ads now account for 5 percent or one in 20 "stories" in the newsfeed. That ratio could now provide a baseline for calculating success, prompting other Web companies to raise the frequency of ads in their streams.
"It wouldn't surprise me if other companies would look at that and follow suit," said Ansible's Steele.
Hussein Fazal, the CEO of AdParlor, which manages advertising campaigns on Facebook, guesses that the social network must have gradually opened the spigot, gauging user reaction and adjusting the stream all the while.
They seemed to have hit on the right formula, but it's one that differs across platforms, he said.
"The reason Facebook can do it is, the rest of the content that's there is so engaging that you don't mind one out of every 20 ads," he said. "If you have a newsfeed that's not so engaging, and you keep seeing ads, then it doesn't work."
Plus, the more ads in the stream, the less users will click on them, which can dampen ad prices, he added.
Facebook's seeming success on mobile devices contrasts with Google's more gradual improvement in that area. The No. 1 Internet search engine has gradually managed to narrow declines in its overall ad rates from the mobile effect, but last quarter they reversed and went down again, disappointing investors.
Google has avoided news stream ads entirely in its Google+ social network. Instead, its mix of mobile search ads, video ads and innovative formats such as "click-to-call" have delivered what RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney estimates is a $10 billion annualized run rate for its mobile business, about four times as much as Facebook.
But mobile has driven down the average cost of Google ads, and some industry watchers consider the transition a long-term threat to the search giant. But other analysts say recent changes to the way it sells ads to marketers, blurring the distinction between the mobile and PC, could help bolster rates.
"The advantage Facebook had is that it's monetization on desktop was pretty immature to begin with," says Mahaney.
Google, by contrast, "had a very mature, sophisticated monetization, and then along comes mobile."
(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Ken Wills)
Because Bill Nye explains the world better than even experiencing it yourself, here's our childhood maestro of science explaining how we could possibly stop an asteroid from destroying Earth. Giant bombs, huge rockets and even freaking lasers probably can't stop it. And even if they could stop it, we might not be able to build them. So, uh, yeah.
Cassini Saturn photo:?The images, from probes orbiting Mercury and Saturn, show Earth as a pale blue dot.
By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / July 23, 2013
In this image from July 19th, the wide-angle camera on NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured Saturn's rings and our planet Earth, plus its moon, in the same frame.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Enlarge
Earth, home to some seven billion people and at least some 9 million species, looks lonely. Or at least, it does seen at a distance of some 900 million miles.
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NASA has released color and black-and-white images taken from its Cassini and MESSENGER probes orbiting Saturn and Mercury. Those images show Earth as just a dot, lost in the solar system?s gaping emptiness.
In the photographs from the Cassini spacecraft, Earth is seen from about 900 million miles afield, a bright blue dot just under Saturn?s mammoth yellow-brown rings.?The moon appears like a small star, a humble white stipple in the surrounding darkness.?
And in the MESSENGER photos, Earth is pictured in a black-and-white image at a distance of about 61 million miles, from Mercury?s orbit. In that photo, Earth looks like a sparkling star ? a bulb of white light quietly announcing itself from space. Together, the Earth and the moon are less than a pixel in the photograph, but have been overexposed to bloom with light.
The Cassini photo, taken in mid-June, marked the first time that Earthlings were told in advance that a picture was going to be taken, ending a rude tradition of snapping candid shots of Earth. NASA scientists had asked us to turn out for picture day ? not that anyone really had a choice ? venturing out in streets and front laws with a smile and a wave for the far-flung camera.
Pictures of Earth from space are difficult to take, since scientists must wait to take the shot until a roster of factors align. For the Cassini probe to snap Earth, Saturn had to completely eclipse the sun, blocking out unwanted sunlight that could ruin Cassini's sensitive detectors. The photo also had to be taken when the orbits of Saturn, the Earth, and Cassini lined up perfectly to make dot-like Earth visible.
Still, those rare pictures of a small planet have loomed large in global consciousness. In 1990, Voyager 1 took from out past Neptune the "Pale Blue Dot" image of Earth. That image is considered the first space image to communicate the haplessness of Earth when viewed with some ? or a lot ? of perspective. There, all the planet?s continents and oceans and borders receded into blue. All its dramas and stories and memories faded into a dot. All its people disappeared.
And yet, all those invisible people had managed to send an object out to the furthest reaches of our solar system ? and how to take a photograph with it.
In several weeks, NASA will release a mosaic photo of Saturn's rings that is taking time to assemble.?
??????????? LAS VEGAS, Nev. ? The new-look Las Vegas NBA Summer League wrapped up Monday with four former Gonzaga University players hoping they impressed the right people to get invited to camp this fall.
??????????? Elias Harris and Robert Sacre were teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers squad, Micah Downs played for the Toronto Raptors and Josh Heytvelt was on the Cleveland Cavaliers roster.
??????????? Kelly Olynyk, the 13th overall pick of the June Draft by the Dallas Mavericks and traded to the Boston Celtics, played in the Orlando Summer League with the Celtics and was voted the outstanding rookie at the completion of both summer leagues. He averaged 18.0 ppg and 7.8 rpg. Downs also played in Orlando for the Indiana Pacers, averaging 6.5 ppg and 2.3 rpg.
??????????? The new look in Las Vegas had each of the 22 teams playing three games and were then seeded into a 22-team bracket to crown a champion. The Golden State Warriors downed the Phoenix Suns for the title Monday.
??????????? Harris, who started all five games for the Lakers as they went 3-2 overall and lost in the tournament quarterfinals to Golden State, averaged 10.2 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 0.6 assists and 1.2 steals while averaging 27.0 minutes/game. Harris scored 17 points against Golden State and 12 against the Los Angeles Clippers. He grabbed a high of 8 rebounds twice against Cleveland and Milwaukee.
??????????? Sacre, drafted a year ago by the Lakers and recently signed to a new contract, also started all five games while averaging 23.4 minutes/game. He averaged 8.6 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 0.8 blocks, 0.6 assists and 0.6 steals. He had highs of 16 points against Milwaukee and 10 rebounds against Golden State.
??????????? Cleveland went 3-2 and advanced to the quarterfinals with Heytvelt playing in all five games with one start. He averaged 14.0 minutes/game, 1.0 ppg and 2.2 rpg. He had highs of 3 points against Miami and 3 rebounds against both Miami and the Lakers.
??????????? Downs played in all five games for the Raptors as Toronto went 3-2 and lost in the quarterfinals to Phoenix. Downs averaged 24.0 minutes/game, 9.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg and 1.0 assists. He scored in double figures three times with 12 points against Denver and 11 against both Sacramento and San Antonio. He had a high of 6 rebounds against Phoenix.
NTU and Rolls-Royce in S$75 million tie-upPublic release date: 23-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lester Kok lesterkok@ntu.edu.sg 65-679-06804 Nanyang Technological University
Eight years after their first research partnership, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Rolls-Royce are taking their research alliance to greater heights with a new multi-million dollar collaboration.
The centrepiece is the Rolls-Royce@NTU Corporate Lab, which was launched today at a joint investment of S$75 million by NTU, Rolls-Royce and the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister's Office, Singapore.
This unique research tie-up will kick start 32 new projects over the next five years, tripling the existing number of projects between Rolls-Royce and NTU.
The Rolls-Royce@NTU Corporate Lab is the first of its kind in the world with a university, focusing on three core research areas Electrical Power and Control Systems, Manufacturing and Repair Technologies and Computational Engineering.
It is also the first lab to be supported under the National Research Foundation's newly launched Corp Lab @ University scheme.
Research in these fields are aimed at inventing more efficient and reliable energy delivery systems, developing innovative manufacturing technologies to complement more robust power systems, and extracting information from equipment and processes so that operators can make timely and informed business critical decisions.
NTU President Professor Bertil Andersson said this latest joint lab with Rolls-Royce is a milestone for NTU, although the two have been ramping up their alliance over the years since their first engagement in 2005.
"It is fantastic that NTU, the fastest-rising university in the world's top 50, is strengthening our partnership with Rolls-Royce, one of the world's leading power systems companies," says Prof Andersson.
"This lab will combine the strengths of both organisations NTU's cutting-edge research in engineering and science plus our world-class professors, students, and infrastructure, with the strong industrial capability of Rolls-Royce' leading engineering and services activities for civilian and military customers in over 80 countries."
The lab will work closely with the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) as well as the university's four engineering schools: the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering; the School of Materials Science and Engineering; the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; and the School of Computer Engineering.
"Rolls-Royce has a long and proud history of delivering engineering excellence and innovation to support our expanding global customer base especially in the Asia Pacific region's aerospace, marine and energy markets," said Professor Ric Parker, Director of Research and Technology, Rolls-Royce.
"We are deeply committed to supporting Singapore's innovation and education goals and extend the Group's world-class skills, technology and expertise to this unique initiative. NTU and Rolls-Royce share a common vision and awareness of the need to support research and development in fields closely aligned to Singapore's core strengths. The Rolls-Royce@NTU Corporate Lab is a practical step toward this goal, and we are very pleased to partner with the National Research Foundation and NTU in this exciting and unique opportunity."
As a testament to Singapore's reputation as a research and development hub in Asia, this new collaboration also aims to build Singapore's human capital in the aerospace and maritime sectors, in addition to offering new job opportunities in research.
The lab will have a team of more than 300 top-level talent comprising research staff and technical experts. This includes Rolls-Royce staff and NTU faculty, as well as the training of up to 70 researchers, 40 PhD and 25 Master's students, in addition to a number of NTU undergraduates.
NTU is no stranger to Rolls-Royce, having forged a close partnership with the leading global power systems company in the last 8 years, when research collaborations were initiated in the domains of power generation, power electronics and control systems.
In 2009, the Rolls-Royce Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) was set up at NTU, and which is now recognised as a key source of innovation within Rolls-Royce. The same year, NTU embarked on a five-year research partnership with Rolls-Royce to conduct research in the areas of manufacturing process technology and power electronics.
In September 2011, NTU launched the joint Master of Science degree programme in Project Management with the University of Manchester (UOM) along with Rolls-Royce, which aims at developing core competency skills in project management.
A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has 33,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science, and Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences. It has a new medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, set up jointly with Imperial College London.
NTU is also home to world-class autonomous institutes the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI), Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) and the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight (ACI).
A fast-growing university with an international outlook, NTU is putting its global stamp on Five Peaks of Excellence: Sustainable Earth, Future Healthcare, New Media, New Silk Road, and Innovation Asia.
Besides the main Yunnan Garden campus, NTU also has a satellite campus in Singapore's science and tech hub, one-north, and a third campus in Novena, Singapore's medical district.
For more information, visit http://www.ntu.edu.sg
About Corp Lab @ University
The Corp Lab @ University scheme was established by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister's Office, Singapore. The scheme supports Autonomous Universities (AUs) to partner companies on industry-relevant research. The aim is to foster greater public-private R&D collaboration so that AUs are better positioned to tackle industry challenges and translate academic research for the market. The scheme is expected to build up existing R&D capabilities within the AUs, generate new products and services, and increase exposure for researchers and scientists in Singapore towards industrial R&D.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
NTU and Rolls-Royce in S$75 million tie-upPublic release date: 23-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lester Kok lesterkok@ntu.edu.sg 65-679-06804 Nanyang Technological University
Eight years after their first research partnership, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Rolls-Royce are taking their research alliance to greater heights with a new multi-million dollar collaboration.
The centrepiece is the Rolls-Royce@NTU Corporate Lab, which was launched today at a joint investment of S$75 million by NTU, Rolls-Royce and the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister's Office, Singapore.
This unique research tie-up will kick start 32 new projects over the next five years, tripling the existing number of projects between Rolls-Royce and NTU.
The Rolls-Royce@NTU Corporate Lab is the first of its kind in the world with a university, focusing on three core research areas Electrical Power and Control Systems, Manufacturing and Repair Technologies and Computational Engineering.
It is also the first lab to be supported under the National Research Foundation's newly launched Corp Lab @ University scheme.
Research in these fields are aimed at inventing more efficient and reliable energy delivery systems, developing innovative manufacturing technologies to complement more robust power systems, and extracting information from equipment and processes so that operators can make timely and informed business critical decisions.
NTU President Professor Bertil Andersson said this latest joint lab with Rolls-Royce is a milestone for NTU, although the two have been ramping up their alliance over the years since their first engagement in 2005.
"It is fantastic that NTU, the fastest-rising university in the world's top 50, is strengthening our partnership with Rolls-Royce, one of the world's leading power systems companies," says Prof Andersson.
"This lab will combine the strengths of both organisations NTU's cutting-edge research in engineering and science plus our world-class professors, students, and infrastructure, with the strong industrial capability of Rolls-Royce' leading engineering and services activities for civilian and military customers in over 80 countries."
The lab will work closely with the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) as well as the university's four engineering schools: the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering; the School of Materials Science and Engineering; the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; and the School of Computer Engineering.
"Rolls-Royce has a long and proud history of delivering engineering excellence and innovation to support our expanding global customer base especially in the Asia Pacific region's aerospace, marine and energy markets," said Professor Ric Parker, Director of Research and Technology, Rolls-Royce.
"We are deeply committed to supporting Singapore's innovation and education goals and extend the Group's world-class skills, technology and expertise to this unique initiative. NTU and Rolls-Royce share a common vision and awareness of the need to support research and development in fields closely aligned to Singapore's core strengths. The Rolls-Royce@NTU Corporate Lab is a practical step toward this goal, and we are very pleased to partner with the National Research Foundation and NTU in this exciting and unique opportunity."
As a testament to Singapore's reputation as a research and development hub in Asia, this new collaboration also aims to build Singapore's human capital in the aerospace and maritime sectors, in addition to offering new job opportunities in research.
The lab will have a team of more than 300 top-level talent comprising research staff and technical experts. This includes Rolls-Royce staff and NTU faculty, as well as the training of up to 70 researchers, 40 PhD and 25 Master's students, in addition to a number of NTU undergraduates.
NTU is no stranger to Rolls-Royce, having forged a close partnership with the leading global power systems company in the last 8 years, when research collaborations were initiated in the domains of power generation, power electronics and control systems.
In 2009, the Rolls-Royce Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) was set up at NTU, and which is now recognised as a key source of innovation within Rolls-Royce. The same year, NTU embarked on a five-year research partnership with Rolls-Royce to conduct research in the areas of manufacturing process technology and power electronics.
In September 2011, NTU launched the joint Master of Science degree programme in Project Management with the University of Manchester (UOM) along with Rolls-Royce, which aims at developing core competency skills in project management.
A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has 33,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science, and Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences. It has a new medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, set up jointly with Imperial College London.
NTU is also home to world-class autonomous institutes the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI), Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) and the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight (ACI).
A fast-growing university with an international outlook, NTU is putting its global stamp on Five Peaks of Excellence: Sustainable Earth, Future Healthcare, New Media, New Silk Road, and Innovation Asia.
Besides the main Yunnan Garden campus, NTU also has a satellite campus in Singapore's science and tech hub, one-north, and a third campus in Novena, Singapore's medical district.
For more information, visit http://www.ntu.edu.sg
About Corp Lab @ University
The Corp Lab @ University scheme was established by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister's Office, Singapore. The scheme supports Autonomous Universities (AUs) to partner companies on industry-relevant research. The aim is to foster greater public-private R&D collaboration so that AUs are better positioned to tackle industry challenges and translate academic research for the market. The scheme is expected to build up existing R&D capabilities within the AUs, generate new products and services, and increase exposure for researchers and scientists in Singapore towards industrial R&D.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Richard saw Pacific Rim again -- shocker -- and this episode he gets Ben to contemplate a very rare visit to his local cinema to see it, period. As usual, we'll go over HD tech that's way over our budgets and wonder how others still don't live up to their potential. Still undeterred? This week's installment is ready for your ears below.
Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh (@bjdraw), Richard Lawler (@rjcc)
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Public release date: 23-Jul-2013
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