Zuckerberg: No Facebook Phone, Confirms Search Engine

Zuckerberg talks Facebook stock, the rumored smartphone, and the company's search engine efforts.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made an appearance at the TechCrunch Disrupt event in San Francisco, talking about the company's mobile strategy and vision. It was the first time he had made a public appearance since Facebook went into IPO mode back in May, acknowledging that the networking giant's public offering – which is now selling for around half the initial $38 price – isn't performing as hoped. "The performance of the stock has obviously been disappointing," Zuckerberg said. Investors have reportedly been concerned about the company's ability to increase revenue and make money from the social website's growing mobile audience. But Zuckerberg points out that Facebook has big opportunities in both mobile and search, and that the company's mobile approach has been one of its most "misunderstood" traits thus far. "I think it's easy for folks to underestimate how fundamentally good mobile is for us," Zuckerberg said in an on-stage interview, adding that more people have phones than PCs, and that they engage with the site more on their mobile devices, as much as six out of seven days a week. "We already see mobile users are more likely to be daily active users," he said. "We think we're going to make more money on mobile than on the desktop." So does that mean Facebook may produce its own smartphone? Absolutely not. "It's so clearly the wrong strategy for us," he said. "We're going in the opposite direction [from companies that are building their own phones, such as Google and Apple]. We want to build a system that's as deeply integrated as possible into every device people use." During the interview, Zuckerberg also touched on rumors that the social website was building its own search engine. He said that Facebook is currently doing 1 billion queries a day – mostly people searches, but also searches for company brand pages and applications -- "and we’re not even trying." He said the company is in the perfect position to get serious about a search engine, and in fact there's a team already working on it.

"I think Facebook is uniquely positioned to answer a lot of queries people have," he said. "Like, 'What sushi restaurants have my friends gone to in New York in the last six months and liked? I know there's a big opportunity there and we just need to go and do that." People want answers to their queries, not a pile of results to sift through, he added. "Search engines are really evolving to give you a set of answers, ‘I have a specific question, answer this question for me,'" he said. What Facebook has that Google doesn't – and likely never will – is all the data provided by Facebook users. This is why Google has integrated Google+ into its search algorithms to produce more personal results. Google Now is an attempt to get even more personal, pulling from the user's Calendar, location and other details to offer a more personal pool of results. Zuckerberg also talked about some of the "missteps" Facebook has taken over the years, including jumping on the HTML5 bandwagon rather than focusing on native apps. He made it perfectly clear that Facebook remains optimistic about the web-based platform, but taking that route has caused the company's mobile strategy to suffer. "But we're coming out of that," the said. "The [new] iOS app is out and the [new] Android will be out soon."

iPhone 5: when will you get it?

The new iPhone 5 has been launched, but that's only half the story - you want to know when and where you can get your iPaws all over the handset. Well, the iPhone 5 launch date has been set for September 21, and pre-ordering begins on September 14. We've spoken to all the networks to find out which will be stocking the new iPhone, and if it will feature any fancy new features we may not have seen.

Vodafone

Surprise, surprise Vodafone will be stocking the iPhone 5 in all its capacity (16GB, 32GB, 64GB) and colour (black and white) options - shocker we know - and interestingly the big red has it available on 12 and 24 month pay monthly plans. In terms of 24 month contracts, its "flagship" (and most expensive) tariff is the £47 per month Red Data plan, giving you a free 16GB iPhone 5, unlimited calls and texts, plus 2GB of internet, which Vodafone has confirmed will cover you for Facetime over 3G. You can pay as little as £33 per month over two years, but that will only get you 600 minutes, unlimited texts and a paltry 500MB of data, plus you'll need to shell out £149 for the 16GB iPhone 5. There's also a 24 month plan for £25 per month, but this doesn't include Facetime over 3G in the 100MB of internet you get, plus you will need to fork out big money for the handset. Opt for a 12 month plan and you'll be paying an eye-wateringly high price for your shorter contract, with Vodafone demanding as much as £349 if you plump for the 16GB iPhone at £36 per month.

O2

O2 seems to have been a little slow of the mark with its iPhone 5 pre-order page, showing off the tariffs it has available, all of which offer unlimited texts and calls plus 1GB of data, but at varying prices. As the allowance is the same at each price band, which starts at £26 per month and raises all the way to £63, we expect some heavily subsidised iPhones to go with them, however O2 is yet to release its handset prices. Update: TechRadar has spoken to O2, who said it is just making sure everything is correct before it puts the pre-order page life. We should know the full details soon. O2 will also be offering the new iPhone 5 on its Pay & Go Go Go plan with 75 minutes, 500 texts and 100MB of data: £10 a month, then every 3 months your tariff gets better and better. After 3 months everything doubles, except the price. And after 9 months you get unlimited texts. Once again O2 has failed to provide us with handset prices for its PAYG deal – so watch this space. "We're celebrating the fifth year of working with Apple in style," said Ronan Dunne, Chief Executive of O2 in the UK. "We're looking forward to bringing the new iPhone 5 to everyone very soon, whether they're already on O2 or not."

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The iPhone Evolution – iPhone 5 is here

The new iPhone is here and once again we prepared a chart to show you how much it’s better than its predecessors. You’ve heard it will come with a bigger screen, improved positioning (with inclusion of Glonass), better front-facing camera, support for LTE connectivity and a brand new A6 processor. And while we don’t have A6′s GHz count, we’re pretty confident Apple will make sure everything works as smoothly as possible.

But I said it enough. Here’s the new chart – and, if you need a bigger version, you can get it from here.

IBM z Processors Climb to 5.5 GHz

The core of IBM's venerable mainframe architecture, the z196 chip, is currently shipping as a 5.2 GHz quad-core processor. The next product generation will apparently climb to 5.5 GHz, according to a report published earlier this month by the Wall Street Journal.
There was no clock speed information on the next Power chip, currently called Power7+. Power7 runs at up to 4.14 GHz today and IBM says that the next generation will be 10 to 20 percent faster and it is more than likely that a slight upward adjustment of the clock speed will arrive as well.
IBM's zEnterprise servers have a starting configuration price point of about $75,000 for the z114 (up to 14 processors at 3.8 GHz) and scale into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for z196 systems with 24 processors/96 cores. A single 5.2 GHz quad-core z196 processor, called central processing complex (CPC) is rated at a power consumption of about 300 watts.
In comparison, a 4.14 GHz Power7 chip is rated at 190 watts thermal design power.

DRAM Prices Continue to Decline

MarketWatch reported that DRAM prices have just hit a new five-month low. According to DRAMeXchange, a 4GB DDR3 chip module sold for $18.75 last week and may drop to $18 this week.

Typically, there is a seasonal uptick in DRAM pricing in the September time frame due to increased demand from PC makers that are preparing for the Christmas season. However, there appears to be little to no increased demand, which could be caused by high inventory levels.

While there was no information how much inventory there is, there are implications that Windows 8 has not jumpstarted PC manufacturing enough to stimulate DRAM demand. At this time, DRAM prices are still falling and customers looking to upgrade the memory in their PCs may get even better deals toward the end of the year.

Samsung Said to Be Prepping Android 4.0 Galaxy S Camera

Samsung has had a rough couple of days but it seems the company isn't going to let last week's billion dollar ruling in Apple's favor mess with its plans for IFA. Rumor has it the company is preparing to announce a brand new Galaxy device and, despite the company's tendency to double up on product lines (we can't be the only ones puzzled by the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Note 10.1) this is unlike anything the company has released before.

GSMArena reports that Samsung is working on a Galaxy S III-based point-and-shoot camera. Dubbed the Samsung Galaxy S Camera, the device features a 4.8-inch SuperAMOLED screen and is based on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. GSMArena says this information comes from a tipster that has proven reliable on previous occasions. It's described as a Galaxy S III glued to the back of a point-and-shoot with the resulting device measuring roughly one and a half or two times as thick as the GSIII.

Set for an IFA unveiling, GSMArena's source says the camera will pack both WiFi and 3G connectivity, as well as a 16-megapixel sensor and a 10x zoom. Other than this, details were a bit scarce, but with IFA kicking off later this week, we're hoping to learn more soon. Samsung is scheduled to debut the Galaxy Note 2 at its Unpacked event tomorrow, and the Galaxy S Camera is apparently going to be shown alongside the 5.5-inch phone/tablet.

Apple Wins $1 Billion Patent Damages From Samsung In US Court

Apple wins big – but Samsung will appeal

Samsung products found to have violated Apple patents included the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets and such smartphone models as the Captivate, the Galaxy S line, the Fascinate and the Epic 4 G. In the case of most patents, the jury ruled that Samsung’s infringement of them was “willful.” If the jury verdict is upheld after the inevitable appeals, the $1.05 billion damages award has the potential to take a significant bite out of Samsung’s cash reserves, which totaled $23.8 billion (£15bn) according to its second quarter earnings report released on July 27. The verdict was handed down by a jury in US District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose after a three-week trial and three days of deliberations. Neither Samsung or Apple representatives spoke to reporters after the verdict, but Samsung issued a statement. “Today’s verdict should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer. It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices,” Samsung’s statement said. “It is unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners, or technology that is being improved every day by Samsung and other companies.” The statement also asserted that “this is not the final word in this case,” while not specifically stating whether Samsung plans to appeal these verdicts. However, Samsung noted that some of the rulings and appeals other Apple patent lawsuits in the US and in courts overseas have actually gone against Apple.Only this week, a South Korean court penalised both companies. Apple sued Samsung over multiple infringements of its patents on the iPhone smartphone and the iPad tablet computer, seeking at least $2.5 billion in damages.

But during the trial, Samsung made counterclaims that Apple infringed on some of its patents and also tried to invalidate some Apple patents by arguing that they were based on “prior art,” meaning that the innovations Apple believed were unique were already on the market. Apple, on the other hand, presented evidence that it claimed showed Samsung was obviously copying its design for the iPhone. Its lawyers produced several Samsung smartphones released before the iPhone came out in 2007 that were of various shapes and sizes, but that after the iPhone came out, new Samsung smartphones began looking more like the iPhone. Apple also introduced a 132-page internal Samsung document itemising multiple features of the iPhone and noting how Samsung models in development at the time fell short of the design of the iPhone. After the verdict was read, US District Judge Lucy Koh asked the jury to reconsider apparent inconsistencies in two of the verdicts where the jury found that Samsung had not infringed on an Apple patent, but awarded damages anyway. The jury reduced the damages in those two verdicts to zero. The change reduced the final damages award to $1,049,343,540. The Apple vs. Samsung case has been closely watched by many in the Silicon Valley technology community because of its implications for competition in the multi-billion dollar mobile device market. Samsung and Apple are the first and second best selling smartphone vendors in the market, respectively, according to figures from the research firm IDC. In the second quarter of 2012, Samsung smartphone sales jumped by 173 percent over the second quarter of 2011 to 50.2 million units. Apple’s sales grew by 27.5 percent to 26 million units. The next two vendors on the list, Nokia and HTC, both suffered double-digit sales declines as customers gravitated to the top-selling Samsung and Apple devices. Apple, however, holds a substantial lead in the sale of tablets according to a report from IHS. In the fourth quarter, Apple held a 62 percent share of the global tablet market, with Samsung’s Galaxy Tab line a distant second at 6.4 percent.