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Apple hires former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to boost environmental efforts
We're used to Apple's CEO teasing product strategies at D Conferences, but not staffing changes. And yet, here we are: Tim Cook has revealed at D11 that former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson is joining Apple to coordinate the firm's drive toward eco-friendliness. While there are few specifics at this stage, including Jackson's title, we know that she'll report directly to Cook. There's certainly no shortage of tasks for her to handle: along with Apple's shift toward renewable energy sources, she also has to worry about the environmental impact of the products themselves.
Facebook considered building an operating system for Facebook Home, but wanted greater reach
"The [story behind the history of Home] was about making an experience that flows through friends and people. We saw three ways that we could do this. One, we could go and build an operating system. Second, we could dig into Android deeply in order to see how we could we fundamentally change / fork Android to make it different. Or, we could build an app to make it different." Those were the words just spoken by Cory Ondrejka -- the director of mobile engineering at Facebook -- here at D: Dive Into Mobile in NYC. This, in fact, confirms that Facebook not only gave thought to actually crafting its own operating system in order to usher Facebook Home into the world, but moved forward with prototypes. Host Kara Swisher asked the duo how far along things actually got, to which Ondrejka replied: "The OS path was the least fleshed-out of the paths. Mark [Zuckerberg] talked on launch day that he wanted to build something for everyone. It's hard to get to the type of scale that's necessary for us [when building an OS]. We wanted Home in front of hundreds of millions of people -- even a successful OS would only give that experience to a few of them." The two continued to talk about Facebook's internal shift into mobile. At this point, the company has broken down most every wall between desktop and mobile, and Home is the first major product to ship under this new scenario. "You can see the engines throttling up," Schroepfer said, speaking of how fast updates will soon be coming to iOS, Android and beyond. In fact, he confirmed that the first major update to Home was coming "during the second week of May," while international users will start to get Home access on select Android phones today. And, while Facebookers have been testing Home on tablets, it wants to truly nail the experience on phones first before pushing it elsewhere.
Facebook updating iPhone and iPad app to add chat head support... today
First, the bad news. Facebook Home isn't coming to iOS anytime soon due to the underlying technologies that restrict the way apps interact with the iPhone's operating system. Now, the good news: Facebook is pushing an update to its iOS app right now that'll add support for chat heads. Mike Schroepfer, CTO and vice president of engineering at Facebook, just announced the news here at D: Dive Into Mobile, and if all goes well, you should see the update hit your own device later in the day. According to Schroepfer: "The goal from the beginning was to get this experience into everyone's hands. As part of that, we're shortly going to announce an update to our iOS app that'll add chat heads. Multiple messages, multiple threads, same design, etc. You have to be within the app -- that's a limitation of iOS. You can't draw across other apps when you aren't in the app."
Eric Schmidt: Google now at 1.5 million Android activations per day
There's a Google exec speaking at a tech conference, and that means one thing: more Android statistics. At Dive Into Mobile today, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt confirmed that the company is now seeing 1.5 million Android activations per day, which is up from 1.3 million per day last fall and 1.4 million as of last month (seemingly an uptick after a short period of slower growth). Schmidt also says that the company remains on track for one billion total devices by the end of the year, which would be a sizeable increase from the 750 million that CEO Larry Page confirmed in his most recent statement last month. Schmidt further notes that the key to that future growth -- or reaching the "next five billion people looking to get connected," as he puts it -- will be the $100 price point, something he suggests they'll quickly get to.
Liveblog: Google's Eric Schmidt at Dive Into Mobile 2013
Fresh off of a trip to North Korea, Google's executive chairman has found himself on stage here in New York City. Eric Schmidt is kicking off the second day of D: Dive Into Mobile 2013 here in the Big Apple, and we're just a few feet away -- you know, so we can liveblog every last word of it. And, to ogle his fashionable sneakers. For those looking for a glimpse into yesteryear, you can relive our liveblog from Schmidt's D9 keynote in 2011 right here. Head on past the break for today's interview!
Microsoft's Terry Myerson senses no urgency with iOS, calls Android 'a mess,' says WP8 is most successful in non-subsidized markets
Terry Myerson, who took over as corporate vice president of Microsoft's Windows Phone division following Andy Lees' departure in 2011, is helping to kick off the second day of D: Dive Into Mobile here in New York City. Right out of the gate, host Ina Fried asked where Windows Phone is seeing the most success. The response? "When you think about the world, there are markets where operators are subsidizing phones, and then there are markets where they aren't. We're seeing the most success in markets where operators are not subsidizing the phone. What happens in the subsidized market -- the market that Apple and Samsung have chosen to focus on -- is that the best innovation happens in the $650 product that's sold for $200. For us, the momentum we're building is with building a phone we can offer for less than $650 [unsubsidized]. Getting to 20 percent share in Mexico or Poland, that's the opportunity." %Gallery-185796%
Xiaomi president Lin Bin aims to ship 15 million superphones in 2013, expand sales beyond Asia
Lin Bin, co-founder and president of Xiaomi Corporation, has only been in the business of selling high-spec Android phones for three years. But yet, here he is, talking on stage at D:Dive Into Mobile about just how successful his outfit has become. "No sales, no marketing, no retail -- we price our phones at the bill-of-materials," said Lin. That probably sounds like a recipe for disaster in the United States, but it's working exceptionally well in Asia. Lin stated that Xiaomi has reached a clip of around $2 billion in revenue on 1.7 million phones, and in 2013 it's hoping to ship 15 million handsets. For those who've been paying attention, you'd know that Xiaomi is hawking unsubsidized superphones -- packing the latest and greatest components -- for well under $400. And they're selling out within minutes. "Last year, when we announced the Mi2, for 3-4 months we'd have hundreds of thousands of units available, and they'd be gone within two or three minutes after we posted availability online. We're working hard on distribution -- China is big, and we're aiming to get phones into hands in just three days after purchase." %Gallery-185703%
Waze CEO Noam Bardin: the future of mobile is fighting for a user's time
Noam Bardin, CEO of Waze, just took the stage here at D:Dive Into Mobile, taking part in a wide-ranging discussion hosted by Liz Gannes. Aside from dodging questions about potential acquisitions, Bardin made no bones about how he saw the future of mobile playing out. Of course, this is a man who spends essentially no time focused on the desktop web -- given that Waze is mobile only, one shouldn't be surprised. According to Bardin, "the next five years will be about fighting for time with users," and he pointed to Facebook Home as the de facto example of that. Rather than crafting their own OS and "doing what Microsoft has done -- fighting a war that ended five years ago" -- Facebook decided to make a time play on a massive OS. From there, Bardin confessed that in major markets, he sees Waze as Google's "only real competition." %Gallery-185706%
Mozilla CEO talks Firefox OS release details, app ecosystems and carrier bloatware
Gary Kovacs, (current) CEO of Mozilla, just took the stage here at D:Dive Into Mobile 2013 in New York City. It's apt to be his last major stage appearance before stepping aside in order to "go back to his roots," as described here, and hosts Ina Fried and Walt Mossberg were on hand to grill him on ongoing developments before he heads for other pastures. To start, Walt asked why the browser needed to be the operating system on a phone. Kovacs' reply? "The browser doesn't need to be the operating system; it needs to incorporate the web. Such that discovery is easy, such that multiple stores can be accessed from the device -- so we aren't locked in, or generally encouraged to be locked within a single ecosystem." %Gallery-185697%
