Cutting the Digital Lifeline and Finding Serenity

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Sunday, August 26, 2012

Cutting the Digital Lifeline and Finding Serenity

By JENNA WORTHAM

ONE recent sweltering afternoon, a friend and I trekked to a new public pool, armed with books, sunglasses and icy drinks, planning to beat the heat with a swim. But upon our arrival, we had an unwelcome surprise: no cellphones were allowed in the pool area.

The ban threw me into a tailspin. I lingered by the locker where I had stashed my phone, wondering what messages, photos and updates I might already be missing.

After walking to the side of the pool and reluctantly stretching out on a towel by the water, my hands ached for my phone. I longed to upload details and pictures of my leisurely afternoon, and to skim through my various social networks to see how other friends were spending the weekend. Mostly, however, I wanted to make sure that there wasn’t some barbecue or summer music festival that we should be heading to instead.

Eventually, the anxiety passed. I started to see my lack of a digital connection as a reprieve. Lounging in the sun and chatting with a friend without the intrusion of texts and alerts into our lives felt positively luxurious. That night, I even switched off my phone while mingling at a house party, content to be in one place for the evening and not distracted by any indecision about whether another party posted online looked better.

My revelation — relearning the beauty of living in the moment, devoid of any digital link — may seem silly to people who are less attached to their devices. But for many people, smartphones and social networks have become lifelines — appendages that they are rarely without. As such, they can sway our moods, decisions and feelings.

One side effect of living an always-on digital life is the tension, along with the thrill, that can arise from being able to peep into people’s worlds at any moment and comparing their lives with yours. This tension may be inevitable at times, but it’s not inescapable. It’s possible to move beyond the angst that social media can provoke — and to be glad that we’ve done so.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Motorola to Cut 20% of Work Force, Part of Sweeping Change

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, August 13, 2012

Motorola to Cut 20% of Work Force, Part of Sweeping Change

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Motorola Mobility, the ailing cellphone maker that Google bought in May, told employees Sunday that it would lay off 20 percent of its work force and close a third of its 94 offices worldwide.

The cuts are the first step in Google’s plan to reinvent Motorola, which has fallen far behind its biggest competitors, Apple and Samsung, and to shore up its Android mobile business and expand beyond search and software into the manufacture of hardware.

The turnaround effort will also be a referendum on the management of Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, whose boldest move has been the $12.5 billion acquisition.

Though Google bought Motorola partly because of its more than 17,000 patents, which can help defend against challenges to the Android operating system, it also planned to use Motorola to make its own, better smartphones and tablets.

One-third of the 4,000 jobs lost will be in the United States. The company plans to leave unprofitable markets, stop making low-end devices and focus on a few cellphones instead of dozens, said Dennis Woodside, Motorola’s new chief executive, in a rare interview.

“We’re excited about the smartphone business,” said Mr. Woodside, who previously led Google’s sales and operations for the Americas. “The Google business is built on a wired model, and as the world moves to a pretty much completely wireless model over time, it’s really going to be important for Google to understand everything about the mobile consumer.”

But some analysts wonder whether Google can succeed in the brutally competitive, low-margin cellphone business.

“Ninety percent of the profits in the smartphone space are going to Apple and Samsung, and everyone else from Motorola to RIM to LG to Nokia are picking up the scraps of that 10 percent,” said Charlie Kindel, a former manager at Microsoft who writes about the mobile industry. “There’s no real sign that’s changing anytime soon.”

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Two Apps, TuneIn and iHeart Radio, Put Radio Online

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, August 06, 2012

Two Apps, TuneIn and iHeart Radio, Put Radio Online

By BEN SISARIO

For the radio industry, there may be no better symbol for the challenges of adapting to the digital age than two candy-colored mobile apps.

The apps, iHeartRadio and TuneIn, are aggregators — conduits for thousands of online radio streams. With a few taps on a smartphone, a listener can dart among a pop station in New York, gospel in Atlanta and talk almost anywhere.

Both have quickly amassed big audiences. TuneIn, which offers 70,000 streams from around the world, has more than 30 million monthly users. IHeartRadio, owned by the broadcasting giant Clear Channel Communications, has been downloaded 95 million times and has attracted more than 12 million registered users.

For broadcasters, these aggregators can help reach audiences in the growing but increasingly fragmented world of online radio, which can mean anything from a customized playlist on Pandora or Spotify to an iTunes stream.

“Our mission is about getting our content to as wide an audience as possible,” said Anil Dewan, the director of interactive media at KCRW, a public station in Santa Monica, Calif., whose digital outlets include TuneIn, iHeartRadio, iTunes, Spotify and an app of its own.

At the same time, many broadcasters say they worry about the rising costs of online royalties; the plans of the companies behind the apps; and the possibility of being lost within the aggregators, like needles in enormous digital haystacks.

Both aggregators let users find stations by typing a city, genre or station name into their search bars. TuneIn also points listeners to any station currently playing a given artist or song; iHeartRadio has an extensive custom-radio function, modeled after Pandora.

But as businesses they represent two poles of media. TuneIn, in Palo Alto, Calif., which started as a simple directory, transformed itself into an app purveyor two years ago, with streams that include not only radio and podcasts, but also emergency scanner signals.

Intuit Unveils Innovation on Main Street

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Intuit Unveils Innovation on Main Street

Company Showcases Newly Announced Mobile and Cloud-based Services That Simplify the Business of Life

NEW YORK – Mar. 30, 2012 – Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) brought innovation to life, spotlighting several newly announced products that reflect its commitment to make the business of life easier, and more efficient, while creating better financial outcomes for consumers and small businesses.

The products starred in a series of lifelike vignettes that included dozens of mobile and cloud-based offerings at the company’s Innovation Gallery Walk. The scenarios demonstrated the simplicity of paying taxes on a smartphone, helping small businesses get funded and creating health benefit plans for employees, among other tasks.

“Technology is fulfilling its promise to make life easier, and we have a real opportunity to make a difference,” said Brad Smith, Intuit’s president and chief executive officer. “Our innovation pipeline is flowing faster than ever as our employees continue to deliver on that promise and on Intuit’s mission to profoundly improve people’s financial lives.”

Intuit started small in 1983 with Quicken personal finance software, which sought to simplify a common household dilemma – balancing the family checkbook. Today, the company’s products touch more than 50 million financial lives with a robust product lineup of complexity-conquering solutions for small businesses, consumers, healthcare providers, financial institutions and overseas markets. 

Real Products, Real Surroundings

The vignettes included slice-of-life scenarios that displayed products in the settings where customers use them, including an apartment loft for consumer offerings; a park for on-the-go-businesses; a florist shop for established businesses; and an outdoor café for on-the-go consumers. In addition, vignettes spanned continents to show Intuit offerings in the United Kingdom and India.

Building Blocks for Budding Businesses

The small business vignettes featured products that take entrepreneurs creating new-to-the-world businesses from idea to up-and-running and on-the-go, including:

• Intuit Loan Finder, guiding entrepreneurs on a path to “yes” when seeking short-term cash or long-term financing. It carries an approval rate of 70 percent, twice the national average.
• Intuit Health Debit Card, an affordable way for small businesses to give employees health coverage without complicated health plans and deductibles. It lets employers set aside pretax dollars in a Health Reimbursement Account debit card that employees can use to cover costs such as doctor’s visits and prescriptions.
• Intuit Tax Online Mobile, the first commercial mobile app from Intuit’s Accounting Professionals Division, gives accounting professionals anytime, anywhere access to client’s tax information. This shortens the process of answering clients’ questions and checking an e-file status from one day to 30 seconds.
• Intuit PaymentNetwork, which helps small businesses receive payments simply and affordably online. This can shorten the time small businesses wait to get paid, currently estimated at 48 days.
• Intuit Partner Platform, which expands the power of QuickBooks through third-party applications. The platform unveiled Intuit Anywhere, a way for developers to reach millions of small business customers and build QuickBooks data integration directly into their Web and mobile apps.
  
  
  
   

Smart Financial Choices Within Arm?s Reach

The consumer lineup showcased products that help people manage finances everywhere, from the comfort of home to the local park or café, including:

• Mobile Banking with Purchase Rewards, which helps consumers bank, shop and save while on the go. Online and mobile banking customers save money through discounts offered by merchants they already know, without having to deal with the hassle of coupons.
• MicroMint on WIMM, a concept product that allows people to check their account balances on a wristwatch-sized micro-Android device.
  
  
   

Managing and Organizing Health and Wealth

In addition, other featured products help people to simply manage the day-to-day necessities of life, including:

• Intuit Health Patient Portal, which ensures the doctor is always “in” by improving doctor-patient interactions through an online, and now mobile, service. Patients can do everything at their convenience, from making appointments to refilling prescriptions with just a few clicks, eliminating phone tag and making doctor’s offices more efficient.
• Weave, a mobile app that organizes everything from daily activities to expenses and income on a mobile phone.

By harnessing the power of big data for the little guy, Intuit has developed new analytical products and services geared toward consumers and small businesses alike. This information helps answer critical questions of how their spending patterns, expenses and revenue compares to others like them, and includes:

• Mint Consumer Spending Insights, which aggregates anonymous data from Mint users on consumers’ spending patterns and will be the foundation for a formal consumer spending index in the future.
• Intuit Small Business Revenue Index, which provides an early look at one of the first indicators of aggregated and anonymous information on current monthly small business revenue overall and by industry. It will complement the monthly Intuit Small Business Employment Index by providing a more complete picture of the health of U.S. small businesses.
   

Exporting Innovation, Strengthening Business

As part of Intuit’s strategy to expand its geographic footprint and tap into new markets, vignettes also displayed products available in the United Kingdom and India, including:

• MyBizTracker, a mobile app that makes it easier for U.K. small businesses to keep their finances in check while on-the-go. Among other features, it helps businesses keep track of and see a running total of income, expenses and balances, capture and store photo records of invoices, bills and receipts, and helps to avoid penalties with tax deadline reminders.
• Fasal, which uses text messaging to create an information marketplace and help farmers get the best prices for their produce. On average, farmers receive up to 20 percent more money at market.

Further information about all Intuit products is available at www.intuit.com.

About Intuit Inc.

Intuit Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including QuickBooks®, Quicken® and TurboTax®, simplify small business management and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are Intuit's leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants. Intuit Financial Services helps banks and credit unions grow by providing on-demand solutions and services that make it easier for consumers and businesses to manage their money.

Founded in 1983, Intuit had annual revenue of $3.9 billion in its fiscal year 2011. The company has approximately 8,000 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.

Introducing Mobile VoIP for Android Smartphone

A recent smartphone study by Nielsen reports that almost half of U.S. mobile subscribers now own smartphones (49.7%) with 48 percent of smartphone owners saying they owned an Android device. In addition, a recent survey by AT&T reported 85% of small businesses have adopted smartphones, with first-time buyers favoring Androids by a wide margin.

RingCentral already offers VoIP calling for iPhones. So we’re excited to announce the launch of the RingCentral app for Android to enable VoIP calling on your Android smartphone. With VoIP, your phone uses your data plan or WiFi when available to enable voice calls, so you don’t have to consume expensive minutes from your carrier’s cellphone plan.

http://blog.ringcentral.com/2012/03/introducing-mobile-voip-for-android-smartphone.html

Basketball Brackets Give Way to Tax Brackets

Basketball Brackets Give Way to Tax Brackets
H&R Block can help on-the-go tax filers save time and money with mobile filing apps

FOR RELEASE MAR 28, 2012

While mobile technology brings the latest tournament basketball scores and bracket updates to fans’ smartphones, it also brings tax filing to the fingertips of tax return filing procrastinators. In roughly the time it takes for a TV timeout, taxpayers can complete and file a tax return using the latest in mobile technology.

In addition to checking brackets on a smartphone or tablet, taxpayers can easily and quickly file a federal form for free with H&R Block. On the iPad tablet, filing the 1040, 1040A and 1040EZ forms is free all tax season. Taxpayers with smartphones can file both a simple federal form and state form completely free through April 17 using the industry’s only fully free mobile tax filing products. Just download the free H&R Block At Home™ 1040EZ app on the iPhone and an Android smartphones, and the rest is a slam dunk. 

“While the hoops tournament is down to its final four teams, taxpayers can score an easy victory with H&R Block’s entirely free mobile filing app for federal 1040EZ and state tax returns using our iPhone and Android apps,” said Jason Houseworth, president of digital tax solutions at H&R Block. 

$100,000 Sweepstakes Count Down
Even if their team is no longer playing, H&R Block At Home clients can still win big in the company’s $100,000 Grand Prize Giveaway. To date more than 1,200 clients across the country have won more than $200,000 in the sweepstakes by using the H&R Block At Home digital tax filing products. 

In addition to the $100,000 grand prize that will be awarded after April 17, daily cash prizes of $50, $100 and $500 are given away every hour, all day through April 17 to taxpayers who file their tax returns using the H&R Block At Home software, online or iPad tablet products. For the official rules and other sweepstakes information, visit www.hrbathomegiveaway.com/shared.

The H&R Block At Home products offer the H&R Block guarantees of free audit support, free audit representation, accurate calculations and the maximum tax refund to which the taxpayer is entitled.

H&R Block’s tax professionals provide guaranteed tax return preparation services in-person at retail tax offices open year-round and through Block Live^SM, the only face-to-face online tax preparation experience available in the industry. Do-it-yourself filers benefit from the expertise and guidance of The Tax Institute at H&R Block^® when using H&R Block At Home™ on their computers, tablets and smart phones. Because understanding taxes is an integral part of managing personal finances, H&R Block keeps the conversation going with clients all year via blogs, tweets and Facebook status updates.

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Accenture Develops Innovative Mobile App for the “Lux in Arcana – The Vatican Secret Archive Reveals Itself” Exhibition Featuring Never-Before-Seen Vatican Documents

Note to visitors: We have moved!  For current news and information, please visit our successor blogs:  http://JBK-BizTech.blogspot.com and http://JBK-Current-Events.blogspot.com.  Thank you.


Accenture Develops Innovative Mobile App for the “Lux in Arcana – The Vatican Secret Archive Reveals Itself” Exhibition Featuring Never-Before-Seen Vatican Documents

 Related Assets

March 28, 2012

Accenture Develops Innovative Mobile App for the “Lux in Arcana – The Vatican Secret Archive Reveals Itself” Exhibition Featuring Never-Before-Seen Vatican Documents

App enables all 100 priceless documents of the exhibition to be accessible

 on smartphones and tablet PCs; also features augmented reality solutions

ROME; March. 28, 2012 — Accenture (NYSE: ACN) announced today that it has developed a free mobile app that delivers rich multimedia content to the fingertips of visitors to an unprecedented exhibition featuring documents held in the Secret Vatican Archive that have never before been seen by the public and now can be admired at the Capitoline Museums in Rome.

The exhibition “Lux in Arcana – The Vatican Secret Archives Reveals Itself” features, among other things, documents such as ciphered letters, manuscripts, codices, and ancient parchments. The materials date from the eighth to the 20^th century and the exhibition marks the first time they have ever been shown away from Vatican City.  The items were unveiled at theCapitoline Museums in Rome on Feb. 29 and will remain on exhibit thru Sept. 9 of this year.

The mobile app developed by Accenture, which is the official technology partner of the exhibition, significantly enhances the experience of users by delivering supplemental details about the historical items to their smartphones and tablets for both Apple and Android. For example, the app displays technical data, photos and images, provides detailed background information, and features rich, multimedia content. The app allows users to see the documents by alphabetical or chronological order, by the typology (letter, agreement, papal document, etc.) and by the location in the Capitoline Museums halls. Visitors can also follow the path of the exhibition listening to the audio guide feature available through the app.

“Accenture has been an outstanding technology partner and we’re very pleased with the unique user experience that their mobile app delivers”, said Luca Carboni, General Secretary of the Secret Vatican Archive. “We believe the people expected to visit the exhibition will benefit tremendously from the rich content they can access through their devices as they tour the various exhibits.”

The app also features an “augmented reality” capability that can be used outside of the museum at some historical sites in Rome.  One example is the statue of Giordano Bruno in the piazza Campo de’ Fiori. Giordano Bruno, a Dominican friar and philosopher, was burned at the stake in 1600’s after being judged a heretic by the Tribunal of the Roman Inquisition. The app allows visitors to focus their smartphone or tablet on the statue and see Bruno’s pyre burst into flames on the device’s display.  It also allows visitors to open special contents related to Giordano Bruno’s trial and to call up videos with more information on his life and his ideas. Augmented reality is available also for the angels of the Castel Sant’Angelo bridge, carved by the Bernini, and for the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, close to the place where Galileo Galilei abjured.

“We’re delighted to be the official technology sponsor of this extraordinary and unprecedented exhibition from the Secret Vatican Archive,” said Fabio Benasso, country managing director,Accenture Italy. “Our country possesses a treasure trove of culture and art that reflects many of the world’s most historical events and should be shared by as many people as possible.

As an integral and longstanding member of the Italian business community, Accenture is proud to support this important initiative celebrating this part of Italy’s cultural heritage.”

The app is available in Italian and English, and is compatible with almost all mobile devices.  It can be downloaded from the Apple store or Google Play for free.

The exhibition “Lux in Arcana – The Vatican Secret Archive Reveals Itself” was conceived for the occasion of the fourth centenary of the Secret Vatican Archives foundation, in collaboration with Roma Capitale, Assessorato alle Politiche Culturali e Centro Storico - Sovraintendenza ai Beni Culturali di Roma and Zètema Progetto Cultura.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 246,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

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Android 4.0 Now Available to HTC Vivid Customers

Android 4.0 Now Available to HTC Vivid™ Customers

AT&T the First U.S. Carrier to Issue Latest Android Version via Upgrade Update Includes Beats By Dr. Dre Audio™ and Updated HTC Sense™ Experience Android Upgrades for Several AT&T Devices to Follow

Dallas, Texas, March 22, 2012

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AT&T* today announced the availability of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) for HTC Vivid™ customers.  After installing the software update, customers can now enjoy the optimized audio experience of Beats by Dr. Dre Audio™ and new and improved HTC Sense™ experience.  Information about these features and more can be found at http://www.att.com/vividupdate.  HTC Vivid™ will be the first U.S. smartphone to receive Ice Cream Sandwich as an update and the first to be issued by a wireless carrier.  It will be followed by several other AT&T devices in the coming months:

·         LG Nitro

·         Motorola ATRIX 2

·         Motorola ATRIX 4G

·         Pantech Burst

·         Pantech Element

·         Samsung Captivate Glide

·         Samsung Galaxy Note

·         Samsung Galaxy S II

·         Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket

·         Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9

Focused on bringing the power of Android to the surface, Android 4.0 makes common actions more visible and lets you navigate with simple, intuitive gestures. Refined animations and feedback throughout the system make interactions engaging and interesting. An entirely new typeface optimized for high-resolution screens improves readability and brings a polished, modern feel to the user interface.

New User Features for HTC Vivid

Beats By Dr. Dre Audio™ - Enhance your music and video experience with Beats By Dr. Dre Audio. Whenever a media file is played using the media players or most third party applications, customers will experience richer, more authenic sound. AT&T recently debuted the Beats™ by Dr. Dre™ Beatbox Portable high performance wireless audio system.  The superior portable system and Beats accessories are available at AT&T company-owned stores or online.

Face Unlock - Android 4.0 introduces a completely new approach to securing a device, making each person's device even more personal — Face Unlock is a new screen-lock option that lets you unlock your device using facial recognition. It takes advantage of the device’s front-facing camera and state-of-the-art facial recognition technology to register a face during setup and then to recognize it again when unlocking the device. Just hold your device in front of your face to unlock, or use a backup PIN or pattern.

How to Upgrade

Beginning today, customers can download the update via Wi-Fi by visitinghttp://www.att.com/vividupdate. If Wi-Fi is not available, you can download the software upgrade to a PC and install it via sideload. On March 23, HTC Vivid customers who have not downloaded the upgrade will begin receiving an SMS notification of upgrade availability.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

Broadcom Introduces New Location Architecture

Broadcom Introduces New Location Architecture with Advanced Multi-Constellation and Indoor Positioning Support

Smartphone Location Platform Delivers 10X Improved Acquisition Performance and Leverages Broadcom Wireless Connectivity for Indoor Positioning

IRVINE, Calif., March 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

News Highlights:

• 10x acquisition performance improvement delivers faster and more accurate position computation
• Leading 40nm CMOS process reduces power consumption by 50 percent and board area by 44 percent
• Ability to leverage sensors, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC enables innovative consumer applications
• Integration on recently announced Broadcom BCM28155 platform brings feature-rich location functionality to Android 4.0 smartphones

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today introduced a new location architecture to provide more responsive outdoor and indoor positioning capabilities for smartphone devices. With proven third-generation multi-constellation support and tight integration with sensor components and Broadcom's industry-leading connectivity sub-system, the new solution opens the door to innovative applications, such as indoor positioning and place-based mobile commerce. For more news, visit Broadcom'sNewsroom.

The architecture features a new Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) chip that significantly reduces time-to-first-fix (TTFF) for outdoor positioning applications, cutting the time smartphone users have to wait when first checking their position. The platform solution also uses data from inertial sensors, Wi-Fi access points (including those based on recently announced 5G WiFi) and future technologies such as Bluetooth beacons to enable ground breaking indoor positioning capabilities, such as "personal shopper" applications that can direct users to specific stores within shopping malls, and even specific shelves within those stores. In addition, platform integration with NFC enables smarter, more secure mobile payments, with users able to specify countries, cities or even stores where digital wallets can be used. 

The Broadcom® BCM4752 GNSS chip provides the industry's most advanced multi-constellation support by simultaneously collecting data from four satellite constellations (GPS, GLONASS, QZSS and SBAS) and using the best received signals, resulting in faster searches and more accurate real-time navigation. Building on the success of previous GNSS chips, Broadcom's multi-constellation technology, coupled with advanced signal processing, provides faster positioning performance for improved user experience, especially in challenging urban environments where buildings and obstructions can dramatically impact accuracy and time-to-fix.

The new chip and accompanying software benefit from tight integration with Broadcom's InConcert® wireless connectivity sub-system, featuring the most advanced and complete technology offering in the industry. By developing its various connectivity components to operate as a unified system, Broadcom can offer more expansive location features that extend beyond GNSS capabilities.

Key Features and Benefits:

• Enhances performance and reliability:
  • Industry-breakthrough acquisition engine with advanced multipath mitigation techniques provides faster time-to-first-fix performance in challenging environments, as well as a more accurate urban navigation experience.
  • Multi-constellation capability collects data from four satellite constellations (GPS, GLONASS, QZSS and SBAS) simultaneously and uses the best received signals, resulting in faster signal searches and more accurate real-time navigation.
• Lowest board space, power consumption and cost:
  • Fabricated in 40nm process, the BCM4752 is the industry's smallest size GNSS chip, accounting for 44 percent less board space in a device.
  • Integration of key components such a low noise amplifier (LNA) enables lowest bill of materials cost.
  • The BCM4752 uses 50 percent less power than previous generations, allowing location-aware applications to remain active for longer periods of time. 
  • New applications such as "geofencing" that provide alerts or services based on location can be completely off-loaded from the smartphone's CPU for ultra-low system power operation.
• Opens doors to new applications, with a proven software platform capable of:
  • Ground-breaking indoor positioning through integration of Wi-Fi (including 5G WiFi), Bluetooth low energy, NFC and handset inertial sensor data into positioning applications.
  • Industry-leading urban navigation by applying handset inertial sensor readings into the position computation.
  • Best in class assisted GNSS (AGNSS) with both GPS and GLONASS assistance data available worldwide fromBroadcom's hosted reference network.

Availability

The BCM4752 is production ready and shipping to early access partners.

For ongoing news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom, read the B-Connected Blog, or visit Facebook or Twitter. And to stay connected, subscribe to Broadcom's RSS Feed.

Quotes:

Scott Pomerantz, Broadcom's Vice President & General Manager, GPS

"The astounding growth of mobile devices is driving new opportunities for inventive applications that make these devices even smarter and more location aware. As the leader in GNSS and wireless connectivity, Broadcom is ideally positioned to drive this next wave of innovation.  As our third generation multi-constellation solution, the BCM4752 and advanced location software bring together GNSS, sensors, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC to make these applications a reality." 

Patrick Connolly, Senior Analyst, Telematics and Navigation, ABI Research

"Demand for GNSS-enabled consumer devices continues to grow strongly with new vertical markets providing new opportunities. As consumers increasingly turn to their mobile devices for advanced navigation assistance, advances to signal processing, multi-constellation support and indoor location and positioning applications and technologies will only propel this demand further."