Apple’s Deal with Chip Designer Renesas

Apple, it is reported by Japan’s largest business daily, is likely to buy the unit of a Japan based chipmaker that makes display related chip for Smartphone and is looking into acquiring controlling interest and eyeing the unit of Renesas Electronics that would help to improve image sharpness and battery life. Renesas SP Drivers is a joint venture between Renesas, Sharp and Taiwan’s Powerchip and Apple would acquire Renesas’s entire 55 percent stake for 50 billion yen ($479 million).

If the deal gets struck with Renesas, Sharp Corp would be selling all its shares in Renesas SP Drivers to Apple if the US company requests for such a transaction after a deal with Renesas, it was reported.

Sharp owns about 25 percent of the venture with Powerchip handling the manufacturing, holds the remaining 20 percent. According to Nikkei, Renesas SP Drivers being a leading supplier of driver and controller chips for small and midsize LCDs has a share of around one third of the global market. Display driver and controller chips both play a key role in the display’s quality, power efficiency and performance.

Improvement on Future iPhones

Apple’s discussion with Renesas comes as an improvement on future iPhone with larger displays for users familiar with it. As mobile screens grow larger and sharper, handset makers are heading in finding ways to make phone displays more energy efficient making them thinner.

According to Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Mark Newman, he states that `for iPhone to maintain its premium image, it has to keep pushing its technology forward especially in displays’, which is very true since user are always seeking to get more updated versions on their products.

Chip Expertise In-house

With the share of the Smartphone market falling, Apple it seems to be bringing in more chip expertise in-house heading in being a chip giant. Apple has already bought in a host of chip related companies which include PA Semi that designed and sold semi conductors and Intrinsity, a designer of ARM processor cores.

Both these chip companies have enabled Apple to move processor design expertise in-house, the result of which can be seen in cutting edge silicon like the 64 bit A7 which powers the iPhone 5S, iPad Mini Retina as well as iPad Air. According to business daily, it was reported that Apple expects to complete the stake purchase by summer and most of the unit’s 240 or more, employees in Japan are likely to stay on after the transfer that Apple is keen on completing in summer.

As Apple has relied on multiple suppliers for components, to gets all its iPhone liquid crystal display chips from Renesas SP and with image quality being a crucial thing for Smartphone, Apple probably would want to meld the design of core display components into an overall product development.

Apple acquired Israel based flash memory startup Anobit in 2012 and recently purchased PrimeSense, the 3D sensor company behind the Microsoft’s Kinect sensor. Apple’s share fell to 15.2% last year on global Smartphone shipments, with less than half of archrival Samsung with China’s Huawei along with other low cost competitors hot on its tail.

Microsoft Brings Office Suite to Apple’s iPad" For Free

Office Suite Version in Word/Excel/PowerPoint

It is reported that Microsoft will be bringing its Office Suite of products to the iPads driving the point home of its long rumored version of Microsoft Office for iPads which trailed the iPhone and Android versions of software by nine months with the software going live in the iOS App Store, very soon. The Office Suite version comes with Word, Excel and PowerPoint and is available only for iPads running and can create and edit files created in other versions of the software.

They also feature the same OneDrive integration as the Windows as well as mobile version; the tablet application seems to be more capable than the mobile versions. Microsoft states that the app will preserve the formatting and visual fidelity of documents which are created on other platforms. This application would be available at no cost, though it comes with some strings attached.

Users can download the application from the App Store without an Office 365 subscription wherein they can only view and read data files but not edit them. If the need to create, improve or edit documents, an Office 365 subscription would be needed which would cost around $100 a year, as related by Business Insider.

Empowering to be Productive Across all Devices

Office seems to be the most important product for Microsoft. Microsoft is taking the risk of making Office irrelevant and though it is a bit late, its decision could be right in deciding to bring Office to the iPad. Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, states that Microsoft is willing to take risk and this move seemed important since it indicates a mindset change at Microsoft.

According to Microsoft, Office for the iPad does not seem to be an altered version of the Windows suite but made brand new for the iPad which appears to blend in smoothly on the iPad and according to Business Insider, Microsoft had invested in making the transition seamless. Microsoft has also stated that bringing Office to iPad was a way to empower people enabling them to be productive and work more across all devices.

Value Added Features

The Office for iPad in general retains some of the value added features which could be associated with Office inclusive of the ability in tracking changes and co-author documents. While tracking changes on its part does take up bulk of the Review menu in Word for iPad, it does seems to be well implemented and co-authoring support enables users to work on a document simultaneously.

Apple on its part is very much excited that the software is coming to its ecosystem. Apple spokesperson, Trudy Muller informed CNET in an email stating that they were excited that Office is coming to iPad mentioning that it was a new addition to its many existing productivity app already available for the tablet like iWork, Evernote and Paper by FiftyThree.

A Quiet update to Office Mobile for iPhone has also been issued by Microsoft and the version 1.1 of the software updates the application for iOS 7 eliminating the requirement of Office subscription. Moreover the viewing and editing of documents stored in OneDrive would be free to the user with Microsoft account irrespective of their subscription status.

My Passport Pro – Thunderbolt Powered Dual Drive Solution

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Company and world leader in storage solution recently introduced My Passport Pro, one of the first portable Thunderbolt powered dual drive solution, enabling creative professionals as well as enthusiasts, high performance and capacity in mobile solution. With user selectable RAID functionality, for MAC system, it delivers the needed performance for the most demanding application without the power adapter or extra cable and is available in the capacities of 2 TB and 4 TB. The drive is suitable for graphics professional on the lookout for high performance or consumers in need of reliable mirroring.

Western Digital’s slim line Passport drive is a good option for portable back-ups and is fairly a conventional hard drives with capabilities of high speed storage. My Passport Pro includes a Thunderbolt interface with twin hard disk which by default come configured as RAID 0 (striping) for maximum performance. WD’s Drive Utilities software can also be used to change configuration to RAID 1 (mirroring) for extra data processing, plain old JBOD for disks and will be available on OS X desktop.

Reliable for Creative Work

My Passport Pro is quite reliable to get the creative work from the field back to the studio which is powered by integrated Thunderbolt cable for true portability with speed as high as 233 MB/s for most of the demanding applications. There is no USB 3.0/2.0 port as the USB would not provide sufficient power for two internal disks and it cannot be used with older pre Thunderbolt Macs. Executive Vice President of branded products and worldwide sales, WD, Jim Welsh, states that `the only Thunderbolt dual drive solution that’s bus powered, WD’s My Passport Pro enhances the workflow of mobile creative professionals by providing fast transfers and data protection for the large amounts of digital content generated outside the studio.

He further stated that `from photographers, videographers and musicians to graphic designers and architects, people depending on portable storage for their livelihood would find My Passport Pro defining a new level of performance, reliability, especially portability’.

My Passport Pro Enables Video Manipulation 

According to Jason Ziller, Intel’s Director of Thunderbolt Marketing, he states that by combining dual storage drives on a portable, bus powered device, the My Passport Pro from WD is a powerful storage solution with high capacity for prevailing demanding users’. Powered directly through the integrated Thunderbolt cable, a design unique to WD, besides providing super fast transfer, also has edit and backup capabilities.

Superior to both FireWire 800 and USB 3.0, the Thunderbolt integrated technology of My Passport Pro enables video manipulation which is quick and easy with the ability to copy a 22 GB high definition video file in half the time that is required by a USB 3.0 drive working in RAID 0 formats. My Passport Pro, consisting of two 2.5 inch hard drives is housed in a sleek aluminum enclosure and is thoroughly shock tested for extra durability for reliable performance when working on the go. It will be available immediately by Apple and other major consumer electronics retailers as well as etailers and the pricing for the 2TB My Passport Pro will be $299.99 while the 4TB will be $429.99 USD.

The Transporter Developer Program By Connected Data

Connected Data has officially announced the Transporter developer program for its transporter platform which will enable third party iOS and OS X developers to integrate their apps with Transporter cloud features together with sync features in their desktop and mobile apps. This announcement is a move that envisages Connected Data challenge with alternatives like Dropbox, Google Drive and Box. Transporter a private cloud storage platform enables to turn any USB drive with Transporter Sync or local storage, original Transporter into a personal cloud storage space which is private and does not have any monthly charges. Brief announcement by Apple has also been done, encouraging application sellers to employ the Transporter tool and discussing Mac addresses in iOS7 while registered developers are now informed that they can use Transporter to deliver localized App Store metadata in bulk.

Transporter – Good Performer

Transporter at $199, is an internet connected 500 GB hard drive which helps users to set up their own private cloud providing access from desktop and mobile with the help of dedicated iOS app, with Dedicated Data adding Dropbox inspired Camera upload feature to the app enabling it to automatically send contents to iOS Photos app over to Transporter. On the other hand, Transporter Sync at $99 is a hockey pucked-sized device which users can attach to external HDD to achieve a similar setup. The Transporter Sync enables the user to use the unused spared hard drive if available into a private cloud, much under $100. The Transporter though not super fast while trying to upload data, is a good performance when the need to access data arises. It is also easy to use as Dropbox while replicating data across location and is far quite cheaper.

Transporter correctly format XML file and locate app metadata 

Being an Apple developed command line delivery tool, the Transporter can also be used to deploy screenshots, rights, pricing and much more. Moreover, the tool can also locate app metadata and correctly format the XML file and developers intending to employ the tool could download the Transporter user guide. The tool can also find app metadata to correctly format the XML file. Developers looking to employ the tool are encouraged to download the Transporter User Guide. Connected Data had also reported that the initial partners for the Transporter developer program will be Smile’s PDFpen for iPad and Readdle’s Scanner Pro who will be receiving updates adding Transporter’s platform as a sync option. Besides these, PrintCentral, hopTo and Trial Pad are also among Connected Data’s partners for the new developer program.

Transporter, a Seamless way to Privately Share, Store, Access

The new program would also be offering consumers as well as businesses, a seamless way to privately share, store as well as access files from any devices, from their favorite applications. Transporter was designed to deliver great experience which users can expect from the cloud native Finder – Explorer integration, automatic sync which can be accessed from anywhere with unlimited sharing without the need of the privacy concerns. Its ecosystem covers millions of users who would be interested in private storage alternative and by integrating the app with Transporter, users can reach a huge growing audience and get a great deal of Transporter experience.

Connected Data Updates 4-Bay Drobo Storage System

4 Bay Storage Devices with Enhanced Support

Connected Data, recently announced that Drobo Gen3, the next generation 4 bay storage devices, a new feature concurrent with its release of the new array, is much faster and cheaper than the previous Drobo models. Its enhanced support also features Apple’s Time Machine backups and Mac owners can now avail the improved Time Machine support in the Drobo Gen3 wherein instead of using an entire drive for Time Machine, they can now maximize their data storage space by way of allocating a fixed amount of capacity for their Time Machine derived backups. If the Drobo array is connected to the favorite Mac and used for Time Machine backup, the backups would take up the entire capacity of the array. It is now possible to set aside part of the total capacity of the Drobo array and work with Time Machine making provision for additional capacity for daily storage.

Drobo’s BeyondRAID Protect Data From Hard Disk

The Drobo 4-bay sports a pair of USB 3.0 ports, priced at US$349 for bare box which can begin filling with any 3.5” SATA II/III drives that one may have. Drobo’s BeyondRAID technology enables the user to mix and match drives in order to start off with smaller drives and change them with higher capacity drives according to their choice. The Drobo is the latest generation storing device and holds true to its design and simplicity making it the most favored desktop storage and protection data solution. Drobe’s BeyondRAID storage technology protects data from hard disk crash which is simple for any user to operate and no expertise is needed to ensure that the data is safe and protected. As long as there is more than a single disk in Drobo, all data on Drobo can be safe even if any of the hard disk tends to fail. Drobo is the easiest array anyone can manage wherein if a drive fails, all that needs to be done is to slid it out and plug in a new one without any tools. Drobo utilizes simple form of thin provisioning enabling the OS in believing it has more capacity than it does and when a larger drive is added the need to reformat and reload your data is not needed.

Dual Failure Protection

Besides this, the new Drobo also features a redesigned architecture with improved speed which is about three times faster than the prevailing ones and array rebuild times which is four times faster than before. Moreover the company has also provided battery backup, giving the new entry more protection from power problems by temporarily storing in progress transactions till the power gets restored. Consumers can opt for dual failure protection, which can reduce the total capacity though it would mean two drives which may tend to fail but with the data safe, this feature could be helpful. Current Drobo owners interesting in migrating to the new device can avail the company’s offer of $50 discount while purchasing the new Drobo through the company’s online store. This deal would be available through June 9, 2014 on sales made through their stores as well as some authorized resellers and the devices will be shipped in late April.