IBM And Honeywell's Barcode Scanning App Will Speed Up Your Grocery Run
Retailers big and small are cultivating a mobile-rich approach to their brick and mortar stores, rigging up their stores with swipe spots for your NFC-capable mobile wallet and replacing checkout tills with iPads. That change is bleeding into the pre-payment shopping experience as well. IBM and Honeywell just announced a new mobile app that lets customers scan and price their shopping as they pluck an item from the shop shelf and deposit it in their cart. The app is available for Android and iOS devices, and can scan any barcode on a product, "no matter what background it is printed on, the direction it faces, or the packaging covering it." The idea is, a customer can scan and check prices at will, then make a speedy exit through an IBM self-checkout station. (According to IBM research, self-checkouts themselves are hugely popular.) Coupons and promotions are included in the app, IBM says in a release.
Android APIs Safe In Google-Oracle Patent Fight
A California judge has ruled to cut Android out of the patent court battle between Google and Oracle. Oracle laid claim to Google's blockbuster mobile OS with charges that Google had violated rights to Oracle's Java APIs while creating Android. APIs, or application programming interfaces are bits of code that link different bits of software. Google's response was that an open source language cannot be patented--an argument a San Francisco judge agreed with. In a ruling, Judge Alsup (who learned to code in Java) decreed that the 37 APIs in question were free to use, though his ruling does not extend to other APIs.
Windows 8 Preview Hits, iPad-Challenging Tablets Coming In Its Wake
Microsoft has finally drawn the curtain on its public preview edition of Windows 8, it's next-generation operating system. This release is the final, near-complete preview of Win8 before its commercial release as a finished product, and gives Microsoft the chance to get the OS beta-tested by millions of people. Microsoft is counting on Win8 to ensure its future in the computing game, which has swung radically away from its traditional market with the boom in mobile computing and through innovations like the iPad. Acer, Toshiba, and Asus--all big-name PC makers usually aligned with Microsoft--are simultaneously said to be ready to reveal their Windows 8 tablets next week at the Computex show. Tablet sales will, MS hopes, win it a share of the booming mobile apps economy--said to be worth $58 billion.
Retailers big and small are cultivating a mobile-rich approach to their brick and mortar stores, rigging up their stores with swipe spots for your NFC-capable mobile wallet and replacing checkout tills with iPads. That change is bleeding into the pre-payment shopping experience as well. IBM and Honeywell just announced a new mobile app that lets customers scan and price their shopping as they pluck an item from the shop shelf and deposit it in their cart. The app is available for Android and iOS devices, and can scan any barcode on a product, "no matter what background it is printed on, the direction it faces, or the packaging covering it." The idea is, a customer can scan and check prices at will, then make a speedy exit through an IBM self-checkout station. (According to IBM research, self-checkouts themselves are hugely popular.) Coupons and promotions are included in the app, IBM says in a release.
Android APIs Safe In Google-Oracle Patent Fight
A California judge has ruled to cut Android out of the patent court battle between Google and Oracle. Oracle laid claim to Google's blockbuster mobile OS with charges that Google had violated rights to Oracle's Java APIs while creating Android. APIs, or application programming interfaces are bits of code that link different bits of software. Google's response was that an open source language cannot be patented--an argument a San Francisco judge agreed with. In a ruling, Judge Alsup (who learned to code in Java) decreed that the 37 APIs in question were free to use, though his ruling does not extend to other APIs.
Windows 8 Preview Hits, iPad-Challenging Tablets Coming In Its Wake
Microsoft has finally drawn the curtain on its public preview edition of Windows 8, it's next-generation operating system. This release is the final, near-complete preview of Win8 before its commercial release as a finished product, and gives Microsoft the chance to get the OS beta-tested by millions of people. Microsoft is counting on Win8 to ensure its future in the computing game, which has swung radically away from its traditional market with the boom in mobile computing and through innovations like the iPad. Acer, Toshiba, and Asus--all big-name PC makers usually aligned with Microsoft--are simultaneously said to be ready to reveal their Windows 8 tablets next week at the Computex show. Tablet sales will, MS hopes, win it a share of the booming mobile apps economy--said to be worth $58 billion.
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