MediaTek wants the smartphone market

MediaTek has released a new chip the MT6577 which combines an ARM Cortex-A9 dual CPU with their 3G/HSPA modem and a graphics subsystem based on Imagination Technologies' PowerVR Series5 SGX. This will allow 1080p encoding and playback at 15 or 30 frames per second (using a 1080 by 720 display) and supports an 8MP camera and can support a stereo camera too. The 40nm process silicon is being produced by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited) and MediaTek are already in talks with vendors and devices should be available by Q3 this year. MediaTek are already the largest supply of baseband units, but it's a high volume low margin business. This should add value, however this will enable smart phones to be produced in the $150 - $200 range while existing smart phones with similar specifications cost around the $500 mark. This puts MediaTek directly against Qualcomm and their Snapdragon cores.

Everything Everywhere 4G LTE trial in Cumbria

Everything Everywhere (the combined Orange and T-Mobile mobile network operators) has been running a trial in Cumbria using LTE in it's existing 1800MHz spectrum. The trialists were made up of users from local businesses and they either used dongles or mobile routers. Speeds of up to 20Mb/s (download) were achieved, though this depended on the number of users per mast and distance from the mast. The area isn't well serviced by fixed line broadband which meant high speed mobile via mobile was a boon to users. EE have applied to Ofcom for a license variation to allow them to utilise LTE on their existing 1800MHz spectrum nationally and Ofcom have opened a consultation on whether to allow this. The other MNOs are objecting, though EE have to return some of that spectrum as part of their merger conditions.

Ofcom Telecom Complaints Q1 2012

Ofcom the Super regulator that covers telecoms, broadcasting, spectrum, media and the postal system has released details about Telecoms complaints in the period January through March 2012. This covers fixed line telephone, fixed broadband, mobile telephony and Pay TV services. Ofcom itself receives around 300 complaints per day, usually when a consumer can not resolve an issue with the relevant supplier. These reports are logged, while there are many more issues reported to the suppliers themselves that Ofcom never gets to hear of. Fixed line telephony: BT Retail, Sky, TalkTalk Group and Virgin Media of which TalkTalk had the highest number of complaints with Virgin Media receiving the least number of complaints. Most complaints related to billing and customer service issues. Fixed broadband: BT Retail, Sky, TalkTalk Group, Virgin Media and Orange Home. Again TalkTalk had the most complaints and Sky the least mainly about line faults and other service issues. Mobile telephony: 3UK, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone and Virgin Mobile with Three getting most complaints and O2 least relating mainly to disputed charges and customer service issues. Pay TV services: Sky, BT Vision, and Virgin Media with Sky getting the least complaints and BT Vision the most mainly relating to their sales processes and problems with billing. The Ofcom summary can be found here.

Video: Bhutan Prime Minister Lyonchhen Jigmi Y Thinley Rio+20 Address

Photo Credit: Bhutan

The Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan, Lyonchhen Jigmi Y Thinley, gave a powerful speech during today's Rio+20 Plenary Session. I recorded his livestream speech for your reference along with the text of his speech.
Some important quotes include:

• "Society is crumbling, climate is changing, ecosystems are collapsing, resources are depleting, and civilization is clearly headed backward to the primordial state of the survival of the fittest. As species die in quick succession, mankind's own extinction draws nearer."
• "Sustainable Development means survival. It is about how we as a species must live within the bounds of what nature can provide."
• "And well-being we realize is not about accumulating or consuming material wealth, it is about cultivating and enjoying good health and knowledge, peace, security, and justice, equality and meaningful relationships. These are the essential conditions that promote freedom and the ability and will to pursue happiness: the true measure of human civilization."
• "Sustainability, Well-Being, and Happiness are still within our reach. Let us seize the opportunity here and now for in another twenty years humanity will have crossed the point of no return."

(Being) woefully aware that our generation has not only consumed our share of natural resources but that of future generations, I will do my best to ensure that I will not consume the time that belongs to succeeding speakers.
Propelled by technology, fueled by greed and driven by GDP, the path mankind trod for more than half a century brought us to a crossroads here at Rio, 20 years ago. Despite agreeing to make a turn, we accelerated onward. Those who lagged behind hoped to catchup, while those ahead spurred on to keep their lead in the race to extract, produce, sell, and consume more in a world with less and fewer resources.

The costs of reckless speeding along the highway of so-called development have been devastating. Society is crumbling, climate is changing, ecosystems are collapsing, resources are depleting, and civilization is clearly headed backward to the primordial state of the survival of the fittest. As species die in quick succession, mankind's own extinction draws nearer.

Indeed, survival is the question of the day. Surely, it is this fear and the knowledge of having .. that have brought us back to Rio after 20 years. After two more decades of living dangerously and hurdling ourselves toward annihilation yet we speak not of the harsh reality of life or death that stares at us.

Choosing gentler language, we argue about sustainability and green economy, words with enough ambiguity to divide us on the very issue of our survival that should unite us. In being euphemistic, let us at least not underplay the dire state of humanity.
Sustainable Development means survival. It is about how we as a species must live within the bounds of what nature can provide.

It is neither an ideal beyond the reach of the poor, not a threat to the rich and affluent. Sustainable Development is not a choice. It is an absolute necessity.

The need of the hour is saner, safer, and sustained paths. But where do we go from here? Unless we can agree on a vision to guide us, society will remain rudderless in a perilous sea. But that need not be. As highly evolved beings with social, intellectual and emotional needs, we do share a common vision: the ultimate dream of happiness. This aspiration transcends all the dividing contours of society and has the power to unite all of humanity. It is this goal which the new path must aim to reach.

The search for happiness, which is a deep, abiding sense of harmony with the natural world of compassion, contentment and joy, is not just a private yearning; it is a universal goal. When we trivialize happiness, we trivialize the meaning and purpose of life. Beyond providing the perfect motivation for survival, happiness causes us to live well, for living well is the wellspring of happiness. And well-being we realize is not about accumulating or consuming material wealth, it is about cultivating and enjoying good health and knowledge, peace, security, and justice, equality and meaningful relationships. These are the essential conditions that promote freedom and the ability and will to pursue happiness: the true measure of human civilization.

These conditions of sustainability: well-being and happiness are interdependent. Without happiness there can be no appreciation of the beauty and preciousness of life and our natural world. And without well-being, happiness can never be. So likewise, well-being that may otherwise come at the cost of planetary well-being, can only be moderated by consideration of sustainability and happiness.

Civilization has reached the time and moment to acknowledge the primacy of this innermost human yearning and to make the purpose of development the creation of enabling conditions for its pursuit.  It is with this conviction that for four decades Bhutan has made happiness, this quest of every citizen, the object of public policy and resources. In so doing, we are supported by the comprehensive index of nine domains and seventy-two variables still undergoing refinement to measure both the subjective and objective dimensions and conditions of happiness. 


The world desperately needs a consensus for collective action, but it would be wrong and irresponsible to subject all our actions to what we may or may not agree here in Rio.

Life after all is not negotiable, and yet this is what our delegations have had to do in preparing the outcome document that takes care of all sensitivities and accommodates all kinds of doubts and suspicions, and so the document will fall far short of what must be done.

Let us therefore pledge that each of us as sovereign countries and leaders will do far more in our own countries and assist the weaker nations among us. In this regard, it is most heartening that where collective endeavor has failed, much has been done and more continues at the sovereign, sub-national, community, and individual levels.

The unraveling of the GDP-based economic model and the immeasurable damage that it has caused to society, have attracted interest in Bhutan's Sustainable Development Paradigm that emphasizes Sustainability, Equity, Human Values, Ecological Resilience, and Good Governance.

Its acceptance by the international community has been marked by the unanimous adoption of the resolution on well-being and happiness by the UN General Assembly in July 2011. This led to the very successful high-level meeting on the subject in April this year at the UN Headquarters in New York.

As urged by the high-level meeting, His Majesty The King of Bhutan is now establishing an International Working Group of experts to elaborate the architecture of the new development paradigm that was agreed upon by the meeting. This group will work closely with the high-level panel just appointed by the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon so that the UNGA in 2013 and 2014 in the 68th and 69th sessions will have before it two separate but complementary reports.

It is our hope that these will help the world to pave a new path toward a sustainable and meaningful life.

Ladies and Gentlemen, not only is Rio the last opportunity for humanity to prevent its own extinction but for civilization to truly flourish. Sustainability, Well-Being, and Happiness are still within our reach. Let us seize the opportunity here and now for in another twenty years humanity will have crossed the point of no return.

I wish the conference great success. Thank you.

Watch Rio+20 Live here

Watch Rio+20 Live here: http://webtv.un.org/live-now/watch/rio20-plenary-meetings-see-schedule-for-more-details/1685917490001 #rioplus20

Llustre becomes uk.fab.com

Fab launched in June 2011 and to celebrate it's first birthday it is now launching uk.fab.com with the acquisition of Llustre. Fab has grown to over 5m people in 20 countries and has relationships with over 5,000 designers. Sales of items ranged from $1 to $20,000 and it has sold over 1.8m products. Llustre started life in October 2011 and launched in April 2012 and has grown rapidly to become a destination site for interior design flash sales in the UK and has already gained more than 500 design partners. Maria Molland (ex Thomson Reuters) will take on the role of Chief European Officer, while Tracy Doree (CoFounder of Llustre) will work for Maria as Managing Director of Fab UK and head of UK Merchandising and Vivianne Bearman (C-Founder Llustre) will lead the UK Product & Operations. Fab and Llustre have both grown phenomenally and the combined company can only do better.

Motorola buys Psion

Motorola Solutions (the bit of Motorola that wasn't acquired by Google that was the remnant after selling the other bits to Nokia Siemens Networks in 2011) has purchased Psion the UK handheld terminal manufacturer. Psion originally made organisers and designed Symbian (which was sold to Nokia) and have recently moved into the ruggedised terminal market. Motorola Solutions specialises in industrial-grade devices and business verticals, as well as public-safety networks in the United States and other markets so purchase should complement their existing services.

New great day of talks for founders raising cash

There's a great new conference being put on by General Assembly called A Founder's guide to fund-raising which should be good for any start-ups out there. You can see more on the event http://assembledcapitallondon.eventbrite.com/ and sign-up below.

Event management for ASSEMBLED CAPITAL: A Founder's Guide to Fundraising powered by Eventbrite

Do sign-up, it costs £200 but it's a great day of talks.

Blackberry 10 Jam

Yesterday 14th June 2012 Research in Motion held their UK Blackberry 10 Jam event in Vinapolis near London Bridge. The day was full of information about how to build native or HTML5 applications on the new Blackberry 10 operating system. RIM also gave away an Alpha dev 10 phone, which looks pretty similar to an iPhone, but without any buttons (apart form the power button). The unit also has a micro USB connector, an HDMI connector and a tray and slot for a micro SIM. After setting up the device (using your Blackberry ID), you get to the home screen, which gives you 2 apps, the camera and a browser (and of course settings which is part of the OS). Anything else you have to write yourself. In the US, the devices were given out with SIM cards and they are meant to be fully operational as phones (and allegedly there's even a dialler within RIM somewhere). It is possible to pair the device with a Bluetooth headset and then receive calls by answering through the headset. Also in the US developers were promised free upgrades to official Blackberry 10 devices when they are released. This may be the dying spasms of an organisation trying to attract developers with gifts, but Blackberry's OS 10 is actually rather good.

ICANN release applicants for new top level domains

ICANN or as it's properly known The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has released the list of applicants and the top level domains (TLDs) they've applied for [1]. Many of the names are expected, with big brands applying for their names such as car manufacturers and such like. Other large companies have also applied to register names of their services (such as Microsoft LIVE, but there's multiple applicants for that TLD). Amazon have also applied for a variety of TLDs (77 in fact) including AMAZON, APP, AUDIBLE, AUTHOR, AWS, BOOK, BOT, BOX (many of these will have multiple applicants). If there are multiple applicants for the same domain, ICANN will hold an auction and the highest bidder will get it. There are 40 applications from the UK (though there's a slight weirdness there as the ISO country code is actually GB so they're actually listed under that, why the UK chose UK over GB is a historical peculiarity) including LONDON which London and Partners applied for (the PR agency for London etc) and WALES applied for by Nominet who run the gTLD .uk Nicely ICANN have also published the corresponding applicants emails, which are (it can be assumed) now nicely being harvested by SPAM bots.

Spotify nows Plays on Android

Spotify has now released their app on to Google Play (formerly Android Marketplace). The app has been available from Spotify's site in beta for a while. The new features are

• Totally new app with full support for Android 4.0
• All-new slide-out navigation
• Crossfade/gapless playback settings
• Widget - control Spotify from the home screen
• Playlist folder support
• Even more social - check out friends’ profile pages and playlists on the go
• Artist imagery in high resolution
• Related artist view - available for the first time on mobile
• ‘Extreme’ sound quality setting for 320kbps listening
• Play queue
• Last.fm scrobbling
• Speed increases

In order to use the mobile version users need a Spotify Premium subscription. Spotify now gives access to over 18 million songs and is available in 15 countries including USA, UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. there are now over 10 million active users with over 3 million paying subscribers.

Happy World Environment Day from Clean Tech News

Happy World Environment Day from Clean Tech and Green Business News.
This year's theme is 'Green Economy: Does it include you?' We've registered on the World Environment Day Website to show our support!