To buy Eastman Kodak Co.’s patents out of the bankruptcy, both Google, Inc. and Apple, Inc. have joined forces and offered more than US$500 million. The two companies are teaming up to bid for Kodak’s treasure trove of patents. Kodak had declared bankruptcy this January.

Competing for the smartphone market, the two companies have joined forces to buy more than 1,100 imaging patents. This would also help in Kodak pulling out of bankruptcy as early as first half of 2013. However, Kodak fears that the estimated patent portfolio is going to be less than $2.6 billion.

The pairing may seem unlikely especially for the competitiveness that exists between them, however, partnerships in patent sales are not an implausible phenomenon. These partnerships enable competitors to neutralize the potential infringement litigation. For example, a group formed by Apple, Microsoft Corp., and Research In Motion Ltd. bought more than 6,000 patents from Nortel Networks Corp. The value was US$4.5 billion, which ultimately brought the company out of bankruptcy last year. Google, Inc. had applied for the same but had lost after an initial offer of US$900 million.

Richard Ehrlickman, the former VP of Intellectual Property at the International Business Machines Corp., said that both the companies, Apple and Google have learnt from the auction of Nortel’s patents. This decision to come together for this process will reduce the expenditure of purchasing the patents from Kodak and simultaneously meeting the demands of their business.

Kodak had first announced of its financial difficulties in 2011 and had already started selling bids to raise the capital needed. This year, in the month of January, the company had filed for Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy protection. The filing listed assets amounting to $5.1billion, however, the debt amounted to $6.8 billion.

Image Credit: Google

In order to claw out of the bankruptcy, the company had already taken a loan of $950 million from Citigroup. It also sold off its personalized and digital imaging business. The patents available for purchase are related to the capturing, manipulation and sharing of the digital images. Along with all this, the company is also planning to shrink its size and focus on the commercialization, packaging and functional printing and other enterprise services rather than photography.

Based on the 284 Partners LLC, a patent advisory, the patents alone is worth for $2.21 billion to $2.57 billion. The company had already generated more than $3 billion as revenue by permitting some of its digital imaging patents to users like the Motorola Mobility, Samsung Electronics Co, LG Electronics Inc., and Nokia Ovi.

The deal between Nokia (NOK -3.56%) and Oracle (ORCL +0.78%) is to be announced at the OracleWorld conference in San Francisco. Seen as the panacea to expansion of Nokia’s mapping services, the deal would put the corporation in head-to-head competition with the Google Inc.’s Google Maps. (GOOG -0.26%) On the other hand, Oracle advertised the move to be an easy option for customers using the Nokia maps, by enabling consistent and broad mapping capabilities in the applications of Oracle.
Conformed by the Nokia representative on Sunday, the company had ramped up its commerce business and location especially after the $8.1 billion acquisition of Navteq in 2007. Commencing with a dominant position in the automobile-navigation industry, the company had already transgressed its immaculate mapping capabilities into mobile applications and phones including Microsoft products. (MSFT -1.33%) With mapping deals with Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN -0.88%) and Groupon, Inc. (GRPN -0.31%) Nokia was the more preferable choice, than Google Maps.
Oracle is mostly into selling applications to enterprises and the Finnish mobile device maker, who had invested billions in its location and commerce business, thought that the introduction of its mapping technology would bring forth newer channels of users. Nokia saw this opportunity as the solution for its expansion in lieu of its appeal and capability of its maps.
This deal came after an eventful week related to the mapping software. Apple, Inc. (AAPL -2.09%) forsake Google Maps with an home grown version of its own software, which led to negative consumer review of poor mapping and ultimately Apple issuing an apology.
The location services epitomizes the growing segment of importance for an innumerable range of players in this technical sector who are clambering to collate smartphones, cameras, watches, tablets, cars and other devices with information regarding the location that would enhance the social applications. This amalgamation has commenced, improved commerce opportunities as the marketers utilized the location information to identify potential customer needs. The deal between Oracle and Nokia isn’t the biggest, but it did display the wide-ranging demand of maps.
Stephen Elop, the Chief Executive of Nokia, began his journey with the company in 2010. With the aim to utilize Navteq business, he brought Navteq with other business services and renamed it to the division, Location and Commerce. The revenue generated in 2011 was $1.2 billion. A comparatively small fraction, Mr. Elop emphasized on the importance of the department in the future plans of the company.
Mr. Elop claimed Nokia’s strong mapping and navigation capabilities in an interview. But he also added that those are just the tip of the iceberg, and the future lies in it as it is pertinent to location based services. Investing heavily in creating maps that help consumers navigate even hard-to-reach areas via the mobile devices, Nokia Maps currently atlases over 200 countries.

Image Credit: Google

The VirusTotal’s team was delighted with the fact that Google, one of their long time partners have acquired the company. A bad news for the producers of the malware, VirusTotal ensures to improve their tools and their infrastructure to accelerate the elimination process. With the track record of Google being to keep people safer online, and VirusTotal looks forward to fight this together.

The announcement also stated that the company will continue to operate independently and will maintain their collaborations with various other security experts and anti-virus companies. Acting as the information aggregator, the platform accumulates the output from different antivirus programs, file and URL analysis tools, website scanners, and user contributions. All the antivirus solutions of VirusTotal are updated on a regular basis, which is further developed and distributed by the antivirus organizations.

Along with the acquisition, the company also simultaneously released desktop applications and tools that interacted with the service. For example, the one click files uploading tool and browser extensions. The website of VirusTotal also states the names of various users who have developed their own applications and made them available on the Internet to be used by the public.

On contacting Google, and on their investment towards security, they commented that, “”VirusTotal also has a strong track record in Web security, and we’re delighted to be able to provide them with the infrastructure they need to ensure that their service continues to improve.”

The first quarter saw Google unwrapping Bouncer, a scanning service that analyzed the existing apps of the Android Market for malware. The service scanned old and new applications for spyware, malware, and Trojans that had the capacity of stealing the user data and access the unauthorized gear. Bouncer also scanned the new developer accounts to restrain the developers who have the history of creating questionable applications.

Image Credit: Google

The invite provoked fresh rumors about the iPhone 5 sporting a larger screen and revised 19-pin dock connector. Everyone hopes that the event will finally put the gossip mill to rest. Along with the new iPhone 5, there is anticipation about the new iPad Mini.

Last year the launch of iPhone, 4S came from Apple after 15 months. The iPhone 4S was an evolutionary upgrade, the iPhone 5 will bring forth revolutionary approach.  The iPhone 5 comes with larger screen size, most likely a 4-inch screen, and 4G LTE Internet. The other feature included is the reduced dock size, which will make the accessories unusable and outdated.

Boasting a similar look of sheet aluminum casings as in Apple MacBook Pro and MacBook Air Lines, the sixth generation of iPhone will come with quad-core A-6 chips. The phone will also deliver NFC capabilities, and discard millimeters of the form with the new streamlined Sony camera sensor. Sony announced the inclusion of back-illuminated CMOS sensor that facilitates for thin designs and improves functionality. The structure would successfully enhance image quality and aid in enhancing functionalities.

Meanwhile Nokia and Motorola have come up with a host of smartphones for competing against the market of Apple. However, analysts confirm that Apple may still emerge as the winner especially for its capabilities and array of applications.

The five trends

Content marketing is rapidly growing terms of tactics, its formation, and volume of content. 84% of the respondents found that production of content was on the rise and more than half the participants were found to use ten or more formats that were deemed “effective.”

Content remains to address the three goals of marketing: lead generation, brand awareness, and market education. One of the fastest growing formats is Infographic of which marketers faced the biggest challenge of time and bandwidth. It was found that more than 94% of marketers created new content from scratch. Most of the respondents claimed that B2B marketers have tried to measure content engagement with web traffic, downloads, and views.

Mainstream Content Marketing

It was found that advanced content and blogging has taken a prominent position in B2B marketing. This was certified by 84% of the surveyed marketers. The types of content that was being produced included case studies (62%), eBooks (61%), whitepapers and press releases (58%). There has also been an increase in Infographics from 28% last year to 43% this year. Although there has been a significant decline in the interactive content formats like advertorials, social media engaging content, and webinars. The year 2012 also saw increase of content marketing budget to more than 30%.

However, in the survey blogging wasn’t mentioned specifically. Blogging is an important arsenal of content marketing. There was dispute among in considering blogging as a social media posting or a core component of content marketing.

Goals of Content Marketing

From its inception, content marketing has been about brand awareness and product marketing. Today the content marketers deliver qualified sales leads by configuring topics, and its relevant content. There is optimization of SEO and infuse of target generation strategies that helped reach the potential buyers. The marketers are steadily moving to deal with content marketing in the following ways:

• The primary goal of content marketing is lead generation
• Market education and thought leadership follows close by.
• Brand awareness remains the third priority
• Lead nurturing through content
• Lastly engaging audience through social media content

This was how the respondents embraced the trends. However, lead nurturing could also be a primary goal for content marketing. This can be achieved with creation of integrated lead generation and lead nurturing campaigns. Apt and quality content can drive marketing automation. Brand awareness is also important and if served with blogging and other social interactive content, content marketing can certainly drive results.

Content and SEO

A search engine optimization consultant will say that content is an indispensable part of the optimization process. There are three main reasons for quality content:

• Engrosses the reader
• Improves the rank of the web page and increases traffic
• Quality content will promote the likelihood of generating quality back links

Content Marketing and the Future

More than 84% of the marketers will increase their content production within the next 12 months. 30% of the B2B marketers said in the survey significantly so. However, there were 14% of marketers who expected that in the next quarter, volume of content marketing would remain relatively flat. In comparison to last year, more than 71% of the respondents confirmed an increase in content production.

Marketing Automation

An emerging trend with content marketing is marketing automation. This is a process of getting the content in front of the audience. Of the total respondents, 26% of the B2B marketers have been found to creatively create content for their marketing campaigns. However, 57% don’t use marketing.

Content marketing is rapidly gaining momentum among marketers and the best practices are being adapted to deliver the best to the target audience.

Image Credit: Google

Both Samsung and Apple had been advocating battle to win as the “largest Smartphone vendor.” 41 respondents of the poll said the new launch of the Samsung model created a gap between the two. In the second quarter, Samsung has been expected to sell more than 50 million of the new Samsung Galaxy SIII. On the other hand, Apple forecasted a total sale of 30.5 million iPhones.

IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo said that Samsung is the hero of the Smartphones in this second quarter. The biggest Smartphone volume is shipped from a singular vendor in this quarter. This is driven by the strong demand of the Galaxy portfolio, especially Galaxy S II and S III. Samsung’s advantages lies in its wide Smartphone portfolio whilst Apple’s sales is greatly dependent on the next, newer versions of the iPhone. According to Gartner, Nokia ended its 14-years of rule in the cell phone market, which included the basic mobiles. Samsung emerged as the leader in the first quarter and is expected to continue its winning streak.

The poll revealed that Samsung sold 15.7 million more cell phones than Nokia in Q2. In Q1, the company sold 3.4 million more. The Reuters poll established the growing importance of the Chinese vendors like Huawei and ZTE.  All the data was collected from July 1 to July 10. Estimated to sell 40 million devices in 2012, Samsung has moved more than 6.5 million units from May 29, 2012. Though still not operable on the Android Ice Cream Sandwich, the phone gives tough competition to the iPhone counterpart.

Image Credit: Google

Twitter added the final touches to its optimized mobile site, mobile.twitter.com. Completing the much-needed repairs, the mobile website is made congruent with native application experience. The old indecorous interface has been replaced with a more consistent Twitter Smartphone app.

Another important update was Twitter striking a deal with Media Tek. Media Tek is a semiconductor company, whose specialization lies in reference designs for feature phones and other hardware platforms. The application of the Twitter would now be integrated with Media Tek’s mobile framework. The app would now be preloaded in the middleware. This will mean that manufacturers compliant with Media Tek can sell feature phones with Twitter already installed in the device. The integration would ensure enhanced performance of the app with minimal use of internal resources and hardware. Twitter would now be available in a host of low-cost mobiles.

On July 12, 2012, Twitter also rolled out applications customized for the Nokia Series 40 feature phones. The app would offer a native experience to Nokia users who can enjoy the low cost app on this widely used phone.

There are still wide swaths of users of feature phones existing in Southeast Asia and Africa. They access the Internet through these phones, so whilst the Western world is focusing on iPhones and Androids, Twitter’s venture enables access of the app across all available platforms. Twitter foraying into the low cost mobiles is a good business strategy.

The user-experience is unified across all platforms and devices. The move of in-line with relevant signals would enable Twitter to tighten its ecosystem towards third party developers and thereby add significant value in creating clients outside Twitter. With the advertising base being increased, this would assure audiences receiving the ads would experience the same thing worldwide disregard of the devices being used. Until the Smartphones becomes ubiquitous, it is important that mobiles and other websites keep the down-market in the forefront.

Image Credit: Google

• Introduction of Knowledge Graph that provides structured results and improved Google search UI.
• A female voiceover like Siri, to read the results.
• Google Now, which gives relevant information by taking data from calendar, data inputs and location without any formal prompting of query.

The I/O conference of Google this year introduced Voice Assistant that mimicked the Siri.  Despite the existence of Google’s pre-existing voice search, Siri was one of the major differences between an iPhone and an Android. The new female voice of Google sounds lesser like a machine and more natural.

Image Credit: Google

Google Now seems to be better than the yet-to-be-released iOS 6 Siri version. However, we are incorrect to characterize Google in saying that it replicated the capabilities of Siri.

Introduction to Siri

Originally developed by the SRI International, it was acquired by Apple in April 28, 2010. Google’s voice search and other speech recognition assets were developed in house. It is now using the shuttered GOOG-411 to tune the speech recognizing tools.

Siri not a “voice search”?

Siri is not a “voice search.” It is a version of “artificial intelligence” with Nuance developing its front-end voice. Google’s voice search is speech-to-text and text-to-speech set over Google’s Knowledge Graph and its search index. The company has used its own index, speed assets and voice to bring forth Siri-like experience for people who use Android. Though Google Search may be semantic, the voice still has difficulty in following what is being asked.

Jelly Bean’s assistant is fine for initiating calls, producing facts, getting local information, sending of texts and emails. It performs the same functionality as Siri and there is no major perceivable difference. A “next-gen” version of Google voice input combined with search results as graphical cards, Jelly Bean doesn’t have much under its hood.

While the assistant of Google is being claimed to perform better in discovering relevant information and accomplishing tasks, Jelly Bean however, does not interact or start a dialogue with the user. The Android fanatics would argue that implementing this interaction would increase the “lag” time. Siri has the capacity to stage conversations and clarify doubts. However, this capability is expressed in certain functions like the sending of emails and texts.

While Siri questions in the contexts of calendaring meetings, the new version of Google still lacks the feature of mentioning details about a conflict. Another example is, though both the systems will signal an alarm, Siri can be asked to cancel it once set. For Google, it has to be done manually.

Image Credit: Google

The voiceover, an enhanced version text to speech output of Google’s Voice Actions. The first version is definitely a match against Siri’s features and the vast search index gives it a competitive edge in some situations. The Siri is unable to solve “search the web,” and on the other hand, Google does not have to do that but deliver results from the index. This further eliminates complicated steps and gives more information quickly.

Google vs. Siri

Stated here are the two different types of solutions provided by Siri and Google Voice Action when asked, “What is the best Japanese restaurant in San Francisco?”

Image Credit: Google

Google’s Voice Action: The search results displayed the familiar Places Web results, which showed the restaurants in San Francisco. The user can then contact the Google Places profile page for additional information and reviews.

Siri: The solution to the queries was provided from Yelp, and followed by reviews. Scrolling to the bottom would let the user access Yelp itself and gather more information. This capability is buried and apps need to be installed. If any of the listing is selected, it is redirected to a Google Map but without any information.

Image Credit: Google

Mobile Web Applications and Native Applications

All mobile applications can be classified into two distinct types, the mobile web applications and the native application.

Mobile Web Apps

Formatted for the smartphones and the tablets, the mobile web app is accessed through the mobile device’s web browser. Built with the three core technologies of HTML, JavaScript and CSS, these are browser based. The feature enables the app to be independent of all devices and platforms. The mobile web application is downloaded from the web server every time a request is sent. If the app is built in HTML5, it can even run in the offline mode.

Advantages of the mobile web apps

Mobile web apps are compatible in all browsers, irrespective of the device or the platform. This enables them to reach a wider audience with a least effort. The apps are affordable, fast and quicker to build. However, customization may be required for certain mobile devices.

• The mobile web apps are affordable, and much easier to maintain than native apps. Since they are cross platform applets, it is easier to maintain and yet keep up with the changes across the features of the different devices.
• The end-users can access the URL via the mobile browser and an up-to-date application would be downloaded in the device.

Disadvantages

• The mobile web app has limited capabilities compared to the traditional browsers of the desktop. The functional properties remain the same on the major platforms of Apple, RIM, Windows, and Android etc. but they have a major setback in other platforms. The solution may give the app a clunky outlook and require time-consuming customizations across the varied browsers.
• The web applications cannot access the hardware and software on the mobile devices such as the camera controls, PIM integration, direct GPS control or other features. The heavy complex graphics such as games are not supported.
• The web apps would function only with connectivity and can have performance problems if the connection is slow. Without the Wi-Fi coverage, users may have to pay for connection resulting in the hike of the costs.

Mobile Native Applications

Built specifically for the particular device and their operating system, the native applications is downloaded from the store and installed in the device. Written in Objective C, Java or any programming language, the advantages of the native apps lies in its ability to leverage the device-specific software and hardware. The application can utilize the latest technology available and integrate it with the on-board apps already present in the device. However, the problem lies in the ever-changing and fragmented technology and thereby makes it arduous and costly to keep pace with the emerging technology.

Assets of Native Apps

• Compelling and intensive user experience: Augmenting the power of the mobile devices, the native applications can leverage capabilities of the hardware (GPS, graphics, camera) and software (contacts, pictures, videos, file manager, home screen widgets, email etc.
• Functional even in offline mode: The applications are already installed in the device from the original download, enabling the user to get peak performances at all times.
• Front-end dissemination: The native applications assign their logo on the list screen that increases the visibility of the apps. The app store reminds the user of daily improvements.
• More in Fashion: The audience combs the Internet for the apps that are needed. This gives products higher chance at discoverability.
• Easier to monetize: The native apps is easier to monetize. A set price is stated on the app store and the developers can make direct money as soon as the user purchases it.

Liabilities of the native apps

• The content publisher needs to mention information in the app store that frustrates the publisher.
• For the native app to be compatible, separate versions of the app needs to be construed and the fragmented industry makes developing, testing and porting apps expensive. The cross platform frameworks are seamless, but cost and time remains an undeniable fact.
• The need to update the application continuously means more work.

Hybrid applications: the Native apps within the Web Apps

Instead of developing either the web app or the native app, they can be coalesced to form the hybrid app. With this application, much of it appears on the user’s browser window. A native app is wrapped around it enabling increased functionality available in the browser.

The hybrid application reduces the time and cost of development. There is decreased amount of coding work. For the user, the native app looks similar to the native app, other than it is being downloaded from the app store. The app can be stored and launched as a native app, however, to the developers there is a huge difference in the writing format. Some of the code is in HTML, CSS, or JavaScript and thereby making it compatible over multiple platforms. The functionality of the web based and native should blend.

Why choose Hybrid Apps?

The Hybrid Applications is the perfect solution for targeting multiple platforms. The hybrid apps employs the devices capabilities and is functional even when offline.

As the effervescent competition grows among the platforms, manufacturers and the carriers the developer, strive to create unique technologies and standards each moment. As the mobile technology continues to accelerate, there is an increasing need to develop true solutions that proposes to deliver the best.

Image Credit: Google

A widely used open source general scripting language, PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor is suited for web development and can be embedded in HTML. Robust and scalable, the language can be used to deliver excellent performance even by reducing the page loading time.

An example:

As opposed to the other languages as C or Perl, PHP would contain a direct embedded code, (as in the example: Hello, how are you?) to present the outcome. Enclosed within the start and end process instructions (<?php  ?>), the language can be changed accordingly.

Using PHP to develop the website

When we use the PHP scripts to develop the website, we can perform all the tasks similar to the CGI programs. The language would enable the collection of data, create a dynamic page content, send, and receive cookies. (CGI or the Common Gateway Interface is the process for the web server software for the generation of web content. The CGI programs are gateways for the servers to interact directly with the users.)

Important Areas for Scripting In PHP

Server side scripting: In the server side scripting, the server administers the script, to generate a dynamic web page on the browser. The PHP program would produce an output similar to the CGI programming output, to create an end-result, which is viewed by the users.  Since the server side script is not visible to the viewers, the web pages are more secure.

Command Line Scripting: Any web script takes about few minutes to execute properly. The time taken to do so is known as the maximum execution time. The web server terminates the script abnormally if it takes extra than the stipulated time. With the PHP Command Line Scripting, there is no affixed time limit and the script can run as long as they are needed until the server shuts down. Many time consuming tasks like sending newsletters or bulk mails can be achieved with this.

Writing desktop applications: Though PHP cannot create desktop applications that uses a Graphical User Interface, advanced PHP programming can be used to write client applications.

Independent of Operating system: PHP is server independent. We can use PHP in Apache, IIS and many others web servers. It also supports multiple web servers that use FastCGI PHP binary like the niginx and lighttpd. As PHP is platform independent, we can run PHP script in windows or Linux platform Mac OS X, Unix variants, RISC OS etc. This is unlike Dot Net, wherein, the script would be functional only in Microsoft Windows Operating systems.

Compiled Coding: Using a “PHP compiler” tool kit the source code of PHP is compiled to an internal format that is executed by the PHP engine. In order to speed up the execution time, and not have to compile it every time the page is accessed, the scripts are deployed in executable format with “PHP compiler”. The codes are optimized to enhance performance, reduce the size and merge the redundant instructions. Another method of increasing the efficiency is using opcode cache. It works by caching the compiled script in shared memory to avoid parsing and compiling every time the code runs. Using both code optimization and opcode caching, would result in increased effectiveness.

Not Limited to HTML: PHP is capable of outputting images, flash movies and PDF files. For all types of text including the XHTML and XML files, PHP auto-generates them and saves them in the file system. This forms a server side cache for the dynamic content.

Open source platform: The platform is scalable, reliable and supports quality with rapid evolution of source codes and peer review. Using the open source platform, would give the client the ability to modify content and customize requirements. PHP is an open source platform. The open source platform would integrate and adapt easily, without incurring extra costs or project overruns. With the closed proprietor based platforms, there is the possibility of ending up in a “locked in” situation without any further scaling or extension options. The user can control open source applications. It is more ecological than the closed one.

Security and Safety: Like all other open source, PHP provides for a more secure platform. Organizations with plenty of resources and data see Internet as a potential threat for malware. Extended communities of the open source platform ensure the source code to remain open and thereby weed out the security cracks. This makes its bug free and safe from other exploitation threats.

On time delivery of the projects: Once the purpose of the client’s website has been understood, PHP enables faster delivery of the object-oriented websites. For development of dynamic website, PHP remains the preferred platform. There are different types of framework available in PHP and this enables developing website faster and in much affordable rates.