03/05/2013

IDG Connect News Roundup: Apple Eats Intel, Facebook Gets Fat, and QWERTY Vs KALQ

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News Roundup: Apple Eats Intel, Facebook Gets Fat, and QWERTY Vs KALQ
Posted b y Dan Swinhoe Company IDG Connect 05/03/2013

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Apple has the Intel Reducing the News Roundup to a rumour hound after only a week, b ut could Apple b e b uying Intel? Following on from last week's slightly lower than normal b ut still huge profits announcement, people are wondering what the iPhone maker will do with all its cash. With enough to b uy Intel, Qualcomm, Cisco, or pretty much any other tech company b ar Google and Microsoft, the rumour-mill is b etting on the former. Hard to say how likely it is, b ut in theory it could work out well for b oth companies. Not news per say, b ut b y far the most interesting Apple-related spiel I've heard in a while, and for once not related to iWatches or iOS 7. Facebook getting fatter with age, less attractive too Despite in theory just b eing a simple b lue web page, Faceb ook now requires the same amount of code to appear in your web b rowser as the Windows OS. Describ ed as "a holy-f**k comparison" b y Faceb ook engineer Joel Pob ar- a man who has worked as a programmer for b oth systems, he's a man who might b e ab le to tell. While the actual numb ers are vague and vary depending on who's talking, it's still an impressive way to overcomplicate things. As well as getting growing coding love handles, the love affair with Faceb ook might b e coming to an end. Reports have come out that Mr. Zuckerb erg's company has lost 10 million users in the US and a net gain of zero in the UK in the last year. But on the other hand, worldwide users are still up almost a quarter on last year, and it was inevitab le that growth would stall in the markets it's b een active in for a decade. Still, over a b illion active users is alright, isn't it? Google+ does the maths on Twitter Apparently Google+ now has more users than Twitter. But do people actually use it? I'm still not sold. Could a hacked Google+ account wipe $136b n off the US stockmarket, like the AP's Ob ama Death tweet did? I highly doub t it. Google's social network still feels like the ob ligatory b y-product of owning a Gmail account, while Twitter is more a pulse of what's going on in the world, at least for now. Either way, b oth are still b etter than Google Buzz. Blackberry CEO turns psychic The release of Blackb erry's BB10 OS version of its QWERTY phone has seen CEO Thorsten Heins doing the interview rounds this week. The Q10 may well b e where the company makes its money, b ut I think the pressure might b e getting to him. "In five years, I see BlackBerry to b e the ab solute leader in mob ile computing - that's what we're aiming for," he said. The other massive change come in 2018, he predicts, will b e the death of tab lets. "In five years I don't think there'll b e a reason to have a tab let anymore." Bold predictions b oth, b ut deluded perhaps? KALQ spells the death of QWERTY... Personally, I think hyb rid laptops will b e the norm in the near future, and desktops reserved for those who need

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03/05/2013

IDG Connect News Roundup: Apple Eats Intel, Facebook Gets Fat, and QWERTY Vs KALQ Partners
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serious computing power. But that change won't come without a few casualties. Will one b e the QWERTY keyb oard? Boffins at the University of St Andrews have made a split-screen keyb oard specifically to suit the way we hold tab lets. Entitled KALQ, after the letters at the b ottom right, it features two b locks, 16 letters to the left, 12 to the right. It could also mean the end of QWERTY as one of the most common passwords. In related news, China may now have the world's b iggest PC market, b ut in touchscreen Tab let-loving places, what happens to the humb le keyb oard? Peripherals b uilder Logitech makes a loss of $37 million (compared to $24m profit the year b efore), that's what. Times are a changing. ...While Apps herald the death of the text? Is another staple icon of the 90s going? Text messaging still looks remarkab ly healthy 20 years on, b ut the writing may b e on the wall. Chat apps such as WhatsApp overtook traditional SMS in 2012, losing a comb ined $23 b illion of potential revenue b ecause of it. Text messages are still on the increase and will b e around for a while yet, b ut it's just a matter of time until we communicate solely through selfies sent through Snapchat. Will all the main tech of the last century b e completely ob solete in a few years' time? Currency Cryptography Bitcoin has finally levelled off somewhat after a chaotic start to the year. Those who joined b efore the hype are still b etter off, and more companies than ever are using it and cyb er-criminals have another way of making a mint. But the news this week is that another crypto-currency, Litecoin, hit an all-time high, as did Ripple's internal currency XRP. Admittedly these figures paled compared to Bitcoin, b ut it's hard to argue with alternative currencies b eing here to stay. Braille Smartphone The cool tech news of the week is that a team of developers in India have created a prototype shape-shifting smartphone for the b lind. Equipped with a screen "composed of a grid of pins that move up and down each time a text or new web content is loaded", it's a genius idea. Ukraine worst for IP Piracy According to the US Trade Representative, Ukraine has the worst record in the world for protecting intellectual property. The USTR said the government in Kiev had failed to fight internet piracy and the use of illegal software. While b elievab le, it's a surprising result. Ukraine isn't the first place that comes to mind for IP infringement. Other prob lem countries on the USTR's list included Algeria, Argentina, Chile, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand and Venezuela.

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