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-Beck Goodloe

Apple's Uncrowning

As of today, Samsung has overtaken Apple in the “Smart Phone” market. As of third quarter statistics, Samsung controls 23.8% of the global “Smart Phone” market, whereas Apple only controls 14.6%. The ascent has not been subtle though. Samsung has been slowly closing the distance between themselves and Apple after they put out the first Google Android and Galaxy series phones. I do not see this as a surprise though. While many still love the iPhone, it was not until recently that they allowed other networks to service their phones, and that was where Samsung had an advantage. To give you a mental picture, the price of a Samsung stock has tripled since the release of the Android phones, and that number is continually rising.

            We have to remember though that these third quarter stats do not encompass the possible breakout of the iPhone 4S and 5. While it is highly unlikely that Apple will return to power any time soon, anticipation is rising for the later models and open networking.

            When we look at the big picture, we see a tremendous growth in the number of smart phone users around the world (44% or 117 million units). When we put this together with the growing number of Android phones, we see that it is very possible that the number of new phone owners around the world is boosting Samsung’s numbers. Why would a new phone owner want such a nice phone as their first phone? Actually, the Android phones are slightly more affordable than your typical iPhone, with just as much ability and speed. Nevertheless, whether you want the brand name of the value, it is completely up to you.

-Beck Goodloe

Flying Humvees

All in one

photo credits here

Our long lived dream of flying cars may finally come true.  "A flying car that's rugged enough for hardcore off-road driving, able to survive small-arms fire and can quickly take off and land is potentially just a few years shy of reality," says John Roach.  The Lockheed Martin and DARPA have gone into the prototype testing for flying Humvees for the military.  Prototype presentation is expected by the end of fiscal 2012.  If one of the prototypes is successful then they could be being used by 2015.  What does this mean for flying cars for personal use?  It is already clear that personal vehicles that take off and land at airports that are like small planes that can drive on roads are possible, but what DARPA wants is an off-road drivable vehicle that can hold four soldiers and their gear and be able to take of vertically like a helicopter.  They also want it to be easy enough for a typical soldier to be able to fly them and fly 250 miles on one tank of gas.  This means if we convert the Humvee part to car normal people will have easy to be flown cars that can take off from your house without airports or runways.

more information here

Jacob Saslavsky

Jonathan Ive: Steve Jobs stole my ideas

Photo credit: Apple

Jonathan “Jony” Ive Vice President of Industrial Design.

For the official article click here.

Jonathan Ive was one of Steve Jobs's best friends. Ive is the vice president of industrial design and is clamming that Steve Jobs stole some of his ideas. Ive and Jobs were very good friends and colleague. They often ate lunch together and helped the design department with new ideas. Many of the ideas that Ive created were published by steve. Ive is very upset about his friends death an plans to carry on his position if possible. Some reports on Steve say that he stole peoples ideas and not just Ive's which is unusual for a smart person that developed a million dollar company. Ive was one of the victims and is now also going to let out all of his original ideas out into the world and see how it goes. “Steve would be proud if I took his position” said Jonathan in an interview after steve died.

                                                      -Gustavo

Last Regrets

Photo credit here.

Intel Chips have historically been more popular in computers than any other processing chip. However, a lot of business is lost to other companies that are less predominate in the computer industry. This is caused by Intel’s lack of presence in tablets and smart-phones. The most popular company running these mobile devices is Apple. They use custom chips that are based on a design from a rival company of Intel’s, called ARM. However, the late Steve Jobs was beginning to question reluctance to buy into another company’s chip. Before his death, he wanted to change the chips in one of the company’s biggest products, the iPad, to Intel. Jobs had known the CEO of Intel for quite some time and and worked with him during the early stages of the iPad’s construction. However, when the time came to make the decision, advisers convinced Jobs that custom chips would be better for the tablet. Slowly, Jobs began to think that the same chips hard-wired into his computers would work well in his mobile devices. Jobs began working on a way to put Intel chips into the next iPad before his resignation and untimely death. Without Steve Jobs as the CEO, nobody really knows what will be put into future mobile devices.

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-- Ben Fagelman

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