MWC 2017: Apple and SAP Enterprise Partnership Launching First App in March

At Mobile World Congress today, enterprise application software company SAP gave more details about its partnership with Apple, which will result in the creation of a toolset that aims to help developers build “enterprise-grade” apps for iOS. Called the SAP Cloud Platform SDK for iOS, the tools will use Apple’s programming language Swift to present developers and designers with a collection of pre-built UI components and provide easy access to iPhone features (Touch ID, location services, notifications, etc.) in order to “accelerate app development and increase adoption.”

To further the partnership between the two companies, SAP Academy for iOS will be available to developers and include training courses and workshops that teach attendees what they need to know to build apps using the new SDK. The courses provided “will be updated regularly” as Apple and SAP integrate new technologies into the SDK and new roles are added into the program.

Susan Prescott, vice president of Product Marketing, Apple, said: “When we set out on this partnership with SAP, we knew we had an incredible opportunity to transform how people around the world work by combining the innovation and security of iOS with SAP’s leadership in enterprise software.

We’re already seeing the impact that the combination of iOS and SAP brings to businesses to enable better, more efficient and effective processes across industries. Now even more developers will be able to take advantage of the new SDK, and we can’t wait to see how they transform their businesses.”

The first iOS app created from the SAP Cloud Platform SDK aims to improve communication and collaboration within project teams on both iPhone and iPad. Called the “SAP Project Companion,” the app was built for consultants and managers of professional services “who are typically on the go.” It will debut on March 30, 2017 alongside the official launch of the full SAP Cloud Platform SDK for iOS.

Although the SDK has yet to officially launch, an early adopter program is said to have already seen success in a variety of enterprise environments. These include retailers like Burberry, foreign campuses like King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, and interior/exterior design company FunderMax.

“The iOS SDK will help us compete with other universities by providing the best experience for both our students and professors in addition to a top-notch education,” said Abdulmajeed Serajuddin, the manager of IT enterprise applications at KAUST. “Innovapptive, an SAP partner, is working with us through all the critical steps of implementation.”

Apple has previously entered into an enterprise-focused partnership before with IBM, which saw the creation of a collection of “MobileFirst” apps that centered on industry-specific native programs built from the ground up for the iPhone and the iPad. The apps eventually expanded to cover the airline, vehicle transportation, retail, healthcare, and insurance industries.

Tags: SAP, MWC 2017
Discuss this article in our forums

HTC Vive Tracker and Deluxe Audio Strap will soon be available for £100 a piece

HTC announced a couple of new peripherals for its Vive virtual reality headset at the beginning of the year: the Tracker and Deluxe Audio Strap. Both were developed to provide an even more immersive experience on top of what the Vive headset can offer alone.

• HTC Vive review: An experience out of this world
• HTC Vive Tracker preview: Turns baseball bats, guns and more into VR controllers

Fortunately, HTC has now announced when you’ll be able to get your hands on them, and the all important price tag. The Vive Tracker will be the first of the two to launch, and will be available for developers and content creators from the 27 March. Note, that this means if you’re just Joe Public with a Vive headset and want a Tracker, you’ll have to wait a bit longer.

HTC says general consumer availability of the Tracker will be “later in the year”.

We’ve previously had some hands-on time with the Tracker and found it really did add an extra dimension to the game demo we played. That’s the thing with the Tracker, it won’t automatically work with ever Vive game out there, games developers need to build compatibility into their products.

The Deluxe Audio Strap meanwhile, which as its name suggests is an audio upgrade that straps onto the headset, will be available to pre-order from 2 May, also for £100, before shipping in June. The Audio Strap is an adjustable pair of headphones that attaches to the Vive headset, meaning you don’t have to use your own, something we found to be a bit irksome in our review.

Watch Huawei’s P10 MWC event in under 15 minutes

Huawei took much longer than 15 minutes to reveal it new P10 phones and version 2.0 of its smartwatch at MWC 2017. Lucky for you, you don’t have to relive every minute of the event in order to recap all the important news. We’ve edited down to the crucial bits, so you only have to dedicate a few minutes to catching up on any details you might have missed.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from MWC 2017.

AT&T tweaks its unlimited data plans to offer tethering

Remember when AT&T announced that it would once again offer unlimited data packages, and they were a little underwhelming? Sensing its error, the company has taken the opportunity to roll out a tweaked plan to ease the pain of your wallet. AT&T Unlimited Plus offers unlimited calls, texts and 22GB of high speed data before you hit the throttling wall for $90 a month. Even better, the plan now offers 10GB tethering data per line — something that was omitted from the prior set of plans.

AT&T’s also keen on tying folks in to both its mobile and TV packages, with juicy incentives for those who pay for both. Subscribers to Unlimited Plus will get a $25 monthly credit towards their DirecTV, DirecTV Now or U-Verse TV packages. In addition, AT&T is proud to offer zero-rating for its video packages, so if you watch DirecTV Now on your mobile connection, it won’t count against your data.

Naturally, the pricing schedule is increasingly complicated the more lines you pay for, but you can get four lines for $185 a month. You can also add on other devices, like a tablet, wireless home phone or hotspot, for another $20 a month. For most people, the easy calculation is that you’ll get the main data plan and DirecTV now for $100 a month once you’ve taken credits and incentives into account.

The company is also rolling out an unlimited data plan without the extra bells and whistles, so long as you’re happy with capped speeds. AT&T Unlimited Choice will set you back $60 a month (for the first line) with the speed limited to 3Mbps and video held at 480p resolution. Both plans however, will allow you to roam into Canada and Mexico without incurring additional charges.

Source: AT&T

Oppo’s clever, zooming dual camera was inspired by periscopes

The dual-camera craze is real at Mobile World Congress, but Oppo decided to break from the pack with its own, very clever implementation. Long story short: the company managed to build a 5x lossless zoom system for smartphones using two sensors and a zoom mechanism inspired by, believe it or not, periscopes.

See, Oppo’s telephoto lens is actually mounted horizontally inside the camera module and moves sideways through the top of a phone’s body. When you’re taking a photo, light enters the module and gets reflected by a prism into that waiting lens. Oppo’s optical image stabilization is similarly impressive, the prism and the telephoto lens move around to compensate for shaky hands on the fly.

Just keep this in mind: the telephoto lens itself is capable of 3x optical zoom, and Oppo gets to 5x zoom with some proprietary “image fusion” with a more typical digital zoom setup. One wouldn’t normally associate digital zoom with “lossless” quality, but Oppo swears up and down that the system works like a charm. We’ll be the judges of that, thanks very much.

Anyway, Oppo’s design — which it licensed from another company and worked on independently for more than a year — makes for a camera module that’s only 5.7mm thick. It takes up a decent chunk of space in modern, super-slim smartphones, but we’re told many other 2x optical zoom lens setups are slightly thicker anyway. If Oppo’s photographic results are as good as the company claims, smartphone junkies in the company’s native China will probably go nuts. (Don’t forget: Oppo currently holds the number one spot in Chinese mobile market share.)

Chances to such a camera making it to parts of the world Oppo doesn’t service — like, say, the United States — aren’t nil. After all, the company licensed the original design from someone else, so it’s possible a more globally minded smartphone maker could take the same route. Then again, Oppo has filed about 50 patents to keep this particular approach locked down, so who knows. Hopefully we’ll get lucky someday.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from MWC 2017.

Twitch goes after Steam with direct game sales

Twitch has a dilemma — it can get you fired up about a game, but then you’ve got to head off to Steam or another site when it comes time to buy (insert sad trombone sound). However, the Amazon-owned streaming outfit has some big news that changes all that. Starting this spring, you’ll be able to purchase games directly from Twitch — if you’re watching a stream about Tom Clancy’s The Division, for instance, you can click on a “buy now” button directly below the stream, as shown above.

Games can also be purchased on the “details” page for a given title. They can then be downloaded and played via the existing Twitch launcher desktop app (which arrived with Twitch Prime) or via publishers’ services like Uplay. Buyers will also get “Twitch Crates” rewards that differ from standard loot boxes with Twitch-centric emotes, chat badges and “Bits for Cheering.”

Twitch says it will make “dozens” of games available from both AAA and indie studios including Telltale Games, Ubisoft, Digital Extremems, Hi-Rez Studios, tinyBuild, Paradox Interactive, and others. (There’s no comprehensive list of titles yet, however.)

Developers get 70 percent of the money, streamers earn a 5 percent take and the rest, we presume, goes to Twitch. “By allowing viewers to help support their favorite streamer just by buying a game on Twitch, we’re able to help strengthen the community that has done so much for us,” says Telltale Games SVP Steve Allison.

Amazon has been using the Twitch launcher to sell indie and other titles, but it was pretty clear that it would eventually become a Steam competitor. Amazon has been making a steady foray into gaming with its Lumberyard game development engine, for instance, and already hosts a large number of social gaming platforms on its massive AWS server network.

One of the perks of Amazon Prime is free access to Twitch Prime. Given the large number of Amazon Prime users and Twitch streamers in general, it’s not hard to see how Twitch games sales could become a headache to Steam and other distribution platforms. On top of that, Twitch is promoting it as a way for its community to pay both streamers and developers (as shown in the video above), something that might motivate gamers to buy from Twitch, all else being equal.

Sales will launch in spring 2017 for English language versions of games only, in US dollars, with the service rolling out to other countries “later in the year.”

Watch Samsung’s MWC 2017 event in under 15 minutes

Samsung’s MWC 2017 press conference opened with quality control assurances before moving on to the Galaxy Tab S3, Galaxy Book and a new Gear VR. We save you the trouble of watching an hour-long video with all the important details in a 15-minute clip. Don’t forget: We’ll be spending more time with Samsung next month as it’s set to reveal the Galaxy S8 on March 29th.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from MWC 2017.

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao Says Trump Administration Will Be ‘Catalyst’ for Self-Driving Tech

In a bid to reassess self-driving car guidances following the Obama administration, the Trump administration’s newly appointed Transportation Secretary, Elaine Chao, said this weekend that she is reviewing the guidances while urging companies “to explain the benefits of automated vehicles to a skeptical public.” Chao said that there’s a lot at stake in improving and regulating the technology, and ensuring that passengers are safe when they use the new self-driving systems (via Reuters).

The guidances referenced by the Obama administration asked carmakers to voluntarily detail each of their self-driving systems by using a 15-point “safety assessment” precaution. Most regulations were also urged to be looked at by the federal government and taken out of the hands of the states. As a new administration approached last November, automakers concerned about the guidelines — citing a need to give up “significant data” and likely facing months-long delays in testing — asked the incoming Trump staff to re-evaluate.

Google tests out its “Waymo” self-driving technology
Earlier in February, automakers faced Congress to request a few legislative changes that they hoped would “speed self-driving cars to U.S. roads.” According to Chao, the Trump administration will do everything it can to be “a catalyst” for the industry and not become a blockade to progress in self-driving vehicles. Chao’s thesis hit on asking Silicon Valley companies to first and foremost figure out a way to “educate a skeptical public” about why self-driving cars would be a good thing in the first place.

“This administration is evaluating this guidance and will consult with you and other stakeholders as we update it and amend it, to ensure that it strikes the right balance.

She said the Trump administration wanted to ensure it “is a catalyst for safe, efficient technologies, not an impediment. In particular, I want to challenge Silicon Valley, Detroit, and all other auto industry hubs to step up and help educate a skeptical public about the benefits of automated technology.”

Vehicle automation has become a hot topic over the past few years, and even Apple hasn’t escaped the rumors of working on a self-driving vehicle. The hopes for an “Apple Car” have largely been dashed after vans roaming around the country were debunked as data-collecting vehicles for Apple Maps, and any of the company’s efforts to build a full Apple Car have since shifted towards focusing on an autonomous driving system. In a letter to federal regulators last year, the company further confirmed its interest in “machine learning and automation” as it relates to motor vehicles, hinting that Apple wouldn’t be averse to creating self-driving software that’s used in another manufacturer’s vehicle.

The letter was sent to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and some of it aligns with other automakers’ concerns over the established self-driving guidances. In its letter, Apple referenced an issue with delayed testing for companies entering the automobile industry with automation technology, as well as an agreement that companies should share sufficient data in relation to crashes and near-misses, but it should never come at the expense of breaching privacy.

Both of these suggestions, and a collection of others, are points that Chao aims to evaluate as the administration updates and amends the guidance for self-driving vehicles, “to ensure that it strikes the right balance.” The Transportation Secretary also mentioned a concern over potential employment loss in the context of vehicle automation growing, as well as promising to help the Federal Aviation Administration develop drone regulation standards “to ensure that drones can be safely integrated into our country’s airspace.”

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Related Roundup: Apple Car
Tag: Donald Trump
Discuss this article in our forums

Berkshire Hathaway More Than Doubled its Stake in Apple in January

In an interview with CNBC today, billionaire investor Warren Buffett revealed that his holding company Berkshire Hathaway held around 133 million shares in Apple prior to the company’s record-breaking earnings results on January 31.

Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it held 57.3 million shares in Apple as of December 31, 2016, so it more than doubled its stake in the iPhone maker in January. The holding, which reflects about 2.5% of Apple’s outstanding shares, is worth over $17 billion if the shares are still held today.

Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a nearly $1 billion stake in Apple last May, which led the iPhone maker’s stock to soar 9% once the investment became public knowledge. Apple stock has been on the rise since then, closing at an all-time high of $137.37 last week just nine months after setting a 52-week low of $89.47 in May 2016.

Tags: AAPL, Berkshire Hathaway
Discuss this article in our forums

With a 4,000mAh battery, Energizer’s Energy E550LTE should keep going and going

Why it matters to you

Energizer is best known for its batteries, but its Energy E550LTE looks to be for road warriors looking for a phone that won’t die in a day.

It might come as no surprise that the likes of the BlackBerry KeyOne, LG G6, and Huawei P10, just to name a few, have taken center stage so far at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Because of this, some lesser-known phones from lesser-known companies might fly under the radar, such as Energizer’s recently-announced Energy E550LTE.

Even though Energizer is mostly known for its batteries, the company has had its name on a few phones in the past, all of which feature rugged designs. The Energy E550LTE does not do much to get away from that design ethos, though that is not a bad thing — its IP68 rating means the phone is dust tight, and water-resistant to a maximum depth of just under five feet for up to 30 minutes. Furthermore, thanks to its rubberized corners, the phone can also withstand drops, though you might not want to test that on purpose.

More: ZTE adds more options to its Blade series with the V8 Lite and V8 Mini

The exterior tour continues on the front, where you will find a 5.5-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 resolution display below the 8-megapixel selfie camera. Around back, the Energy E550LTE features dual 13MP and 8MP sensors, with an LED flash module on the side and a fingerprint sensor right below the two cameras.

Under the hood, MediaTek’s 2GHz octa-core MTK6755 chipset and 4GB RAM power the phone, and though there are 64GB of native storage, no mention was made of any MicroSD card slot.

As with the company itself, however, the Energy E550LTE’s focus is on battery, and its large 4,000mAh battery looks to answer the bell. Not many smartphones include such a large power pack — only the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active and LeEco Le Pro 3 come to mind — so expect to be able to use the Energy E550LTE from sunrise through sunset and then some.

If the phone has done enough to catch your attention, the Energy E550LTE will sell for 449 euros (roughly $479) when it becomes available sometime this summer.