"tablets" articles

By Jim O'Neill, Research Analyst Operators looking to cash in on delivering video to multiple screens have been talking about HEVC (high efficiency video coding) for a long time. Developers say the new video coding standard — H.265 — would reduce bit rate requirements of the current standard, H.264, by half, and deliver the same quality video. At the Cable Show in Boston this year, Motorola, which has been a participant in HEVC’s development,  talked about its plans...

Zynga 's stocks are taking a beating since releasing its earnings a couple of days ago. Facebook shares plunged to new lows today. Do these events mean that more trouble is on the way for the social gaming industry? We are still optimistic about the long-term evolution of the industry: - Facebook's growth may have slowed down but the social network is now close to 1 billion monthly active users (up 29% year over year). - New consumer segments continue to be attracted to social...

The Kindle Fire uses the same in-pane switching as the iPad, a 1024x600, which is a large enough screen for most home automations system. The device is heavy for its size at 14.6oz, and having dual-core CPUs clocked at 1GHz, the CPU is speedy enough for most applications. Most home automation plug-ins store very little content locally, so 8GB of storage is more than adequate and support for all current Wi-Fi standards means it’ll connect to virtually anything. The default Android project...

Amazon made two important game-related announcements this week. The online retailer launched its free-to-play game store, which includes big titles like World of Tanks and Battlestar Galactica . Amazon customers can now buy virtual items for these games from their Amazon accounts, once these are linked to each game. This move adds even more content to the retailer's virtual shelves, underlining the increasing relevance of digital distribution of entertainment. Amazon also...

Innovations in wireless technology have made mobile Internet capabilities common and popular features on numerous portable consumer devices, including laptops, smartphones, tablets, netbooks, and e-book readers. Data usage has increased dramatically as a result of more devices and consumer use of bandwidth-intensive services and applications. Allot Communications, a provider of network optimization solutions to global mobile operators, reported global mobile data bandwidth usage soared...

LG announced that it has begun mass production of the world's first flexible e-ink display. The technology, known as electronic paper display (EPD), will enable e-reader manufacturers to produce thinner devices. This device features a 6-inch panel that promises to "revolutionize the e-book market". It has a resolution of 1024 x 768 and can be bent up to 40-degrees without breaking.The South Korean company says its plastic display survives repeated 1.5-meter drop tests as well as...

In the U.S., 135 million people play at least one hour of games per month (compared to 56 million in 2008). Most of the new gamers belong to more casual segments and have been attracted to the gaming world by smartphones, tablets, and social and free-to-play games.  New devices and monetization models have made it easier for more people from diverse segments to try and play games. Gaming on tablets is particularly popular among owners of these devices. 2012 will be a...

Global smartphone shipments exceeded 460 million units in 2011 and will reach 1.3 billion units in 2016. Smartphones drive mobile data adoption, putting more pressure on mobile operators' network capacity management and data plan pricing models. Smartphone user growth translates into skyrocketing mobile data usage, which will test network capacity as well as pricing power of the operators. Operators have several solutions to manage this data traffic: 1. Intelligent network policy...