SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- The successor to Samsung Electronics' blockbuster Galaxy S3 could launch in April. That's according to Samsung news Web site SamMobile, which pegs the phone's launch on April 15. The Galaxy S franchise has emerged as a true competitor to the iPhone, and garners as much hype and anticipation as Apple's marquee smartphone. While early iterations of the Galaxy S phone faced a slow start, the Galaxy S3 catapulted out of the gate as a smash…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The first batch of smartphones running the HTML 5-based Firefox OS have been unveiled. Meet the GeekPhone Keon and Peak - a duo of early Firefox OS-running smartphones targeted at app designers and developers to start building the upcoming OS' app ecosystem. What you see above is the GeekPhone Peak, which is the more powerful of the two. It sports a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 chip with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- At a ceremony at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology where Professor Hawking is Director of Research, Professor Martin Curley, Intel Vice-President and Director of Intel Labs Europe, paid tribute to the 71 year old scientist and his “heroic career” as he presented him with the gift. The result of a competition for Intel employees to come up with a suitable gift for the Professor, it featured a silicon ‘wafer’, normally used for the manufacture…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- This week, business leaders are gathering in Davos to debate global priorities at the World Economic Forum. The forum declares itself to be "committed to improving the state of the world". So why isn't education higher up on the agenda? On the face of it, there should be little need to make the business case for education. It is intrinsically tied to all positive development outcomes. Economic growth, health, nutrition and democracy are all…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- As laptops continue to become smaller and smaller rectangles and smartphones, illogically, continue to become bigger and bigger ones, another high-tech product segment is evolving with far less predicability. High-tech gizmos intended to be worn on the body, from the Nike+ FuelBand to the Fitbit One, are already staking out the next frontier of consumer tech, and even though the CST-01 is just a watch--no Internet connectivity, no fancy sensors, no pedometer--its design, and the technologies…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) --  I’m staring at my computer screen, completely paralyzed by which words to type into the search field. It’s been years since such a simple task has rendered me useless. The last time I couldn’t think of anything to type was back when Napster was illegal, and my brain would shut down every time I tried to think of another low-quality song to add to my collection of zillions. This is different though. I’m not stealing…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) --  Apple could have a busy summer if the latest iPhone forecast from one analyst comes to fruition. The company will launch an iPhone 5S and a revamped version of the iPhone 5 in June or July, predicts KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In an investors note received by MacRumors, Kuo said the iPhone 5S would be similar to the current model but offer a few improvements, including an A7 chip for faster performance and a fingerprint sensor.…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) --  Apple and Amazon are fighting over made up words, as you may well be aware. Apple takes issue with Amazon’s use of “Appstore,” the name for the online retailer’s marketplace of Android software, which came after Apple had already been using its own App Store branding for a mobile apps market for a couple of years. A judge now says that before the issue actually goes to trial in August, the two will have to…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- A funny thing happened during my visit to the Volkswagen Electronic Research Laboratory. About halfway through the tour, a bus chauffeured us (a group of reporters and business executives) through the entrance of a well-to-do gated community in Belmont, California. We stopped in front of one of the homes, where a man stood waiting, smartphone in hand. He was there to demonstrate Audi’s autonomous vehicle parking technology in the garage of an ERL executive’s house. I…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) --  Apple has cut orders for the components of its iPhone 5, and it’s probably due to weaker-than-expected demand. The company has cut orders for iPhone 5 screens by about half of what it had previously planned to order for the January-March quarter. Sources say there have been cuts to orders for other components as well. Apple has recently been facing challenges from Samsung and other smartphone makers. During the third quarter of 2012, Apple…