Category Archives: IT news

J.D. Power Consumer Satisfaction Rating report: Apple Watch wins against Samsung Gear

The global authorized consumer research institute J.D. Power released a latest report of Consumer Satisfaction Rating concerning wearable device on Tuesday. Apple Watch ranked top 1 with 852 scores which becomes the most Consumer satisfying wearable device. Samsung Gear ranked second.

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It is said that the wearable Consumer Satisfaction Rating report aimed at the research of 2,696 consumers who purchased wearable device from June, 2015 to June, 2016. The Standard for Evaluation involved in usability, battery life, comfort level, mobile connection performance,price, durability, size of screen, appearance design, reliability, applied ecosystem and consumer service.

J.D. Power set 1,000 scores as total rating points. Apple Watch took the crown with 852 scores, followed with Samsung 842 and Sony 840.

J.D. Power pointed out Apple Watch is doing beter than other wearable devices in comfort level, appearance design and usability. While Samsung Gear has advantages in consumer service, size of screen and mobile connection performance.

19% of interviewees claimed that they encountered problems when using wearable devices. The most common issues focus on charging problem and user personal setting.

In terms of fitness wearable device, Samsung got 859 scores, ranking on the top, and Garmin got 836 scores, ranking second.

It is worth noting that Pebble did not list in the research by J.D. Power. Besides J.D.Power, Wristly also did the similar researches on wearable devices. The research result of consumer satisfaction rating made by Wristly was 97%, which quoted by Tim Cook at Apple new release conference.

Microsoft updates Xbox Play Anywhere feature

Microsoft will update Play Anywhere feature for its game players. The players will be able to obtain games for both Xbox One and Windows 10 version at the same time. Microsoft confirmed that this new feature will be debuted on September 13.
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At the E3 gaming exhibition which was held last month, Microsoft introduced the Play Anywhere feature to its fans. Play Anywhere could realize sync games progress and achievement among cross-platforms. In addition, the DLC, props and season tickets users bought for games could be available for Play Anywhere as well.

The new feature requires players run Windows 10 update on their PC. Microsoft will release a Windows 10 update on August 2. While Xbox One is to install the summer update. Play Anywhere only supports digital games.

Though Microsoft listed the games whichare compatible with Play Anywhere, it did not mention when this service is released. It just confirmed that update date.

“In this summer, we will do the annual update for Windows 10 system and related updates for Xbox in order that Windows Store and Xbox One support Xbox Play Anywhere games,” said a Microsoft spokesman.

If users purchase the digital games which are compatible with Xbox Play Anywhere feature, they could play the games both on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC at the same time. The game progress and achievement are the same and able to be shared.

As is reported that Microsoft attempted to acquire Docker at $ 4 billion

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DockerCon 2016 was held in Seattle last week. It was rumored that Microsoft had been attempting to acquire this 250-employee startup at $ 4 billion.

According to the confirmed sources, this acquisition failed as they couldnot come to an agreement concerning the price. One of the source claimed this rumor was a hot topic among starups and venture companies.

The potential deal destified Docker becomes the leader of popular vessel technology among startups. The mainsteam giants also pay more attention to this field. It attracted Microsoft who wished to acquired such technology. Microsoft also plan to introduce more vessel features for its Azure cloud platform.

Microsoft was one of the major sponsors of DockerCon 2016. At the DockerCon 2016, Docker released a pubic beta trial for Dockers for Windows.

With the reports of Microsoft acquired LinkedIn at $26.2 billion, Microsoft made it clear that it seeks for development by acquisition. Before it makes next move for acquisitions, Docker was taken into consideration. Besides, Microsoft will hold $ 100 billion cash by the end of this year.

Docker spokesman claimed that the company will make no comment on this news. Neither did Microsoft.

Microsoft showed its great interest in Docker and its vessel technology at DockerCon 2016. The fact that Docker becomes one of the most popular tech startups. It only has three years history and 250 employees.

Ben Golub, CEO of Docker, suggested its market value be equal to Vmware’s at DockerCon press conference. The latter is valued at $24 billion and its annual revenue reaches nearly $ 7 billion.

Docker is considered as a tactic among Microsoft’s plan. In the field of cloud service, Azure needs to avail of some technology to compete with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. The latters have their own vessel technologies, Google Kubernetes and Amazon EC2.

In terms of operating system, Microsoft plans to import Docker technology to Windows Server platform in order to compete with Linux.

 

Blackberry sold half of million mobiles in Q1, leading to $ 670 million net deficiency

Blackberry firm released the Q1 2016 fiscal earnings report on Thursday, whose revenue was $ 424 million by post-adjustment. The revenue was under expectation of analysts made. Its net deficiency was $ 670 million, while the net profit was $ 68 million at the same period last year.

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Blackberry predicted the whole 2016 fiscal year would lose $0.15 per share by post-adjustment. Its share price once increased by 4.6% owing to this prediction.

At present, Blackberry have its business core converted to software from smartphone. In the first quarter, its revenue increase was promoted by software business. The software revenue in Q1 was $ 166 million, increased by 21% YoY.

John Chen, who acts as CEO of Blackberry, stated their business was efficient at analysts conference call meeting. The fact that Blackberry has made itself a software designing company.
John Chen told its investors, the primary mission of Blackberry 2016 is to make sure the equipment business makes profit. Blackberry will make a great decision concerning the equipment business development in this September. But Edward Snyder, analyst of Charter Equity Research, assumed Blackberry won’t look for buyers for its smartphone business.

In the first quarter, Blackberry sold half of million smartphones with an average price of $290 per set. John Chen revealed that it will debut two modes of low-end Android smartphones this July.

TestFlight updates: compatible with all Apple OS application testing

Apple just updated its application testing application TestFlight. Its update platform support all released new systems include iOS 10, watchOS 3 and tvOS 10. In the meantime, Apple just released new optimization and analysis tool for App Store which developers could download from iTunes Connect.

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According to the statement posted on developer website, TestFlight is compatible with iOS 10, watchOS 3, tvOS 10 and so on. The updated TestFlight also support some new features such as SiriKit and tvOS notifications.

Apple reminded developers to notice that all testing package of iOS 10 includes a 3D Touch Quick Action feature. This feature allows testers visit the application feedback system on homepage which simplifies its mechanism.

If auto update feature is open, the resting version installed through TestFlight might be replaced by old verion locates in App Store. The firm will solve this problem till next update.

In terms of iTunes Connect, Apple added a new analysis tool to test the impressions of App Store. Developers can find their appliation icons displayed in Apple Store search result, Feature page, Top Charts list and how many visitors its website received. This tool can calculate the percent conversion anywhere in App Store.

Apple claimed that iMessage App feedback is yet to be supported by iTunes Connect. From now on, developers and testers could download TestFlight from App Store.

Cortana is compatible with Xbox One to compete with Apple Siri

Apple Siri had been introduced to Apple TV platform in last autumn. Then Microsoft will introduce its Cortana voice control feature to Xbox One this summer. They are aiming at obtain more market share in TV filed.

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So far, the voice control feature on Xbox One platform is still rigid. Users can only use the fixed voice command to control Xbox One. This situation will be changed soon. Cortana will provide Xbox One a natural conversational voice control feature.

While Apple introduced the similar feature to its Siri. Since the release of Apple TV 4 and Siri Remote service, it realized the conversational voice control through Siri. The latest Apple TV allows users to download all kinds of applications and services as Xbox One does. Then users use the mature game control features to play games.

The biggest difference between Apple TV and traditional Xbox one is the price. Apple TV is sold at least at $149, while Xbox One is sold at $ 299.

Microsoft announced at its official website on Monday that game consoles and media players will be added with the compatibility of Cortana. It will release the preview products in America, UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain in succession. Its final update will be released by this summer.
Ironically, the name of Cortana is originated from Halo, however, Xbox One is the last product to support Cortana platform.

With the connection of Kinect, Xbox One will be in the listening status which means the the support of Cortana is automatically. On the contrast, Apple TV only receives users voice commands while they press Siri key.

It is said that Apple is updating Apple TV which is possibly equipped with its own Microphone and louder-speaker.

Snapchat daily active users reached 150 million, exceeding in Twitter’s

It is reported that Snapchat’s daily active users have reached 150 million which means this app exceeds in Twitter concerning the daily active users.

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The popularity of Snapchat contributed to younger user’s promotion. Snapchat has been welcomed by younger users since its release. Its daily active users was 110 million in last December and increased to 150 million now.

In compared with Twitter which was established in 2006, its daily active users is under 140 million in accordance with Bloomberg’s data. Twitter as once the second giant after Facebook among the social networking app. It encountered difficulties for inadequate growth for new users. It has been exceeded by Instagram, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

Quoted from the data of Twitter’s earnings report, it has 310 million monthly active users, however, it did not reveal its daily active users. Twitter claimed in last Q3 about 44% of monthly active users visit its website among the top 20 networking providers.

Twitter CFO Anthony Noto stated then the visiting portion kept stable. If this figure changes some day, it would release the related news.

Snaptchat allows users send selfies and video films which makes the communications more interesting. It also allows people to change profile pictures with FaceSwift software.

Jack Dorsey stressed at Recode on Wednesday that Snapchat’s news service is modern. He admitted that Twitter is struggling to solve the mess and lost some users. He claimed that the company is seeking ways to settle this issue.

Facebook Messenger plans to add encryption option for communications

To protect privacy, many tech companies encrypt data for their products. The Guardian reported that Facebook Messenger is soon to be encrypted for the chatting messages.

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Mobile chatting app is the most popular applications for smartphones. Facebook has already dominated the global mobile chatting market. WhatsApp obtained more than 1 billion users and it has been encrypted to protect the communications.

Its another popular chatting app Messenger also obtained 900 million users. The difference between WhatsApp and Messenger is that Messenger was launched by Facebook. Facebook announced to introduce chatting robot on Messenger at the developer conference. It will allow users to book tickets or shopping by chatting.

As The Guardian reported, Facebook will encrypt Messenger end-to-end communications. The difference from WhatsApp encryption is that the encryption is optional to Messenger instead of by default.

The optional encryption is the practice for some apps, however, its security level is lower than the encryption by default.

The encryption mode that Messenger applies is similar to Google Allo which was released at Google I/O 2016.

Facebook did not confirm this news yet. If the apps apply the end-and-end encryption mode, the service providers such as Google and Facebook won’t be able to access the communication content. Even the police or agency require to the communication content, the service providers could refuse as the content has been encrypted.

Pebble released two new smart watches with heart rate check

Pebble made crow-funding for its smart watch at Kickstarter three years ago. Now it released its latest Pebble 2. Pebble 2 has better body sign and is upgraded with heart rate check. It also introduced Pebble Time 2 as well as with heart rate check sensor. Pebble claimed that all its smart watches will be upgraded with heart rate check feature in the future.

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Pebble considers health tracking has become an important element as well as notification and basic communication for smart watch. It realized that it has to keep innovation to compete with the giants.

Pebble 2 is thinner than its last generation. It applied the black and white display. Besides the optical heart rate check sensor, Pebble 2 is equipped with microphone.

While Pebble Time 2 combined the features of Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel. It is made of stainless steel material. It is waterproof as well.

The battery life is an important feature for Pebble smart watch. It is said that Pebble 2 can keep working for one week while Pebble Time 2 can keep running for 10 days.

Pebble 2 and Pebble Time 2 are available on Kickstarter. Pebble 2 charges $99 which is supposed to be delivered in September. Pebble Time 2 charges $ 169 and will be delivered in November.

Even though Pebble updated the heart rate sensor for its new releases, there are already similar smart watches on the market. It might not help a lot for Pebble to gain more user share.

Pebble CEO & Co-founder Eric Migicovsky claimed the firm has already sold 1.8 million Pebble smart watches. This figure is just a small portion compared with Apple Watch, Fitbit wearable devices.

StatCounter report: usage share of Edge is far behind Chrome’s

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Microsoft introduced Edge browser when it released Windows 10. It hoped to compete with Chrome and Firefox in browser industry with Edge. The current statistics showed that the usage share of Edge keeps increasing. However, many of the users abandoned IE and switched to Edge.

StatCounter statistics in the past three months indicated that the usage share of IE and Edge declined. This contributed to the usage share of Firefox ranked in second in the current browser market. The first went to Chrome.

Judged by the statistics given by StatCounter, the usage share of IE and Edge declined from 16.6% in Feb to 15.5 % in April. The usage share of Firefox is ahead of IE and Edge in spite of it suffered decline a bit in the past three months.

Google Chrome made positive performance. Its usage share was 59% in February and increased to 60.5% in April. That’s, there is more than one pc using Chrome browser in every two computers. There are wide gaps compared with Firefox and Edge.

Edge was given great expectation to obtain more usage share for Microsoft. Microsoft will make great update for Edge this summer when Windows 10 arrives its first anniversary. Edge may have chance to compete with Chrome as the new update will support plug-in extensions.

Firefox usage share also faces much pressure. Firefox was beaten by Chrome regardless of its popularity in software community.