<IT WORLD> Microsoft in Hon Hai tie-up
By Martin J Young
HUA HIN, Thailand - In an effort to bolster revenue from its vast array of patents software giant Microsoft has signed a deal with Hon Hai, parent company of electronics maker Foxconn. The agreement allows the Taiwanese company to legally produce devices for Android and Chrome OS using patents owned by Microsoft.
The licensing deal which covers a wide range of Google products will net Microsoft royalties for any device that Hon Hai produces. Several other companies including Samsung, LG, HTC, and Acer, which make Android devices, have previously signed similar patent agreements with Microsoft.
Financial details on this latest agreement were not disclosed
during the announcement on Tuesday. Agreements such as this help to avoid patent lawsuits from rivals such as Apple, which spent most of the previous year in the courtroom trying to block the sale of competing products.
Amazon has announced that it will expand its online applications store to cover almost 200 countries. Previously the Android-based Amazon Appstore was only available in the US, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan. In the coming months it will increase the coverage to include Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, India and a number of other countries.
The store offers Amazon's large consumer base an alternative to Google Play and developers the chance to launch localized apps for their regions.
Rumors have been flying about an Amazon smart-phone, the next logical step for a company with such a sizable customer base, however nothing has been confirmed.
Gadgets
Google Glasses have been dominating the tech media this week, more so since they started shipping and the search company slapped some draconian rules on ownership of them. According to Google it is forbidden to resell or loan out the highly coveted, US$1,500 device to anyone else.
In a rather Apple-esque move Google threatened to take ownership of the gadget if anyone breaks big brother's rules:
You may not resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person. If you resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person without Google's authorization, Google reserves the right to deactivate the device, and neither you nor the unauthorized person using the device will be entitled to any refund, product support, or product warranty.
At the moment the futuristic eyewear is only available to developers signed up to the Google Glass Explorers program. They still need to fork out 1500 bucks and are forbidden to sell the device on, as one found out when his eBay auction, which reached over US$90,000, was abruptly self-terminated following his discovery of the rules.
The trend of device and software ''ownership'' by the manufacturer is on the increase; it ranges from preventing smart-phones being unlocked to forbidding customers re-selling software packages they have purchased. The big players are winning in the courts so the consumers have to settle with the notion of renting their devices rather than actually owning them.
Social
The cross-platform messaging service WhatsApp has announced that it's now ''bigger than Twitter'' with more than 200 million active users. The service allows users to send messages via the web across all mobile platforms such as Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, Nokia, and Blackberry.
Chief executive Jan Koum stated that they're currently processing 20 billion messages every day, which is double Facebook's daily message traffic. The app does not bombard its users with advertising but does charge a dollar per year for use.
The firm recently denied it was in active discussions to sell up to Google for a billion dollars.
Twitter responded on Wednesday by rolling out keyword targeting for advertisers. It will take promoted tweets on to the next level by delving deeper into the information people are posting and offering that to potential advertisers.
At the moment social media advertising leaves a lot to be desired, content relevance is based loosely on user's locations and what they like or vote for, hence the ads are usually unrelated and largely ignored.
LinkedIn is also on a mission this week to revamp its mobile apps and redesign its website. The online professional networking service claims 200 million users worldwide looking for career tips, job leads and interesting information about companies and industries. The new apps for Android and iOS focus heavily on content and personalization.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
(Copyright 2013 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
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Amazon has announced that it will expand its online applications store to cover almost 200 countries. Previously the Android-based Amazon Appstore was only available in the US, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan. In the coming months it will increase the coverage to include Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, India and a number of other countries.
