| Industry voice: Why Unified Communications is key to meeting the needs of the millennial workforce Aug 27th 2014, 13:00, by Leslie Ferry 
By 2020, nearly 50% of the U.S. workforce will be comprised of millennials, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics - and just five years after that the figure jumps to 75%. The fact that millennials (those whose ages range from 18 to 29) are on track to comprise half of the workforce in the near-term is not lost on organizations seeking to attract and retain top talent, meet their needs cost-effectively, and fully maximize the productivity of these younger workers. While tales from Silicon Valley startups tend to sensationalize our notion of what millennial workers want from their places of employment (video games in the break room, Razor scooters to zip down hallways, omelet stations, full-time baristas, etc.), CXOs and IT decision-makers confront a very real challenge: determining which policies, benefits, services, products and technologies will allow their organizations to meet and exceed the communications expectations of the millennial workforce and allow them to communicate and collaborate more effectively. To fully tap into the immense potential these younger workers offer, there are four technology strategies to consider: 1. Deploy technologies that reflect how millennials work CIOs and others responsible for evaluating and delivering technology to the workforce understand that it is shortsighted to fixate on a particular "flavor of the month" tablet or productivity tool that workers are clamoring for. Instead, organizations must first have a firm grasp of how millennials work, and deliver products and technologies that: - Satisfy an insatiable need for information - Millennials want, and expect, immediate access to information through "connected" platforms or mobile devices, which includes: access to information across organizational barriers, quick access to communication with colleagues anywhere and at anytime, and the ability to collaborate, share information, and build on the ideas of others.
- Extend, rather than inhibit, mobility - Millennials expect to be able to connect anytime, anywhere, whether they want to access IM on their smartphone at lunch, video conferencing from a coffee shop or even from the couch on their tablet, or find the location and presence of their colleagues from their laptop.
- Leverage their early adopter mindset - Research has shown Millennials will be the first to test and implement new communications services in their daily work routines. Take advantage of Gen Y's technical creativity while imagining and integrating future IT deployments.
- Deliver unbounded flexibility - Millennials have a marked desire for flexibility and the freedom to work anywhere, on the go, and on a device rather than a desktop. Translation: don't wed them to a narrow range of devices and access requirements that restrict traditional movement, work hours and collaboration.
2. Recognize dual persona needs of millennialsAccording to the Forrester, 35% of US information workers at companies with 1,000+ employees indicated a willingness to help pay for mobile devices used for personal and professional purposes. This indicates, among other things, that today's workforce and the younger workers who comprise it place a premium on freedom of device choice – a premium they are willing to pay for. Millennials represent an always-on, always-connected generation that brings its dynamic and diverse communications expectations to the office, which means that enterprises will need to plan for and manage the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) workforce. Accelerated BYOD adoption requires businesses to take a hard look at dual persona support for advanced communications services on personal or enterprise-provided devices. Through dual persona, employers will be able to separate business and personal voice and Unified Communications services (including business and personal contacts, call logs and chat sessions), while maintaining a secure environment on the device for business applications with data that is fully controllable by the enterprise. Dual persona for Unified Communications (UC), in particular, provide users with secure access to all of their Unified Communications services, including voice and video calling, text messaging, IM & Presence, and corporate directories. Dual Persona for UC enables users to seamlessly switch between their business and personal communication services on a single mobile device, with privacy and security. At the same time, dual persona enables enterprises to meet millennial demands for a single device for all communication services, as employees will have more freedom to access their services from the device of their choice. 3. Unify, rather than complicate, communications optionsEnterprise decision-makers may be tempted to build a workforce communications strategy for millennials that is device or product-focused. It is difficult to project which devices, platforms and applications millennials will rely on six months from now, let alone six years from now. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan bears this out. In its recently released report, "The Future of Mobile Devices from a Customer Perspective-United States and Europe," nearly three out of every four organizations are issuing corporate-owned laptops (74%) and smartphones (71%) to their workforces. It found tablets, on the other hand, are issued by only half (47%) the surveyed enterprises. Despite this current data, it would be restrictive for enterprises to divert resources excessively in the direction of a smartphone device or platform. The Frost & Sullivan report also finds that by 2016, the use of smartphones is expected to decrease from the current levels of 66% to 58%, while tablets are expected to increase from 49% to 56%. A more enduring approach to meeting the communications needs of the millennial workforce is to focus on unifying their communications by providing a single user experience for UC services (voice, video, instant messaging & presence, collaboration, etc.) that extends across all employer-provided and BYOD devices, platforms and networks. In a Gartner global survey of CIOs, 38% of companies expect to stop providing devices to workers by 2016 and half of employers will require employees to supply their own device for work purposes by 2017, which means that the diversity of mobile devices that organizations need to support in the coming years will increase. Unified Communications is, at its core, optimally suited for how millennials communicate, and enterprises that recognize the expectation of younger workers to access any or all of these UC services in real-time and in an integrated fashion are best positioned to improve enterprise-wide productivity. 4. Look at how millennials communicate, not only what they communicate withEarlier this year, business school professors at Washington University in St. Louis conducted an experiment among 214 undergraduates that hypothesized standing up – as opposed to being seated – felt less constricted to produce more ideas, and showed more engagement with peers. The results of the experiment do not mean that offices around the country will be putting all desk chairs up for bid on eBay tomorrow, but it does reinforce the fact that millennial workers will not necessarily be most productive in a sedentary position for ten hours a day. Remaining focused on how millennials communicate will dictate the devices and applications that will empower them to collaborate and improve productivity. The need for mobility and solutions that allow for uninterrupted communications as they move may prove increasingly key to unlocking workforce productivity in the future. For example, technology that enables a work to seamlessly transition from a desk phone call to a video chat on their iPad or messaging chat on a smartphone not only supports millennials as they work outside of the office, but inside the office as well as workers seek more flexibility to communicate on the move. Recognizing this, businesses should evaluate technologies and tools that facilitate greater ideation among the workforce. This could mean adding interactive screens in common areas as opposed to the traditional placement of projector screens around a conference table or re-thinking the design of meeting rooms. - Leslie Ferry is Vice President of Marketing at BroadSoft
       |  | Philips Android TVs will be the first to offer Spotify Connect Aug 27th 2014, 11:19, by Hugh Langley 
Android-powered Philips TVs will be the first to support Spotify Connect, letting you stream music from a mobile device straight to the television. From September, Spotify Premium subscribers will be able to stream music on their compatible Philips Smart TV, in a move that will integrate the music service more into our homes. And Spotify tells us that Philips is just the first in a "long line" of smart TVs that will be arriving with Connect support. Because Connect draws on internet connectivity directly, the tunes will keep pumping even if your phone or tablet goes out of range, or you have to take a call - making it better than other connectivity options, such as Bluetooth. Connecting soundsOn top of that, Spotify has announced some new Connect partners for home speakers, including Bose, Panasonic and Gramofon. More will be announced at IFA 2014, Spotify tells us, so keep an eye on this space. And as for all you Windows Phone users, don't forget that Spotify has just opened up free streaming to your platform.        | | HTC Desire 510 will give you 4G at an affordable price Aug 27th 2014, 09:15, by Hugh Langley 
HTC's Desire range has never really been one to grab the headlines, but the series' latest offering, the Desire 510, arrives with a little more fanfare. Its main seller is that it's offering LTE at an affordable price, though that will vary by region. The handset will be available in the UK from September for £149 SIM-free, which is nothing to sniff at. The phone will also be available in the US, and we're chasing up global prices right now. As for the handset itself, expect a 4.7-inch screen with a somewhat meagre 480 x 854 resolution and 208ppi. Doing the legwork is a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor, 1GB RAM, and 8GB of internal storage - which you can push up to 128GB via the microSD slot. Meanwhile you've got a 5MP rear camera and VGA front snapper, but there's no flash to be found. All in all, it's nothing to get too excited over, but you'll be picking this one up for the affordable 4G. We'll let you know when we hear more specific launch dates for each region, and a price for the US.        | | In Depth: Rendered to perfection: here's how the iPhone 6 should look Aug 27th 2014, 07:45, by James Rogerson 
The best iPhone 6 renders and conceptsOK, we all know the iPhone 6 is nearly here. But ever since the iPhone 5S was another yawn-fest on the design front, the rumor mill has been churning out its own renders and concepts - be them based on dummy models or just artists frustrations with current design. Whether close to the likely reality or not they all gives us a detailed, relatively complete look at how the iPhone 6 might turn out and highlight various possible aspects of the phone in the process, reflecting the rumours of a big screen, a curved design and more. So to keep you going in the coming days and weeks until Tim Cook takes the stage, here are the best concepts and renders for you to look through - let us know which of them you think will be most likely to show up in Cupertino, and which you wish would! Our own concept
Never ones to turn down a challenge, we created our own iPhone 6 concept. As you can see from the above image we envisaged it with a true edge-to-edge, bezel-free display and a super-slim 5.5mm thick build. While the bottom edge is blurred here, you might also notice that there's no home button, leaving the front of the phone sleek and symmetrical. In reality we'd be very surprised if Apple ditched the home button, especially as implementing Touch ID without one could be tricky, but the rest of this concept isn't a million miles away from the rumours we've been hearing. It's thought for example that the iPhone 6 will be slim, though not quite that slim, with whispers pointing to 7mm for the 4.7-inch model and 6.7mm for the 5.5-inch iPhone '6L'. It's also expected that the new iPhone will have a curved design, a little like in the image above and while we're not expecting a bezel-free display it is likely that the bezels will be smaller this time around. We'd be more than happy if this concept did come true though, as it would make the iPhone 6 the slimmest smartphone on the planet and the first to do away with bezels, leaving the competition to play catch-up. Highly rectangular
Martin Hajek is one of the more prolific iPhone 6 renderers around and he's put forward more than one possible design for it. The actual iPhone 6 is unlikely to look much like the concept above, which Hajek created in collaboration with iPhoneclub.nl. Although this concept has rounded edges the overall design is rather more rectangular than the latest dummies and leaks suggest. It also lacks the two-tone rear shell that the iPhone has become known for and the screen is essentially bezel free, much like in our own concept. But while we doubt the iPhone 6 will look like this there's no reason why it couldn't. The design doesn't seem all that out there and it's certainly stylish enough to be an Apple product - if a bit square. Wraparound
Here we have a somewhat less convincing image. In fact that's an understatement, we'd eat our hats if the iPhone 6 looked like this. We'd eat all the hats. And then eat hat soup with the leftovers for a while. This concept was devised by Michael Shanks and features a wraparound screen. It's not a total fantasy, as Apple has actually filed a patent for wraparound displays but we're not expecting to see one on the iPhone 6. We may however be in for a slightly curved screen, allowing it to arc almost imperceptibly into the chassis. If Apple did release a phone with a wraparound display that could be a real game-changer, or it could just be a gimmick, but if nothing else it might make it possible to read notifications at more angles, which is surely a good thing. Overly curved
Speaking of curved screens, here's one from Nickolay Lamm. Not only is it curved but it ditches the home button and would apparently be capable of creating an illusion of depth perception, to mimic a 3D experience in line with Apple's patent. The shape seems like it would be a little unwieldy, especially when held to your ear, but we like the idea of there being nothing but screen on the front and the curves allow for a larger screen without increasing the phone's footprint. Could you hold it? Probably not. Who wants to do that though? 6 and 6C
The image above is another concept by Martin Hajek, or rather two concepts, as the handset on the left is an iPhone 6 while the one on the right is an iPhone 6C. We're not expecting an iPhone 6C, though that hasn't stopped one store from advertising screen protectors for it and fundamentally this doesn't look a million miles from the iPhone 5C, just less chunky and with a relocated home button and smaller bezels to accommodate a larger screen. The iPhone 6 concept isn't vastly different from Hajek's other concept that we discussed above, albeit this time it has a slightly more rounded design, more in line with what we're expecting to see. Almost believable
This render from mornray886 was briefly believed to be an actual iPhone 6 photo, before it was revealed to be a render. It's no wonder people were fooled (the screen smudges are a nice touch), but looking purely at the design it's certainly close to what we've seen in actual leaks, with a slim, curved build. Retro-futuristic
Here's an interesting one. The cut-out corners look nothing like anything we've seen from Apple and this concept doesn't appear to be based on any iPhone 6 rumours, so much as just an intriguing idea designer thinkbym had for the handset. It's intriguing because those odd corners serve a purpose, with each one being home to a touch sensor for volume, home and power, so there's no need for buttons at all. It's a nice idea and sensors in place of buttons could definitely be a change for the better, but we're not entirely convinced by the retro-futuristic shape. Transparent
There's been talk of transparent displays coming to phones for a while, so it's no wonder that a transparent iPhone 6 concept has been created, in this case by Schoolpost. There are any number of potential advantages to a transparent screen, such as the possibility of having one app open on one side and then flipping it over and having another displayed on the other. But there are any number of obstacles preventing them appearing too, not least the fact that components are currently hidden behind the screen, so these would need to be shrunk dramatically for it to be practical. The iPhone 6 won't have a transparent display and nor will any other mainstream handset in the near future, but the first company to really crack it (in a usable way) is likely to be onto a very big thing. Curves in all the right places?
Thanks to LG and Samsung, curved phones like the one in the render above from Lewi Hussey are a reality. The LG G Flex and Samsung Galaxy Round have curved screens and not only do they look good but they allow for a bigger display while minimising the amount of space taken up. But as yet they haven't caught on and we're not convinced that they're much more than a gimmick, so we can't see Apple going down this road. If it did though it's one of very few companies which might actually be able to make them popular - but could even Cook's Crew convince the world that it's a good idea? We're not sure. Close to the real thing?
We'll finish with a convincing one. This render from Mark Pellin and shared by 9to5Mac is pretty much how we expect the iPhone 6 to look, based as it is on the dummy units that we've been seeing. It mirrors the most prevalent rumours and leaks, with a slim, curved design, the power button on the side and an overall look that's pretty much identical to what we've seen in leaks. So take a good look, because we wouldn't be at all surprised if this, essentially, is the iPhone 6. It's not as imaginative and innovative as some of the other concepts we've looked at, but it's stylish without being showy and looks like an Apple product, but one with a new design and more curved ethos, which is exactly what the iPhone 6 needs to be.        | | Sydney, Adelaide to get Telstra's 700MHz spectrum 4G in September Aug 26th 2014, 23:06, by Farrha Khan 
Telstra is extending its commercial trials of the 700MHz spectrum for its new 4G network to Sydney and Adelaide ahead of the full 2015 roll out. Starting mid-September, the two cities join Darwin, Perth, Fremantle, Mt Isa, Mildura and Griffith, where the 700MHz spectrum network was switched on in July. This follows the final analog TV switch off occurring last year, while Telstra, Optus and TPG had bought up the spectrum during the Digital Dividend in early 2013. The freed up 700MHz spectrum is scheduled to be switched on across the country in January 2015. More 4GTelstra and Optus were granted early access commercial licences by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in July for the low band 700MHz spectrum, which allows signals to travel further and reach deeper into buildings. Mike Wright, Telstra's Group Managing Director Networks, said the expansion of commercial trials in Sydney and Adelaide is an important step in the development of the new network. "We are excited to offer customers in these parts of Sydney and Adelaide, with compatible devices, an early view on the future of 4G technology and the opportunity to experience the fastest mobile data speeds in Australia," said Wright. "Telstra also has double the holdings of 700 MHz spectrum than the other carriers, and, this combined with our existing 4G services, doubles the 4G capacity of our network in these areas, and means we can support more customers, using more devices, doing more things at the same time." Compatible smartphones include the Samsung Galaxy S5, LG G3, HTC One (M8) and HTC Desire 610, as well as Telstra's Advance Pro X Category 6 Wi-Fi hotspot. It is expected that more compatible devices will make its way to Australia before the end of the year.   | | HTC invite teases 'world's first' octa-core 64-bit smartphone Aug 26th 2014, 17:53, by JR Bookwalter 
Never mind the fact that Apple lobbed the opening 64-bit smartphone salvo nearly a year ago with the iPhone 5S - HTC plans to stake claim to a first of its own next week with a presumed successor to its Desire line. HTC revealed plans to introduce what it calls the "world's first" Android smartphone powered by an octa-core, 64-bit processor in Berlin next week. Judging from an official teaser posted on HTC's Weibo page, the event will take place a day before the annual IFA consumer electronics event kicks off on September 5, where many of the company's rivals are expect to also hold new product launches. Aside from the September 4 media event and the "world's first" claim, little else is known about the mystery HTC handset, although it's not hard to connect the dots and come to a few logical conclusions about what the smartphone maker could be up to. I Desire?In a previous Weibo posting late last week, HTC more or less confirmed plans to introduce a new device codenamed 820, which sounds more than a little like a followup to the company's Desire 816 handset. The same post confirmed all the requisite 820 specs, including a 1080p display with UltraPixel and Duo Camera 3D technologies on board. The phone could be bound for emerging markets, if the GSM and WiMAX 4G connectivity are any indication. Needless to say, emerging markets typically nab less expensive, underpowered handsets, so it's a bit of a mystery why HTC would be touting an octa-core 64-bit chipset for a handset like the 820. We only have a little over a week to ponder what this all means, but HTC's bold claims should be worth paying attention to in the hours leading up to IFA 2014, so check back for all the details on September 4. - Find out what the Sony Xperia T3 has up its sleeve in our full review!
       | | Samsung Galaxy Alpha may be just the start of an entire metal A-series Aug 26th 2014, 17:46, by Michael Rougeau 
The recently revealed Samsung Galaxy Alpha has already made quite a splash, but the company likely won't stop there. The stylish metal Alpha is only the beginning of an entire A-series of similar smartphones, according to SamMobile. The site learned from its "insiders" that Samsung will reveal three other A-series phones in coming weeks: the SM-A300, with a 960 x 540 display, and the SM-A500 and SM-A700, with full HD screens. And lo and behold, a listing for the SM-A500 appears to already be hidden on Samsung's mobile website, though not in any easily digestible format (try a control+F; it's there). So metalThe Samsung Galaxy A-series will reportedly all feature designs similar to the Alpha, with metal in their chassis. They'll also have superior front-facing cameras, possibly like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4's rumored upgraded 3.7-megapixel front snapper. Since the Note 4 is expected to arrive during IFA 2014, Samsung may debut the three new A-series phones at a later date, so as not to dilute the phablet's spotlight. In the meantime peep TechRadar's analysis of the best Galaxy Alpha deals around.        | |
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