Nokia Lumia 820 owners can customize their phone with 3D printers

Nokia is embracing the 3D printing community by releasing files that will let smartphone users create their own custom shells.

Owners of its Lumia 820 smartphone will be the first to have the opportunity, the company said in a blog post on Friday.

The move is mostly about marketing, as Nokia looks for ways to make its products stand out, according to Malik Saadi, principal analyst with Informa Telecoms & Media.

The Lumia 820 was announced last September. It uses an interchangeable shell that allows users to wirelessly charge their device and choose between a number of colors, which now can be expanded upon with the option to print custom shells.

For people who want to design their own shells Nokia is releasing 3D templates, case specs, recommended materials and best practices. Mechanical drawings in either STL or STP file formats can be downloaded from the company's developer website. The printed shells cannot be sold, as the licensing only allows for non-commercial use.

Once confined to prototyping and niche curiosity, 3D printing has started to take off thanks to products from companies such as MakerBot Industries, Stratasys and 3D Systems and services such as Sculpteo, which allows users to upload a file and then prints it for them.

Send news tips and comments to mikael_ricknas@idg.com

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iOS app revenues still four times higher than Android, but Play store growing fast

A new report from mobile app analytics firm App Annie shows that, while revenues for iOS apps are still four times higher than those of Android apps, the gap is beginning to close, thanks to spiking sales in the Google Play store.

The report is the first of a monthly series that the company will make publicly available via its blog.

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According to the report, Google Play's revenue jumped by nearly 18% during the month of October, while the App Store saw a decrease of 0.7%. Apps on iOS, however, still bring in about four times the amount of money that Android apps do. In terms of free downloads, the gap is just 12% in favor of iOS.

The picture is changing on a country-by-country basis, as well, App Annie reported. For the first time, the U.S. was not the biggest nation in terms of Google Play revenue, as the top spot went to Japan. The latter country has seen Android app revenues shoot up by a factor of 10 this year, claiming 29% to the U.S.'s 26% in the latest figures. America still far exceeds any other single country in terms of iOS revenue, however, at 33% to second-place Japan's 14%.

The Asian market is quickly becoming a bigger contributor to the growth of mobile apps in general, and Android apps in particular, according to the report. The top three publishers by revenue on the Google Play store in October are all based in Japan, and just two of the top 10 companies on the list were not from either Japan or South Korea. Four Japanese companies made the revenue top 10 for iOS as well.

Part of what's driving this growth, App Annie says, is the popularity of mobile gaming. Nine of the 10 biggest-selling publishers on both iOS and Android were game companies. However, different types of games were popular on each platform -- Western-built strategy and casino games dominated on iOS, while Asian-made brain games and other casual titles were more popular on Android.

Beyond the gaming sector, the most noteworthy discovery made by App Annie may be that productivity apps are selling briskly on both iOS and Android -- a further indication that BYOD and enterprise mobility issues will only grow in importance in the near future.

The full report can be found here.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.

Read more about anti-malware in Network World's Anti-malware section.

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Apple's iPad Mini, iPhone 5 head to China

Apple today announced that it will start selling the iPad Mini, fourth-generation iPad and iPhone 5 in China over the next two weeks, putting those new products on shelves in time for the January 2013 kick-off of Chinese New Year sales.

Analysts expressed surprise that the new iPads -- particularly the diminutive 7.9-in. Mini -- were reaching the Chinese market, having previously predicted that the tablets wouldn't start shipping there until early 2013.

"We are very surprised by the accelerated launch of the iPad Mini and fourth-generation iPad in China that we did not expect to occur this year but rather sometime in 1Q13," said Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets in a note to clients today.

Apple will start taking reservation requests for the Wi-Fi models of the iPad Mini and new iPad on Dec. 6 for pickup the next day, Friday, Dec. 7, when the tablets hit Apple's own stores and some authorized resellers in the People's Republic of China.

The iPhone 5 will be available for pre-order Dec. 13, and for pickup and sale on Friday, Dec. 14.

White expected the iPad Mini to sell "like wildfire" in China.

"We have noticed the growing popularity of the Samsung Galaxy Note in China during our trips to the mainland this year, and we believe this trend will play into Apple's hands with the iPad Mini," White wrote. "[With its] smaller form factor and lower price point, we believe Apple will be able to sell the iPad mini in meaningful volumes."

The Galaxy Note, which boasts a 5.5-in. screen, has been dubbed a "phablet" by some to describe its dual phone and tablet traits. This week Samsung said it had sold 5 million units of the Galaxy Note II in the device's first two months of availability.

White said that the iPad Mini's entry-level price of $329 will be about half that of the Galaxy Note II now in Chinese stores.

Apple's China online store has not yet posted prices for the iPad Mini and fourth-generation iPad. The latter, however, will probably be priced the same as the third-generation iPad, which costs 3,338 yuan ($535) for the 16GB Wi-Fi configuration.

The December introduction of the iPhone 5 puts that model in front of Chinese consumers a month faster than its predecessor, the 2011 iPhone 4S, which reached the market in mid-January 2012.

China Unicom and China Telecom are the two Apple-sanctioned carriers on the mainland. The government-owned China Unicom is the world's third-largest mobile carrier, with an estimated 233 million wireless subscribers. China Telecom, once state-owned, is the country's third-largest mobile provider, with 222 million subscribers.

Together, China Telecom and China Unicom have a 3G mobile subscriber base of about 133 million.

Greater China, an Apple sales region composed of the People's Republic, Hong Kong and Taiwan, accounts for a large share of Apple's total revenue. In the company's 2012 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 29 2012, Greater China generated $23.8 billion, or 17% of all Apple sales for the year.

During the July-September quarter, China revenues were up 26% over the same period the year before.

But Apple sales in Greater China have stalled recently as economic growth there has slowed. Earlier this month, for example, research firm Canalys said that in the third quarter Apple fell off the Chinese smartphone market's top-five list after placing fifth and second in the two previous quarters.

Both White and Brian Marshall of the ISI Group believe the iPhone 5 will reverse that trend, with White arguing that the redesigned phone will be the new status symbol in China, prompting upgrades from owners of the iPhone 4 and 4S. Marshall noted that the iPhone 5 is the first Apple smartphone able to run on all three of China's biggest carriers.

Marshall also pointed out that the American company has still not tapped the most lucrative market on the mainland. "[A] big question remains however ... when will China Mobile, the world's largest carrier with 700 million wireless subscribers, start selling the iPhone?" he told his clients in a research note Friday. "Our best guess is 2H13 as two main negotiating points remain: 1) carrier subsidy levels, and 2) joint marketing costs."

Analysts, however, have been predicting an impending partnership between Apple and China Mobilefor years, to no avail.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com.

Read more about mobile/wireless in Computerworld's Mobile/Wireless Topic Center.

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Users see random reboots on two Windows Phone 8 smartphones

Hundreds of early users of two Windows Phone 8 smartphones have complained of recurring and random reboots on Nokia's Lumia 920 and the HTC 8X smartphones.

More than 65 similar posts had been filed by users on a Microsoft support forum early Monday, while 165 complaint posts were made at the Windows Phone Central forum.

Many complaints blamed the Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system for the reboots, although some users said Microsoft Support personnel had suggested the problem could be related to running a Skype preview app or to running Internet Explorer on the phones.

Microsoft officials could not be reached to comment.

However, Microsoft Support suggested to one user in the forum named Sweendog_99 to uninstall the Skype preview app, then clear the Internet Explorer history and reset the phone.

Sweendog_99 responded on the forum that taking the steps might have worked since he didn't have any reboots afterward -- that he noticed. However, for many of the users, the reboots happen while the phones are idle and no apps are being actively used.

HTC and Nokia could not be reached for comment, although Nokia told users to reset their phones by turning them off, removing the SIM card and waiting 10 minutes before re-inserting the SIM and then turning on the phone again.

The problems seem to be related to both the Lumia 920 and the HTC 8X phones running on a variety of carriers in both the U.S. and Europe and on both phones regardless of the whether the apps were factory-installed or installed by the user.

Some of the complaints go back to early November, but continued Monday. "Be thankful you're only getting reboots," Martinmc78 told other users on the Windows Phone Central Forum on Monday. He said that since Friday he has been having major problems, including reboots on his HTC 8X on O2 in the UK, SIM errors, messaging not working and more.

Some complaints have also noted battery problems, and possibly phone connection problems to the cellular network. JGraves4480 said early Monday that he went out of town and lost all of his data outside of his home town on a Verizon Wireless HTC 8X. "I'm just wondering if the phones are losing connection with the cell system, causing issues," JGraves 4480 said.

A user named Nicooke on Windows Phone Central said HTC agreed to swap out his 8X because of the reboot problems, but said it would take more than a week to do so. "Just wish they would come out and say what the issue is," Nicooke said.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed. His email address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

See more by Matt Hamblen on Computerworld.com.

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Hottest Android news & rumors (in brief!) for the week of Thanksgiving

(Author's note: Since I'll be way too full of turkey and stuffing and all the rest of it to fill you in on the latestAndroid news on Thursday, here's a brief update on what's happening early in the week. Enjoy!)

Big screen? No big deal for Samsung, apparently -- last week's murmurs that the South Korean giant was maybe sort of going to think about a full HD screen on what may or may not be the Galaxy S 4 crescendoed into a remarkably unified chorus over the weekend, thanks to a Friday article from the Asia Economy Daily.

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The idea that Samsung is getting ready to release a 1080p Galaxy S 4 at CES in January makes a lot of sense -- I doubt they're happy about HTC having the only high-profile full HD Android phone on the U.S. market right now (in the form of the Droid DNA), so they'll be eager to get it out the door as quickly as possible. The interesting part will be to see how HTC responds.

*

Android Police has officially dubbed the problems many users have reported with Android 4.2 a "-gate," which is how you know it's serious business. Still, given the severity of some of the bugs -- including serious system instability, broken Bluetooth and battery life issues -- it's tough to argue that Google doesn't have some explaining to do.

What's more, the article doesn't even mention the weirdest glitch of them all -- the month of December, apparently, has gone completely missing, as far as the People app is concerned. Bad news for fans of the holiday season and temporal continuity alike, it seems. (The Post story notes that it'll still keep appointments for you and everything, though.)

*

Still, don't you fret, because Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie might be on the way! Well, OK, it's probably not, but Android Authority seems to have gotten hold of a benchmark showing what could be a Sony Xperia T with a new version of Android on it. AA itself, however, urges the consumption of a large grain of salt with this rumor, and I wholeheartedly concur -- it would be very strange indeed to have another new Android version in the offing at this point. Maybe in a few months.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold. Oh, and happy Thanksgiving.

Read more about software in Network World's Software section.

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Samsung releases smaller, faster 64GB smartphone memory

Samsung on Thursday announced a new 64GB memory chip for smartphones and tablets, which it says is 20 percent smaller and a third faster than current technology.

The company said its new 64GB eMMC (embedded multimedia card) reads data sequentially at up to 260 megabytes per second and writes at up to 50 megabytes per second, 10 times faster than Class-10 rated external memory cards.

The chips are made using Samsung's 10-nanometer class fabrication, and the company said it began production late last month. Shrinking the size of components allows for more efficient manufacturing and parts that draw less power.

Smartphones with 64GB of memory are still relatively rare, and most phones have an external memory slot for more storage. High-speed data networks are also allowing more data to be stored online, although most high-definition content is still downloaded and viewed locally.

For phone manufacturers, adding more memory is a way to increase margins. Apple's top-end iPhone has 64GB of memory, and in the U.S. costs US$200 more than its 16GB version. Samsung recently released a version of its flagship Galaxy S3 with 64GB of built-in memory.

Samsung said the latest memory chip is called the "64GB eMMC Pro Class 2000," a level up from the current "Pro Class 1500" chips. The slower class reads data at up to 140 megabytes per second and writes it at up to 50 megabytes per second.

The new memory chip measures 11.5mm by 13mm, compared to 12mm by 16mm for previous iterations.

In September, Samsung announced a massive 128GB eMMC chip for smartphones and other mobile devices, which is expected to begin appearing in phones for next year. That chips is part of its Pro Class 1500 lineup.

The company said it can manufacture the latest chips on its existing factory lines used for previous generations of chips, making its operations more efficient.

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