Bruno Mars dodges jail with guilty plea on felony drug case

18 February 2011 12:23 AM

Grammy winner Bruno Mars has pleaded guilty to his felony cocaine possession case in a Las Vegas courtroom Wednesday. The 25-year-old “Just the Way You Are” singer dodged jail in exchange for 200 hours of community service and a year of probation.

Mars – real name Peter Gene Hernandez – was arrested in the Sin City in September after he was seen with a 2.6-gram bag of cocaine.

His legal team managed to work out a plea deal, though. Instead of jail, he was ordered to be placed on probation for a year, undergo drug counseling, and complete 200 hours of community service, as well as pay a $2,000 fine.

Because he is a first-time offender, the felony charge will be wiped clean from his record if he stays out of trouble for the next twelve months. If he misbehaves, he could face prison time.

Mars has just won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for his single “Just the Way You Are” at the Grammys on Sunday.

Source: CNS

Apple unveils subscription service in App Store

15 February 2011 11:22 PM

Apple launched a subscription service at the App Store for magazines, newspapers, videos, and music bought through its App Store.

In a move that goes a long way to addressing concerns of many in the magazine and newspaper sectors, Apple said today that publishers will be allowed to set the price and the length of the subscription term. The processing of payments will be Apple’s job and handled within the App Store. Apple will collect 30 percent of the revenue.

“Our philosophy is simple,” Steve Jobs wrote in a statement. “When Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share. When the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing.”

“All we require,” Jobs continued, “is that if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app.”

The Apple iPad has proven to be a popular media-consumption device and magazine and newspaper executives are typically excited about the tablet’s appeal as an e-reader. But to get their content on the iPad, some in the newspaper and magazine sectors are dissatisfied with the money Apple once offered–a 30 percent cut forever. They were also unhappy with the amount of control Apple would exercise over subscriptions and user data.

But this latest offer from Apple Inc is more publisher friendly, said Chuck McCullagh, a former senior vice president with the Magazine Publishers Association of America.

“Apple should become a significant channel and this might reduce pain [for publishers],” McCullagh told CNET. “If Apple brings a customer to app it gets 30 percent. When publisher brings new or existing subscriber, Apple gets nothing. That is an advance.”

But McCullagh, who is now a consultant and advises magazines on their digital strategies, also still sees some sticking points. Apple’s requirement that publishers must offer the same subscription for the app as it does out of it, could “bump into the common publisher practice of selling subscriptions at different prices across [distribution] channel’s,” McCullagh said. Some of those channels include the publisher’s Web site, direct mail and newsstands.

Apple said this is the same digital-subscription billing service that the company recently launched with The Daily app, created by News Corp. for the Apple iPad, In that case as with the latest announcement, Apple is giving subscribers the option to provide personal information, such as name and e-mail address, to publishers. This won’t meet the needs of the publishers, McCullagh said, adding that publishers don’t want third parties overseeing their relationship with readers.

Apple said that the relationship between the publisher and the App Store isn’t exclusive. Publishers can sell subscriptions on their own site or offer free access to existing customers, Subscriptions can be weekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, biannual, or annual.

Publishers must provide their own authentication process within the app for subscribers who have signed up for service outside the App Store, according to Apple.

Chuck McCullagh is the father of CNET.com reporter Declan McCullagh.

Rumour: Apple to expand iPhone 5 screen to 4 inches?

15 February 2011 3:27 PM

Will the iPhone 5 feature a larger 4-inch screen?

Following persistent rumours of plans for a smaller, cheaper Apple iPhone nano, the latest Apple rumour this week is that the Cupertino-based tech giant is planning to release an iPhone 5 with a larger, 4-inch screen.

Details of Apple’s next gen model reportedly leaked from component suppliers via Digitimes suggesting that Apple will release a larger-screened iPhone in order to compete with the growing threat from Android in the 4-to-7-inch smartphone market, such as Samsung’s’ Galaxy S and Google’s Nexus S.

“We need a bigger screen”

That’s according to component suppliers, who told DigiTimes that the production lines for Apple’s next gen iPhone have begun testing.

“The component suppliers noted that the production lines for Apple’s next generation iPhone have begun testing, and Apple is interesting (sic) in expanding the screen size to 4-inches to support the tablet PC market as the vendor only has a 9.7-inch iPad in the market.” – Digitimes anonymous source.

“What is worth noticing is that Dell has re-defined the market position of the Dell Streak 5 – which was originally focused on the tablet PC market – as a super phone. The Dell Streak 5 uses a 5-inch panel which stands in the gray area between tablet PC and handset segments and indicates there is an overlap in the market for 4- to 7-inch panels.
iPhone 4 currently features a 3.5-inch widescreen touch-controlled ‘Retina’ display, with Apple reportedly looking to increase the size of the screen by 0.5 inches to compete with the numerous other 4-inch touchscreen phones on the market.

Via Digitimes.

ComScore: Android Passes iOS For Overall U.S. Smartphone Subscribers

8 February 2011 12:43 AM

ComScore’s monthly smartphone data is in and it looks like for the first time Android OS has surpassed Apple’s iOS in terms of U.S. smartphone subscriber share. The data, which measured smartphone usage from September until December of 2010, showed that 63.2 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during period, up 7.3 percent from the preceding three month period.

RIM once again led with 31.6 percent market share of smartphones, and Google’s Android OS maintained the #2 position with 28.7 percent, which is up 7.3 percentage points versus September. Apple accounted for 25 percent of smartphone subscribers (up 0.7 percentage points), followed by Microsoft with 8.4 percent and Palm with 3.7 percent.

In terms of total mobile device usage, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices during the period. Samsung ranked as the top device manufactuerer with 24.8 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up 1.3 percentage points from the three month period ending in September. LG ranked second with 20.9 percent share, followed by Motorola (16.7 percent), RIM (8.5 percent) and Nokia (7.0 percent).

comScore also examines mobile content usage on phones; reporting that in December, 68 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up only 1 percent from the previous three month period, while browsers were used by 36.4 percent of subscribers (up 1.3 percent). Interaction on mobile devices was up as a whole, with subscribers who used downloaded applications comprising 34.4 percent of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 1.3 percent. And 24.7 of U.S. subscriber accessed social networking sites or blogs via their phones, which is an increase of 1.5 percent. Playing games attracted 23.2 percent of the mobile audience, while listening to music attracted 15.7 percent of subscribers.

While this data indicates reach vs. number of units sold or sales, Android has continued to grow strongly over the past year.

CrunchBase Information
comScore
Information provided by CrunchBase

PSP2: Sony NGP hands-on (Sony NGP)

28 January 2011 12:15 AM

With Sony’s unveiling of the new NGP (Next Generation Portable) console, the battle for dominance in the handheld market is about to heat up. Tom Hoggins reports from Tokyo.

NPG meets NGP: With their Next Generation Portable Sony have redrawn the battlelines in the handheld console war.

Sony’s NGP will cost somewhere between “affordable” and $599, according to PlayStation execs. The latest SCE honcho to comment on the handheld’s potential price point is Shu Yoshida, president of worldwide studios.

“From the very beginning of the project – since 2008 – pricing was one of the considerations that we had,” he told Game Informer.”

“Hopefully when we announce the price, people will see the proper value,” he added. “It’s not going to be $599.”

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter told us earlier today that he believes PSP2 could sell for $250/£200, while Lazard Capital Markets’ Colin Sebastian is anticipating a $299 “or higher” price point.

* Price (approximately)
– $250/£250 or maybe around the £279 area.

* Release (approximately)
– 1-4 months before Christmas ’11 (a long way to go!)

* Battery life (approximately) – more below (bottom)
– 4-6 hrs

* CPU
– ARM CortexTM-A9 core (4 core)

* GPU
– SGX543MP4+

* External Dimensions
– Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)

* Screen
– 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED

* Touch screen
-Multi-touch screen (capacitive type)
-Rear touch pad
– Multi-touch pad (capacitive type)

* Cameras
– Front camera, Rear camera

* Sound
– Built-in stereo speakers
– Built-in microphone

* Sensors
– Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass

* Location
– Built-in GPS
– Wi-Fi location service support

* Keys / Switches
– PS button
– Power button
– Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left)

* Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square)
– Shoulder buttons (Right/Left)
– Right stick, Left stick
– START button, SELECT button
– Volume buttons (+/-)

* Wireless communications
– Mobile network connectivity (3G)

** IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)

* Bluetooth
– 2.1+EDR ?A2DP/AVRCP/HSP?

Sony officially announced the device first thing this morning, confirming that it has two touch-screens on the front and back of the device, two thumbsticks and a five inch OLED screen.

NGP (or PSP2) will have a battery life of between four and six hours, if Sony hits its target. SCE Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Kotaku that the new portable’s battery life target is the same as that of the existing PSP-3000 model. If achieved, it’ll also be comparable to the battery life of Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS, which has been pegged at three to five hours.

Sony officially announced NGP during a special PlayStation event in Tokyo this morning.

Photos;

Photos by ComputerAndVideoGames.

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