Cheapest Smartphone, $25? (video)

At $25, Is This the Cheapest Smartphone Ever?: Video - Bloomberg: "Mozilla has revealed a prototype smartphone running on Firefox OS aimed squarely at emerging markets. Costing only $25, it's the cheapest in the world...and it's better than you might think. (Source: Bloomberg-Feb. 25)"

Google Wants Its Modular Ara Phone to Cost $50: "Google is taking its Ara modular smartphone platform increasingly seriously, and now in interviews with Time it has revealed that it aims to sell a simple version of the phone for as little as $50. Time has taken a deep dive into Google's modular smartphone, revealing some interesting details along the way. Work on the concept, which follows on from R&D by Phonebloks and Motorola, remains at Google because it kept hold of the Advanced Technology and Projects group when it sold Moto to Lenovo...."

Gartner Identifies Top 10 Mobile Technologies and Capabilities for 2015 and 2016: "LTE and LTE-A -  Long Term Evolution (LTE) and its successor LTE Advanced (LTE-A) are cellular technologies that improve spectral efficiency and will push cellular networks to theoretical peak downlink speeds of up to 1 Gbps, while reducing latency. All mobile users will benefit from improved bandwidth, and superior performance combined with new features such as LTE Broadcast will enable network operators to offer new services."

Why Apple Could Win Big With Tesla's Giant New Battery Factory
Wired
The first Tesla I ever saw was stripped down to the chassis, a bare-metal incarnation of the company's flagship electric Roadster on display at an event in Silicon Valley. Without the need for an internal combustion engine, the two-seater's petite ...

Apple CEO Tim Cook teases, reassures shareholders
Washington Post
Apple's stock dipped $1.43 to close Friday at $526.24. That's 25 percent below its peak price of $705.07 reached September 2012. Over the same stretch, the stock of Google Inc. — a bitter rival — has surged by 66 percent and the technology-driven ...

Google Updates Hangouts For iOS
InformationWeek
"The app has a brand new look and feel, is super easy to navigate, and includes a bunch of performance improvements," said Google's Frank Petterson in a Google+ post that announced the changes. "You can still make free voice and video calls, of course.

Apple could be the latest casualty in patent war
USA TODAY
Cases at German courts have seen the banning of Microsoft products including Windows 7, Media Player and the Xbox 360 in Europe's biggest economy, after Google-owned Motorola Mobility brought legal action against the U.S. firm in May 2012.

Google asks court to allow an anti-Muslim video to be restored on YouTube
San Jose Mercury News
Google has moved to restore an anti-Muslim video on YouTube, arguing that a federal appeals court order earlier this week requiring the company to take it down will cause "irreparable harm" because of its impact on online free speech. In court papers ...

Microsoft's Windows Strategy: A New Hope
InformationWeek
By creating a larger footprint in emerging markets, Microsoft impedes Android from becoming the reference point for a new generation of users -- a battle Nokia CEO Stephen Elop referenced when he explained how the Android-based Nokia X platform ...

Google Now Launcher: Google Brings Its Own Android Home Screen to the Play ...
TIME
Although Android 4.4 KitKat includes a new home screen design from Google, most users will never see it, because phone makers like Samsung and HTC tend to use their own home screens instead. That may change soon, now that the Google Now ...

Google Drags Smartphones Into The Really Modern Age
Forbes
Google's Project Ara has picked up pace with Time magazine now quoting an early 2015 launch for the modular smartphone. It's one of those projects that could truly revolutionize its industry because Ara is an attempt to bring modularity and ecosystem ...

Apple preparing software update to enhance functionality of iPhone 5s Touch ID
Apple Insider
By Daniel Eran Dilger. Apple is preparing to release a free software update designed to improve the fingerprint recognition experience of Touch ID, potentially fixing a "fade" issue that has been experienced by some iPhone 5s users, AppleInsider has ...

Google Donates $6.8M to SF Youth Transit Program
PC Magazine
In recent months, Google has come under fire, alongside companies like Apple and Facebook, for shuttling workers in luxury, Wi-Fi enabled buses from San Francisco to Silicon Valley campuses. The buses sparked a heated debate, with activists arguing ...

Mt. Gox Bitcoin Exchange Sued in US for 'Misappropriation'
Businessweek
Bankrupt Mt. Gox, once the world's biggest Bitcoin exchange, was sued by a customer in federal court in Chicago in a proposed class-action lawsuit representing all U.S. users who lost money. The Mt. Gox exchange announced Feb. 24 it had lost 750,000 ...

more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)

Follow @expricom