Xpertfeed

Three mobile tech advances that would be great in 2014 Summary:  Next year could be a great year in mobile tech if these advances become reality. It's time to put 2013 behind us and look forward to next year. Call these predictions, wishes, or guesses, but these three mobile tech advances would be nice to see in 2014. Tech advances in 2014 iPad bump Apple's been accused of just incrementally improving the iPad for a few years, even though the iPad Air's weight loss was impressive in 2013. What I'd like to see in 2014 is a major push forward, with a surprising big technology jump. One such jump that would be impressive is an improvement in battery technology. Imagine an iPad Air with double its already good battery life. This is feasible as Apple has a solid track record of putting decent battery life in the iPad, even while improving performance. An iPad Air with 20+ hours on a charge while keeping the size of the current tablet from Apple would b...

Microsoft's Roslyn 'compiler as a service' inches forward Summary:  Microsoft is now compiling internally its daily Visual Studio builds using its 'Roslyn' compiler technology. Could a new preview and/or final release be happening soon?Lets wait and see. Microsoft is internally dogfooding its "Roslyn" compiler as a service technology, and is  compiling internal daily builds of Visual Studio using "Roslyn." That update, courtesy of a Microsoft  December 16 blog post , is the first Microsoft has shared about its Roslyn technology in more than a year. Microsoft's Roslyn effort is about re-architecting the C# and VB compilers to support "compiler as a service" (CaaS) scenarios. Currently, a compiler is a black box; with Roslyn, Microsoft is working on opening it up so that all of the information processed via a compiler is available in application programming interface (API) form. Microsoft's most recent Roslyn desc...

Biometric smartphones to become mainstream in 2014, Ericsson says Summary:  Following the release of the fingerprint sensor-enabled iPhone 5s, more smartphone makers could soon jump on the bandwagon, if Ericsson's predictions prove true. By the end of 2014, a wealth of new smartphones could come with biometric technology, such as fingerprint recognition hardware. In September, Apple released the iPhone 5s, which  included a fingerprint reader , in the hope of bolstering security and improving usability. And other mobile makers, keen to jump on the biometric bandwagon, could soon embed the technology in their own devices. According to new research by mobile network maker Ericsson, which  polled 100,000 people  over 40 countries, about 74 percent of respondents said they believe biometric smartphones "will become mainstream" during 2014.  More than half at 52 percent want to use their fingerprints instead of a complex alphanumeric combination of letters...

Amazon pilots cash-on-delivery service in India Summary:  E-commerce giant is reportedly testing the service with India Post to cater to customers who don't want to make upfront payments, and in a country where 80 percent of online transactions are completed with cash-on-delivery. Amazon is reportedly trialing a cash-on-delivery service in India, tapping the country's 150-year-old postal service to fulfil its last-mile service.   Citing sources familiar with the issue,  The Economic Times reported  that the e-commerce giant had commenced a pilot with India Post to tap the country's young but growing e-commerce market. The postal service operates India's largest distribution network with over 150,000 branches across the country, 89 percent of which are located in rural areas.  An India Post official, who declined to be named, said in the report: "We are trying to add capabilities like cash on delivery and reverse logistics. Consumers don'...