In a surprise memo leaked from the e-G8 conference in Deauville, France hosted by French President Sarkozy, the document supported the ‘principles of freedom’ which created the internet as we know it. The French President has been known for his long held beliefs that the internet should be regulated, or tamed.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Android 3.1 update for ASUS Eee Pad Transformer leaks out
Apple rumored to add widgets, revamped notifications to iOS 5
Apple will unveil a new version of its mobile operating system, iOS 5, at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference, featuring widgets and a revamped notification system, a new report claims.
The news was part of a brief inclusion in a story at TechCrunch about the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference. Author MG Siegler characterized the "big news" for iOS as "completely revamped notifications and widgets."
Signs of an improved notifications first cropped up last June, when Apple hired the designer who created the notification system for Palm's webOS. And Apple, through patent filings, has shown interest in creating always-in-sync widgets for touchscreen devices.
Sources also told the site that Apple is pushing journalists to come to this year' show because "the software announcements will be huge." Apple's big changes with iOS 5 are expected to make up for the anticipated lack of hardware to be shown off at this year's event.
The report also presumed that Apple will make announcements related to cloud storage for both iOS and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. The site previously reported in March that Apple may not release a cloud-based iOS 5 until this fall.
Sources also reportedly indicated that the new licensing deal with Nuance for voice recognition will not play a part in the "Voice Control" feature of Apple's mobile operating system.
"That's odd since it's perhaps the most obvious usage," Siegler wrote. "But apparently, in the builds of iOS 5 currently being tested, the little-used feature hasn't changed at all, we hear."
The report noted that Nuance technology could eventually make its way into iOS Voice Control, but relayed a rumor that the licensing deal is meant for "bigger things more core to the OS than that one feature."
The news was part of a brief inclusion in a story at TechCrunch about the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference. Author MG Siegler characterized the "big news" for iOS as "completely revamped notifications and widgets."
Signs of an improved notifications first cropped up last June, when Apple hired the designer who created the notification system for Palm's webOS. And Apple, through patent filings, has shown interest in creating always-in-sync widgets for touchscreen devices.
Sources also told the site that Apple is pushing journalists to come to this year' show because "the software announcements will be huge." Apple's big changes with iOS 5 are expected to make up for the anticipated lack of hardware to be shown off at this year's event.
The report also presumed that Apple will make announcements related to cloud storage for both iOS and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. The site previously reported in March that Apple may not release a cloud-based iOS 5 until this fall.
Sources also reportedly indicated that the new licensing deal with Nuance for voice recognition will not play a part in the "Voice Control" feature of Apple's mobile operating system.
"That's odd since it's perhaps the most obvious usage," Siegler wrote. "But apparently, in the builds of iOS 5 currently being tested, the little-used feature hasn't changed at all, we hear."
The report noted that Nuance technology could eventually make its way into iOS Voice Control, but relayed a rumor that the licensing deal is meant for "bigger things more core to the OS than that one feature."
Apple rumored to release fifth-gen, SIM-less iPhone with 8MP camera by early Aug
A new rumor pegs a late July to early August release timeframe for Apple's anticipated fifth-generation iPhone, said to include an 8-megapixel camera and a SIM-less design that will not be a major departure from the current iPhone 4 design.
Citing an anonymous source, Macotakara reported Monday that the next iPhone will have the same form factor as the iPhone 4, and will use an ARM Cortex-A9 processor. The report said it is "not confirmed" whether the new processor will have a single CPU or is dual-core.
The report also said the handset will have an 8-megapixel camera, and a SIM-less design along with 3-4 internal antennas that will allow the device to serve as a "world phone" compatible with both GSM and CDMA networks. That would allow the same hardware to run on both AT&T and Verizon networks in the U.S.
The report claims that the device, which will include a Qualcomm chipset, will be released at the end of July or in early August. While later than usual, that release date would be sooner than the fiscal 2012 claim the same site made back in March.
Finally, the report claims that Apple's next "major new handset" will arrive in the spring of 2012. A spring release for a so-called "iPhone 6" was previously suggested in April, in a Japanese newspaper report that said Apple had selected Sharp to create next-generation low-temperature poly-silicon LCD displays for a thinner and lighter design.
The details in Monday's latest report restate rumors that have previously swirled. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo with Concord Securities told AppleInsider in April that the next iPhone will feature "slight modifications" from its predecessor, including a new 8-megapixel rear camera. Other reports have suggested the next-generation iPhone will include both CDMA and GSM radios, making it a world phone.
As for the SIM-less design, last week the CEO of carrier Orange said that Apple will introduce a new, smaller and thinner SIM card in its next-generation iPhone. There were reports last year that Apple was working on an embedded SIM design that would allow users to select a carrier and service plan directly from their iPhone, but it was claimed that those plans upset carriers who felt they could be marginalized by such a move.
Picture quality on the new iPhone is also expected to be improved with a separate component for an improved LED flash. Various reports, including one earlier Tuesday, have suggested the flash will be moved farther from the camera lens to reduce red eye.
Last December, Macotakara correctly reported that Apple's second-generation iPad would have a smaller bezel, a flat back panel, and a larger speaker. The site also revealed that Apple was planning an event to announced the iPad 2 in March.
Citing an anonymous source, Macotakara reported Monday that the next iPhone will have the same form factor as the iPhone 4, and will use an ARM Cortex-A9 processor. The report said it is "not confirmed" whether the new processor will have a single CPU or is dual-core.
The report also said the handset will have an 8-megapixel camera, and a SIM-less design along with 3-4 internal antennas that will allow the device to serve as a "world phone" compatible with both GSM and CDMA networks. That would allow the same hardware to run on both AT&T and Verizon networks in the U.S.
The report claims that the device, which will include a Qualcomm chipset, will be released at the end of July or in early August. While later than usual, that release date would be sooner than the fiscal 2012 claim the same site made back in March.
Finally, the report claims that Apple's next "major new handset" will arrive in the spring of 2012. A spring release for a so-called "iPhone 6" was previously suggested in April, in a Japanese newspaper report that said Apple had selected Sharp to create next-generation low-temperature poly-silicon LCD displays for a thinner and lighter design.
The details in Monday's latest report restate rumors that have previously swirled. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo with Concord Securities told AppleInsider in April that the next iPhone will feature "slight modifications" from its predecessor, including a new 8-megapixel rear camera. Other reports have suggested the next-generation iPhone will include both CDMA and GSM radios, making it a world phone.
As for the SIM-less design, last week the CEO of carrier Orange said that Apple will introduce a new, smaller and thinner SIM card in its next-generation iPhone. There were reports last year that Apple was working on an embedded SIM design that would allow users to select a carrier and service plan directly from their iPhone, but it was claimed that those plans upset carriers who felt they could be marginalized by such a move.
Picture quality on the new iPhone is also expected to be improved with a separate component for an improved LED flash. Various reports, including one earlier Tuesday, have suggested the flash will be moved farther from the camera lens to reduce red eye.
Last December, Macotakara correctly reported that Apple's second-generation iPad would have a smaller bezel, a flat back panel, and a larger speaker. The site also revealed that Apple was planning an event to announced the iPad 2 in March.
Hack Turns iPad 3G Into a Fully Functional Phone
There’s something fishy about this, but iPad 3G has supposedly been hacked to make phone calls and send SMS messages — just like a giant iPhone!
Check out the video of the supersized iPad/iPhone in action:
The hack is called PhoneItiPad and is by iPhoneIslam, which was behind the FaceIt-3GS, a hack that enables FaceTime video calling on an iPhone 3GS. According to iPhoneIslam’s caption on the YouTube video:
A hack that will change the game. Can you imagine turning your iPad to a fully functional phone.
With No Special Hardware all what you need is Jailbroken iPad 3G and your iPad 3G will do anything you expect from iPhone… Phone Calls, SMS, FaceTime by Phone Number… ETC
Samsung asks court for next iPhone and iPad
It's something lots of people would like to do, but Samsung may be in with a chance - as part of its trademark dispute with Apple, it's asked a court to give it samples of the next iPhone and iPad.
"Samsung needs each of these items to evaluate whether a likelihood of confusion exists between the Samsung and Apple products that
will be in the market at the same time," the motion reads.
Apple sees it differently, though: "Because Apple’s future products have no relevance to a preliminary injunction motion, we reject your request that Apple provide samples of such future products," it told the court.
If US District Court Judge Koh takes Samsung's side, Apple will have until June 17 to hand over the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 - or whatever they turn out to be called.
And, according to the motion, Apple's lawyers agreed to do so at an earlier hearing, after Samsung was ordered to hand over its own products under development. It's since handed over the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 tablets, along with smartphones including the Galaxy S II, Droid Charge and Infuse 4G.
In fact, neither company gets to see the prototypes itself - only their outside lawyers.
The two companies have been fighting over the issue since April, when Apple claimed that Samsung was blatantly ripping off its own product designs. Even the packaging, it says, is a copy.
While Apple has for the past few years tended to release new iPhone models in midsummer, this year it's expected to wait until September.
"Samsung needs each of these items to evaluate whether a likelihood of confusion exists between the Samsung and Apple products that
will be in the market at the same time," the motion reads.
Apple sees it differently, though: "Because Apple’s future products have no relevance to a preliminary injunction motion, we reject your request that Apple provide samples of such future products," it told the court.
If US District Court Judge Koh takes Samsung's side, Apple will have until June 17 to hand over the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 - or whatever they turn out to be called.
And, according to the motion, Apple's lawyers agreed to do so at an earlier hearing, after Samsung was ordered to hand over its own products under development. It's since handed over the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 tablets, along with smartphones including the Galaxy S II, Droid Charge and Infuse 4G.
In fact, neither company gets to see the prototypes itself - only their outside lawyers.
The two companies have been fighting over the issue since April, when Apple claimed that Samsung was blatantly ripping off its own product designs. Even the packaging, it says, is a copy.
While Apple has for the past few years tended to release new iPhone models in midsummer, this year it's expected to wait until September.
Microsoft Earns More from Android than Windows Phone 7
It turns out that a lot of people haven't been paying attention. Over the weekend, a story about how Microsoft is earning more from HTC's Android devices than from its own Windows Phone 7 sales spread all across the web, with surprised reactions everywhere. Anyone who has been paying attention to Microsoft's recent patent trolling regarding Android could've seen this coming.
Citi analyst Walter Pritchard revealed that HTC pays Microsoft $5 for every Android device it sells, as part of the patent deal between the two companies. Microsoft is currently suing other Android phone makers, and is seeking $7.50 to $12.50 per device, according to Pritchard. This is what Steve Ballmer referred to as 'Android's patent fee'.
As I have already said numerous times on OSNews: this is mafia behaviour. Microsoft is basically bullying Android device makers into paying protection money, probably with the goal of making this protection money about as much as the cost of a Windows Phone 7 license. Horace Dediu did some quick maths, and came to the conclusion that Microsoft earns more from HTC's Android devices than it does form its own Windows Phone 7; Microsoft has admitted selling 2 million WP7 licenses, and assuming a price of $15 per license, that's $30 million in revenue. Using the rough estimate of 30 million HTC android devices, you come to the conclusion that Android earns Microsoft more than WP7.
I'm not surprised about this, and honestly, I can't even get angry about this anymore. I mean, the odds of the US patent system changing are slim; why would those in power in the US change a system that is beneficial to US companies? Microsoft gets more money at the expense of a small Taiwanese company - and why, exactly, would the US government change that system? Conversely, do you honestly believe the judges in, say, the Apple v. Samsung case, are impartial? I've got a unicorn to sell you, princess.
That's the cold harsh reality of the technology world today, kids. Why compete by making better products that people want to buy, if you can just use what should be illegal and criminal means to gain an advantage over a small competitor?
Citi analyst Walter Pritchard revealed that HTC pays Microsoft $5 for every Android device it sells, as part of the patent deal between the two companies. Microsoft is currently suing other Android phone makers, and is seeking $7.50 to $12.50 per device, according to Pritchard. This is what Steve Ballmer referred to as 'Android's patent fee'.
As I have already said numerous times on OSNews: this is mafia behaviour. Microsoft is basically bullying Android device makers into paying protection money, probably with the goal of making this protection money about as much as the cost of a Windows Phone 7 license. Horace Dediu did some quick maths, and came to the conclusion that Microsoft earns more from HTC's Android devices than it does form its own Windows Phone 7; Microsoft has admitted selling 2 million WP7 licenses, and assuming a price of $15 per license, that's $30 million in revenue. Using the rough estimate of 30 million HTC android devices, you come to the conclusion that Android earns Microsoft more than WP7.
I'm not surprised about this, and honestly, I can't even get angry about this anymore. I mean, the odds of the US patent system changing are slim; why would those in power in the US change a system that is beneficial to US companies? Microsoft gets more money at the expense of a small Taiwanese company - and why, exactly, would the US government change that system? Conversely, do you honestly believe the judges in, say, the Apple v. Samsung case, are impartial? I've got a unicorn to sell you, princess.
That's the cold harsh reality of the technology world today, kids. Why compete by making better products that people want to buy, if you can just use what should be illegal and criminal means to gain an advantage over a small competitor?
Asus Padfone leaked: Phone with tablet dock
Take the Motorola Atrix 4G and its innovative laptop dock, and replace the laptop with a tablet and you get the rumored Asus Padfone. Asus is expected to unveil the Padfone at Computex this week, and it looks very interesting indeed. What the Padfone does is extend the smartphone’s display when needed into what looks like a 7 or 10-inch touchscreen. The phone becomes the tablet’s processor and storage, although almost certainly the tablet has its own battery to power that big screen.
We will keep our eyes on the news from Computex to find out what platform is powering the Asus Padfone. It’s most likely to be running Android, but it can’t run Honeycomb on the phone so perhaps it will have Gingerbread on board?
Google kills off popular emulators
Search outfit Google has decided to pull the plug on a popular emulator which helped the operating system gain traction in the marketplace.
Nesoid, Snesoid, Gensoid, N64oid, Ataroid, Gearoid and Gameboid were video game console emulators developed by yongzh and were some of the most popular paid apps on the Android Market.
The emulators have attracted a legal letter from briefs working for Sega and have been suddenly removed.
According to Engadget two emulators were pulled late last month.
What is a little more alarming is that Google has revoked yongzh's developer privileges, just like PSX4Droid comrade-in-arms ZodTTD.
Yongzh, whose real name is Yong Zhang, said Google's action had cut off his primary source of income and leaving him with an inbox stuffed with worried email from customers.
He has migrated his emulators to the third-party app store SlideME, where they'll be free for a while. This will allow customers to get updates without paying a second time.
However, he does not hold out much hope that SlideME will be able to stave off Sega either.
Google should probably have held out a bit against Sega. The emulations, which were pretty good software, did help sell Android phones. It is also a bit on the nose that Google took awayYong's ability to make software for its app store.
To be fair, we have not seen a response from Google to explain its actions, but we would have thought that if the search engine wants good developers to come up with ideas for its apps, it should do a little more backing and a lot less sacking.
Nesoid, Snesoid, Gensoid, N64oid, Ataroid, Gearoid and Gameboid were video game console emulators developed by yongzh and were some of the most popular paid apps on the Android Market.
The emulators have attracted a legal letter from briefs working for Sega and have been suddenly removed.
According to Engadget two emulators were pulled late last month.
What is a little more alarming is that Google has revoked yongzh's developer privileges, just like PSX4Droid comrade-in-arms ZodTTD.
Yongzh, whose real name is Yong Zhang, said Google's action had cut off his primary source of income and leaving him with an inbox stuffed with worried email from customers.
He has migrated his emulators to the third-party app store SlideME, where they'll be free for a while. This will allow customers to get updates without paying a second time.
However, he does not hold out much hope that SlideME will be able to stave off Sega either.
Google should probably have held out a bit against Sega. The emulations, which were pretty good software, did help sell Android phones. It is also a bit on the nose that Google took awayYong's ability to make software for its app store.
To be fair, we have not seen a response from Google to explain its actions, but we would have thought that if the search engine wants good developers to come up with ideas for its apps, it should do a little more backing and a lot less sacking.
Can I Wirelessly Connect My PC to My HDTV?
There are number of ways to do this, although they may not provide what you want.
First of all, a great many televisions today have WiFi built in, which allows you to wirelessly connect them to your home network, and thus to your computer. So do many new Blu-ray players--and they're a great deal cheaper than HDTVs. But is WiFi really your best option?
Depending on your home's geography, WiFi may not be reliable enough for quality streaming video. If it isn't, consider using Ethernet. All of the TVs and Blu-ray players that support WiFi, and many that don't, have Ethernet. If stringing an Ethernet cable from your router to your TV isn't practical, HomePlug devices--which use your home's electric grid to transmit data--can easily give you an Ethernet connection to any room in your home.
You probably already know that,--however they're connected--networked HDTVs and Blu-ray players can play Internet streaming video. Virtually all of them offer Netflix. Many have YouTube, Pandora, and at least one pay-per-view service. Newer ones are including Hulu Plus.
Most of them can also play videos and music, and display photos, off of any computer on the network. The computer has to be running DLNA server software, but that's not difficult. Windows Media Player--which comes bundled with Windows--is such a server.
But these features don't make the HDTV or Blu-ray player as versatile as a computer. They can't play all of the streaming video services that your browser can handle, nor do they support every media file format that you might find on your PC. That's why many people like to plug their computer into their HDTV.
Of course, that's not a wireless solution.
Or is it? I tested two wireless PC-to-TV devices for this article. Atlona's AT-AiR3 and Cables Unlimited's Wireless USB to HDMI & VGA Adapter with Audio appeared to be the same product in different packaging, although only the Atlona's supported 1080p. In both cases, you plug one USB device into your PC, and plug another one into your HDTV via not-included HDMI or VGA cables.
Both had the same problem: a software installation that makes major changes to Windows' Registry and adds an autoloader. Also, their ranges were limited; you basically had to be in the same room as the TV. But each allowed me to watch PC content on the television while my laptop was at my fingertips. Their image quality was equivalent to using the PC's HDMI port.
First of all, a great many televisions today have WiFi built in, which allows you to wirelessly connect them to your home network, and thus to your computer. So do many new Blu-ray players--and they're a great deal cheaper than HDTVs. But is WiFi really your best option?
Depending on your home's geography, WiFi may not be reliable enough for quality streaming video. If it isn't, consider using Ethernet. All of the TVs and Blu-ray players that support WiFi, and many that don't, have Ethernet. If stringing an Ethernet cable from your router to your TV isn't practical, HomePlug devices--which use your home's electric grid to transmit data--can easily give you an Ethernet connection to any room in your home.
You probably already know that,--however they're connected--networked HDTVs and Blu-ray players can play Internet streaming video. Virtually all of them offer Netflix. Many have YouTube, Pandora, and at least one pay-per-view service. Newer ones are including Hulu Plus.
Most of them can also play videos and music, and display photos, off of any computer on the network. The computer has to be running DLNA server software, but that's not difficult. Windows Media Player--which comes bundled with Windows--is such a server.
But these features don't make the HDTV or Blu-ray player as versatile as a computer. They can't play all of the streaming video services that your browser can handle, nor do they support every media file format that you might find on your PC. That's why many people like to plug their computer into their HDTV.
Of course, that's not a wireless solution.
Or is it? I tested two wireless PC-to-TV devices for this article. Atlona's AT-AiR3 and Cables Unlimited's Wireless USB to HDMI & VGA Adapter with Audio appeared to be the same product in different packaging, although only the Atlona's supported 1080p. In both cases, you plug one USB device into your PC, and plug another one into your HDTV via not-included HDMI or VGA cables.
Both had the same problem: a software installation that makes major changes to Windows' Registry and adds an autoloader. Also, their ranges were limited; you basically had to be in the same room as the TV. But each allowed me to watch PC content on the television while my laptop was at my fingertips. Their image quality was equivalent to using the PC's HDMI port.
What's Killing Your Wi-Fi?
"PC Pro has taken an in-depth look at Wi-Fi and the factors that can cause connections to crumble. It dispels some common myths about Wi-Fi problems — such as that neighboring Wi-Fi hotspots are the most common cause of problems, instead of other RF interference from devices such as analogue video senders, microwave ovens and even fish tanks. The feature also highlights free and paid-for tools that can diagnose Wi-Fi issues, such as inSSIDer and Heatmapper, the latter of which maps provides a heatmap of Wi-Fi hotspots in your home or office."
Monday, May 30, 2011
Alaska Airlines ditches paper flight manuals for iPads
Pilot manuals on paper are, as you might imagine, highly complex and detailed. They also take up a ton of space in a pilot's cockpit and weight up to 25 pounds, according to the press release. Alaska Airlines says that the pilots' iPads contain an app "that is loaded with PDF versions of 41 flight, systems and performance manuals, reference cards, and other materials." Updating the flight manuals will only take a tap on an iPad's screen instead of having to replace individual pages in a paper manual.
This likely the first of many developments to come in this area. More and more airlines are likely to follow Alaska Airlines lead. In addition, the company says it is also thinking about replacing "paper aeronautical navigation charts with electronic versions on the iPad." According to the press release the combination of replacing the paper flight manuals and the paper navigation charts will save the company a whopping 2.4 million pieces of paper. Even the planes themselves will benefit as taking out all those manuals will make the aircraft lighter thus increasing the savings on fuel. Finally the press release says, "Further savings are expected from fewer back and muscle injuries caused by pilots carrying flight bags that can tip the scales at 50 pounds or more fully loaded."
WP7: Microsoft shows off "Mango" at event
The typing experience has been improved as well, specifically in auto-correct.
Threads is a new tool that combines many different communication platforms together into one thread of data. You can text, chat, Facebook, Google Chat, all in one thread of conversation.
Linked Inbox made an appearance, letting you combine multiple inboxes into one tile. Permissions are added to messages, so you can add tags like "do not forward," and it will become a locked message. This has a lot of potential for the enterprise folk as well.
Meetings and scheduling has been streamlined, including the addition of Facebook event integration into the calendar. The calendar in general has been updated, and it can now display multiple calendars as different colors, with integration for each calendar entity.
Voice control has been greatly improved, including automatic notification voiceover. Your phone will read you a notification, and it will ask you if you want it to read it back to you. It will give you voice options to read or delete, for example. All this is done by voice command.
Microsoft then talked about some new application enhancements to each WP7 hub. In Photos, the photos are automatically scanned for tagging, and will share those tags across social networks, and smoothly transfers control to other social applications. Some improvements to the Office hub were shown off, especially collaboration and productivity using SkyDrive and an updated Excel app. These improvements will benefit the consumer and the employee equally. Some new features to Games were shown. Multitasking was shown off, and it was extremely smooth, even on a 3D-accelerated game. You can now set a game to pause whenever a notification comes in, and it will resume when you are finished. Better integration with Xbox Live was shown off, and now global scores and other social data are shared in the Xbox Live hub, instead of inside each game.
Carriers will now be able to add a lot more customization to the phones they're releasing. Microsoft announced that that Mango will be the release that gets shipped on the first Nokia phone, and that Nokia phones running mango are already in the lab and working.
Microsoft preps users for the move to Office 365 cloud platform
Microsoft’s launch of its updated competitor to Google Apps, Office 365, is approaching. I’m hearing the Softies are closing in on the “code lock” for the product (slated for early June), with late June the likely new general-availability target.
Microsoft execs are doing a number of things to ready themselves internally and externally for Office 365, Microsoft’s suite of hosted SharePoint, Exchange and Lync communications products. Internally, the company is moving some of its execs around as part of a reorganization in Server and Tools. As part of that reorg, Microsoft is moving the Online platform team, headed by Product Management chief Enron Kelly, from the Office division to the Server and Tools Marketing Group, as of July 1 (the start of Microsoft’s fiscal 2012).
Kelly and his team are going to be working with Rajat Taneja on what’s known as the “Service Delivery Platform” — the underlying guts of Office 365, which includes the shared hosting infrastructure, commerce, user-experience/user interface, digital marketing and marketplace components. Kelly’s team will be especially attuned to trying to figure out what kind of common commerce capabilities are needed in Windows Azure, Microsoft’s Online Services division offerings, Xbox Live and adCenter, according to internal e-mail about the reorg. Microsoft execs have said Microsoft is planning to host Office 365 on Azure at some point, but haven’t offered any kind of time frame as to when that might happen.
Externally, Microsoft and its partners are stepping up their educational campaign around the coming migration from Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) to Office 365. At TechEd 2011 last week, Microsoft offered a handful of Office 365 sessions about Office 365, including a couple specifically focused on the coming BPOS-Office 365 transition.
I’ve pulled a few slides from the “What Do Existing BPOS Customers Need to Do to Prepare for Microsoft Office 365?” talk at TechEd to highlight what BPOS users could and should do to get ready to move over to Office 365. There are a number of moving pieces, including the planned phase-out of the current Live Meeting audio/video conferencing service and the SharePoint Online Deskless Worker SKU; new password requirements; and URL changes for Outlook Web Access and portals.
The Deskless Worker SKU is being replaced by the new Office 365 K (”kiosk worker”) plans. The Live Meeting service is being replaced by Lync Online, Microsoft’s unified communications product that does business instant-messaging, audio/video conferencing, VOIP and more. As the slide below notes, Microsoft will offer customers currently using version 2 of Live Meeting rights to use the product through the end of the company’s FY 13 (which will be June 30, 2013.)
(click on the slide above to enlarge)
As Microsoft execs said last year, Internet Explorer 6 won’t be supported when Office 365 is launched. Nor will Office 2003 or Office Communicator 2007 R2.
Once Microsoft makes Office 365 generally available, the company will begin contacting existing customers and offering them a transition window as to when they’d prefer to make the move from BPOS to Office 365. Microsoft is staging the moves so that all customers are not moved over at once. The “Blackberry transition” — a k a, the period when BPOS customers using Blackberry Enterprise Services are moved from Microsoft’s hosted BES to RIM’s hosted BES offering — is not going to happen right away. Instead, it won’t begin until late 2011 or early 2012, as some of my contacts had been hearing earlier this year.
(click on the slide above to enlarge)
Microsoft is planning to migrate its Live@Edu users to Office 365 in the spring or summer of 2012. Microsoft currently is planning to complete all of the migrations of existing users to Office 365 within a year from when the transition begins.
For more particulars about the planned transition that might be of interest to adminsitrators/IT managers, here’s the link to the full Office 365 migration presentation from TechEd.
Microsoft execs are doing a number of things to ready themselves internally and externally for Office 365, Microsoft’s suite of hosted SharePoint, Exchange and Lync communications products. Internally, the company is moving some of its execs around as part of a reorganization in Server and Tools. As part of that reorg, Microsoft is moving the Online platform team, headed by Product Management chief Enron Kelly, from the Office division to the Server and Tools Marketing Group, as of July 1 (the start of Microsoft’s fiscal 2012).
Kelly and his team are going to be working with Rajat Taneja on what’s known as the “Service Delivery Platform” — the underlying guts of Office 365, which includes the shared hosting infrastructure, commerce, user-experience/user interface, digital marketing and marketplace components. Kelly’s team will be especially attuned to trying to figure out what kind of common commerce capabilities are needed in Windows Azure, Microsoft’s Online Services division offerings, Xbox Live and adCenter, according to internal e-mail about the reorg. Microsoft execs have said Microsoft is planning to host Office 365 on Azure at some point, but haven’t offered any kind of time frame as to when that might happen.
Externally, Microsoft and its partners are stepping up their educational campaign around the coming migration from Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) to Office 365. At TechEd 2011 last week, Microsoft offered a handful of Office 365 sessions about Office 365, including a couple specifically focused on the coming BPOS-Office 365 transition.
I’ve pulled a few slides from the “What Do Existing BPOS Customers Need to Do to Prepare for Microsoft Office 365?” talk at TechEd to highlight what BPOS users could and should do to get ready to move over to Office 365. There are a number of moving pieces, including the planned phase-out of the current Live Meeting audio/video conferencing service and the SharePoint Online Deskless Worker SKU; new password requirements; and URL changes for Outlook Web Access and portals.
The Deskless Worker SKU is being replaced by the new Office 365 K (”kiosk worker”) plans. The Live Meeting service is being replaced by Lync Online, Microsoft’s unified communications product that does business instant-messaging, audio/video conferencing, VOIP and more. As the slide below notes, Microsoft will offer customers currently using version 2 of Live Meeting rights to use the product through the end of the company’s FY 13 (which will be June 30, 2013.)
(click on the slide above to enlarge)
As Microsoft execs said last year, Internet Explorer 6 won’t be supported when Office 365 is launched. Nor will Office 2003 or Office Communicator 2007 R2.
(click on the slide above to enlarge)
Microsoft is planning to migrate its Live@Edu users to Office 365 in the spring or summer of 2012. Microsoft currently is planning to complete all of the migrations of existing users to Office 365 within a year from when the transition begins.
For more particulars about the planned transition that might be of interest to adminsitrators/IT managers, here’s the link to the full Office 365 migration presentation from TechEd.
Windows Phone Mango Update, Windows 8 Rumors Marked Microsoft Week
Microsoft detailed its upcoming "Mango" update for Windows Phones, and tried to push back against its own CEO’s comments about Windows 8.
Sometime this fall, Microsoft (NYSE:MSFT) will push its “Mango” software update to Windows Phones.That in itself doesn’t seem like terribly exciting news—smartphone software is updated all the time, either in the name of improving features or patching some sort of vulnerability in the code. But Mango is more of a total revamp, adding some 500 new elements to Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.
Microsoft executives demonstrated some of Mango’s more top-line features during a May 24 press event in New York City: Multitasking, a redesigned Xbox Live Hub, visual voicemail, the ability to consolidate friends and colleagues into groups within the “People” Hub, and Local Scout, which offers a view of everything to see and do in a particular neighborhood. The “People” Hub will also include data from Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as the ability to share and tag photos.
Mango’s newfound enterprise functionality includes the ability to search a server for email items no longer stored on the device, and share and save Office documents via Office 365 and Windows SkyDrive. There’s also an upgraded Internet experience, one that tightly bakes Microsoft’s Bing search engine into the interface.
“Rather than providing blue-link answers, we bring the Internet in this innovative [way] called Quick Cards,” Andy Lees, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business, told media and analysts gathered for the presentation. If you use your Mango-enabled Windows Phone to search for a restaurant, for example, Bing will return a series of cards (rendered in Windows Phone’s distinctive “Metro” style) with images, access to related apps (such as Yelp), and related information.
For enterprise users, Mango offers some key additions, including the ability to search a server for email items no longer stored to a device, and share and save Office documents via Office 365 and Windows SkyDrive.
Windows Phone is currently wrestling to establish itself in a smartphone market filled with aggressive competitors such as Apple’s iPhone and the growing family of Google Android devices. Research firm Gartner estimated that Windows Phone sold 1.6 million units in the first quarter of 2011, and recent data from comScore suggests that Microsoft’s share of the overall smartphone market continues to erode.
In addition to HTC and Nokia, Samsung and LG Electronics have apparently committed to building new Windows Phone devices preloaded with Mango. Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE are also planning to produce Windows Phone devices for the first time. “We have some Windows Mango phones,” HTC CEO Peter Chou reportedly told Reuters May 25. “We are very committed to Windows phone products.”
Mango wasn’t the only forward-looking bit of news out of Microsoft this week: in a speech to the Microsoft Developer Forum in Toyko, CEO Steve Ballmer seemed to confirm that Windows 8 will make its debut in 2012, and appear on a variety of factors including tablets and PCs.
“As we look forward to the next generation of Windows systems, which will come out next year, there’s a whole lot more coming,” he told the audience, according to a transcript published on Microsoft’s Website. “As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors.”
Barely had the words left Ballmer’s mouth before the blogosphere began its parsing. Did his use of “tablets” and “slates” mean two different form-factors in the pipeline, or was he merely using both terms to emphasize a singular touch-screen form-factor? Will the next version of Windows include a singular interface, or multiple versions for multiple devices?
Yet even as it printed Ballmer’s comments on its Website, Microsoft seemed intent on tamping down the burst of Windows 8 news. “It appears there was a misstatement,” a Microsoft spokesperson wrote in a statement circulated to media. “To date, we have yet to formally announce any timing or naming for the next version of Windows.”
While it seems odd that a company would directly contradict its CEO, Microsoft has a good reason to keep the next version of Windows under wraps for the time being. With Microsoft dependent on continuing Windows 7 sales to fuel a healthy portion of its revenue, it needs to stop anything that threatens to choke off a portion of those sales. If companies believe Windows 7 will be formally outdated in just over a year, they could hesitate to upgrade.
What do we know about the next-generation Windows? Windows and Windows Live division president Steven Sinofsky announced during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that the next-generation platform will support SoC (system-on-a-chip) architecture, in particular ARM-based systems from partners such as Qualcomm, Nvidia and Texas Instruments. That would give Microsoft the ability to port the next Windows onto tablets and other mobile form factors powered by ARM offerings.
Nvidia reveals new mobile graphics chips and wired 3D Vision glasses
The GeForce GTX 560M will allow notebooks equipped with the processor access to not only fast performance in playing PC games but will also offer support for Nvidia's Optimus technology for the first time for Nvidia's GeForce GTX series. That should allow even high end notebook PCs to have battery saving features. Alienware, Toshiba and ASUS have already got plans to release notebooks with the new Geforce GTX 560M chip. The thin-and-light GeForce GT 520MX chip replaces the previously released GeForce GT 520M and will be used by notebooks from Asus, MSI and others.
In related news, Nvidia also announced plans to release a new and cheaper version of its 3D Vision glasses. These new glasses will be priced at $99. However unlike the more expensive and wireless 3D Vision glasses, the $99 version will be wired with a 10 foot USB 2.0 cable. The new 3D Vision glasses, which will still require a compatible 3D PC monitor or laptop to work, will be released in late June via Nvidia's online store along with other retailers.
Linux Kernel 3.0 Announced to No Fan Fare
Well this makes a change. Linus Torvalds has announced that the next version of the Linux Kernel release is to be '3.0'. "I decided to just bite the bullet, and call the next version 3.0. It will get released close enough to the 20-year mark, which is excuse enough for me, although honestly, the real reason is just that I can no longer comfortably count as high as 40."
Instead of going for a glorious 'break-everything' approach Linus has described the change-set as nothing in particular:
"In general this is supposed to be a fairly normal release cycle" as Linus puts it.
Kernel renumbering was discussed last year, but I like Linus’ ability to make a decision otherwise such an otherwise meaningless change could be caught up in endless squabbling. "Let's face it - what's the point of being in charge if you can't pick the bike shed color without holding a referendum on it? So I'm just going all alpha-male, and just renumbering it. You'll like it."
Instead of going for a glorious 'break-everything' approach Linus has described the change-set as nothing in particular:
We are very much *not* doing a KDE-4 or a Gnome-3 here. No breakage, no special scary new features, nothing at all like that. We've been doing time-based releases for many years now, this is in no way about features. [...] There's absolutely no reason to aim for the traditional ".0" problems that so many projects have.
Instead the release will work on testing the build scripts for the numbering change, but will also include the "usual two thirds driver changes, and a lot of random fixes" and "some nice VFS cleanups, various VM fixes, some nice initial ARM consolidation (yay!)". "In general this is supposed to be a fairly normal release cycle" as Linus puts it.
Kernel renumbering was discussed last year, but I like Linus’ ability to make a decision otherwise such an otherwise meaningless change could be caught up in endless squabbling. "Let's face it - what's the point of being in charge if you can't pick the bike shed color without holding a referendum on it? So I'm just going all alpha-male, and just renumbering it. You'll like it."
Samsung asks to see Apple's next iPhone, iPad
The motion, filed on Friday with the U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., and discovered by This Is My Next, asks the court to make Apple provide samples of the "final, commercial version(s)" of the iPhone and iPad, along with whatever retail packaging those products come in. Again, these aren't announced products, they're named in the filing as the "iPhone 4S," "iPhone 5," "iPad 3," and "third generation iPad."
The news comes a week after Apple filed a motion to see final production samples of a number of announced, though unreleased, Samsung products, including the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 tablets, and smartphones like the Galaxy S II, Droid Charge, and Infuse 4G. The idea behind that was to evaluate whether these devices would fall under the same intellectual-property infringement claims Apple had already placed on Samsung devices like the Nexus S, Captivate, Continuum, and Mesmerize in its original court filing.
Nilay Patel, of This Is My Next, notes that as with Apple's handling of the request to see Samsung's unreleased products, the Samsung request asks only that Samsung's lawyers, and not the company's product teams, be allowed to see the Apple devices. That said, the retaliation preys on the element of surprise, historically one of Apple's biggest strengths when introducing new products.
Apple's lawsuit against Samsung (PDF), back in April, alleged that Samsung had copied Apple's mobile devices both in terms of user interface and design features. Apple also alleged that the Samsung devices in question infringed on Apple's patents, and resulted in Samsung practicing unfair competition. Samsung fired back by launching a wave of patent infringement lawsuits targeting Apple's products in multiple countries.
The case continues to generate intense interest from tech onlookers. While the two companies compete, Apple and Samsung have historically been close business partners, with Apple making use of a number of Samsung components across the range of its devices. Nonetheless, the relationship has not kept Samsung and its telecommunications group from being targeted.
Samsung is requesting a court order to have Apple provide the samples by June 17, 2011.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Our lawyers should get to see iPhone 5 and iPad 3
The legal battle between Apple and Samsung just racketed up a few notches as Samsung’s legal team file a motion to get their hands on samples of Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5 and iPad 3.
This follows a similar demand from Apple a few days ago for Samsung to hand over samples fo upcoming products such as the Droid Charge, Infuse 4G, Galaxy S II, and Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9.
Here’s the meat from the motion:
So, how does Samsung know that the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 are incoming? It doesn’t. It’s making these claims based on ‘internet reports and Apple’s past practice’ - so in other words, the rumor mill.
This follows a similar demand from Apple a few days ago for Samsung to hand over samples fo upcoming products such as the Droid Charge, Infuse 4G, Galaxy S II, and Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9.
Here’s the meat from the motion:
STATEMENT OF ISSUES TO BE DECIDEDIt’s important to note that Samsung wouldn’t get to see the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, only its lawyers.
1. Whether Samsung is entitled to samples of the next generation iPhone and iPad, as well as those products’ packaging and packaging inserts, in order to prepare its defense against any preliminary injunction motion brought against Samsung by Apple for trademark or trade dress
infringement.
…
SAMSUNG’S CIVIL L.R. 37-2 STATEMENT
Pursuant to Civil L.R. 37-2, Samsung’s reciprocal expedited discovery requests to Apple are set forth in full below:
1) a sample of the final, commercial version of the next generation iPhone that Apple will release, whether that product will be known as the “iPhone 4S,” “iPhone 5,” or some other name, along with the final version of the packaging in which this product will be delivered to retail customers and a final version of the insert(s) that will be included within such packaging; and
2) a sample of the final, commercial version of the next generation iPad that Apple will release, whether that product will be known as the “iPad 3,” “Third Generation iPad,” or some other name, along with the final version of the packaging in which this product will be delivered to retail customers and a final version of the insert(s) that will be included within such packaging.
Apple has objected/responded to Samsung’s requests as follows:
This lawsuit is about Samsung’s unlawful copying of Apple’s trademarks, trade dress, design and utility patents. This valuable intellectual property is embodied in products that Apple currently has on the market. A preliminary injunction motion will be based on Apple’s current intellectual property rights, not on future products. Because Apple’s future products have no relevance to a preliminary injunction motion, we reject your request that Apple provide samples of such future products.
So, how does Samsung know that the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 are incoming? It doesn’t. It’s making these claims based on ‘internet reports and Apple’s past practice’ - so in other words, the rumor mill.
Lodsys sets sights on Android developers
If you've been following tech news lately, you may have read about a company named Lodsys that is threatening to sue iOS app developers (many of them small shops) for infringing on patents relating to in-app purchases.There's no doubt that Lodsys holds some pretty watertight patents, otherwise why would big hitters like Apple and Google pay for them in the first place? The confusion lies in how far the patents reach when it comes to third-party developers.
We recently implemented in-app purchases for our Android application and several weeks later we received a letter from Lodsys, claiming that we infringed on their patents.
Have any other Android developers out there been sent a letter? Has Google taken any action on this issue yet? Has Google given direction to any developers that have been hit by this? We are obviously a small shop and are not financially capable of defending ourselves over a litigation.
Lodsys insists that its patents have been paid for by the device manufacturers only and that anyone developing software for the those devices must cough up on their own.
Explaining why his company is targeting developers, Lodsys' Mark Small writes, "The economic gains provided by Lodsys [patents] are being enjoyed by the business that provides the product or service that interacts with the user. Since Lodsys patent rights are of value to that overall solution, it is only fair to get paid by the party that is accountable for the entire solution and which captures the value.
"As a comparative example, it is the owner of the hotel who is responsible for the overall service (value proposition) that guests pay for, not the owner of the land that the hotel may be leasing, not the travel agent that sold the reservation, not the manufacturer of tools such as hammers, nor the provider of materials such as nails or steel beams, which may be used in building the hotel; nor is it the outsourced linen washing service or the architect of the building who is responsible. Lodsys’ patent portfolio is being used as a part of an overall solution and we are seeking to be paid for the use of patent rights by the accountable party."
It might seem like a smart analogy, but you don't have to pay a fee to the bloke who bought the patent off of the bloke who invented nails, or windows, or shower curtains every time you stay in a hotel.
Lodsys insists that both Apple and Google are licensed only for 'nameplate products'. In other words, apps which are developed by Google and Apple employees.
Apple's top lawyer seems to disagree. In a blistering three-page letter to Mark Small, the Cupertino company's Bruce Sewell accuses Lodsys of making 'fundamental misapprehensions' of the terms of the licence agreement and 'false assertions' in its letters to developers.
"The technology that is targeted in your notice letters is technology that Apple is expressly licensed under the Lodsys patents to offer to Apple’s App Makers," Sewell rages. "These licensed products and services enable Apple’s App Makers to communicate with end users through the use of Apple’s own licensed hardware, software, APIs, memory, servers, and interfaces, including Apple’s App Store. Because Apple is licensed under Lodsys’ patents to offer such technology to its App Makers, the App Makers are entitled to use this technology free from any infringement claims by Lodsys."
Apple has insisted that Lodsys withdraws all notice letters sent to 'Apple App Makers'.
Google's lawyers might want to copy and paste the full text of Sewell's missive (remembering of course to change 'Apple' for 'Google') here
Sony's NGP gets its specs slashed
Gaming fans eagerly awaiting Sony's Next-Generation Portable - the successor to the PlayStation Portable hand-held console - could be in for a disappointment, with rumours circulating that the hardware is going to be significantly downgraded from its original specifications.The device as originally announced was a beast of a machine, packing 512MB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, and 128GB of dedicated graphics memory. Couple that with a fully-fleged 3G broadband connection, a display with a resolution that rivals that of the iPhone 4's 'retina' display, and a clever touch surface on the back of the device, and gadget geeks the world over started salivating.
But, according to French-language news site 01net, Sony has been forced into a few compromises in order to get the cost of the device down to a level where it will be able to compete in retail with Nintendo's flagship 3DS. The 512MB of RAM has been chopped in half to 256MB, while the 16GB storage is entirely missing - replaced, the site claims, with optional external storage cards.
While unconfirmed by Sony, the report does answer one burning question: how the company hoped to release the high-spec device it originally teased at a price that wouldn't have gamers running for the hills - especially if it chooses not to allow mobile carriers to subsidise the cost of the console, as with the Xperia Play smartphone.
With the reduced specifications, the NGP will still be a seriously powerful piece of hand-held hardware - but with Sony apparently falling into the trap of over-promising and under-delivering, that might not be enough to have fans queuing up at launch.
The NGP is expected to launch in Japan before the end of the year, with a world-wide launch some time in 2012. Sony has not yet responded to our request for comment on the rumour.
Nvidia launches wired 3D Vision glasses
Officially announced today, prototypes of the glasses were demonstrated to thinq_ under a veil of secrecy at the CeBIT trade show earlier this year - but with Nvidia seeing the new wired glasses as its best chance of converting price-sensitive consumers over to the benefits of 3D Vision, it's been playing its cards close to its chest.
"It's all the same quality, all the same features, as our current wireless glasses," Nvidia's Andrew Fear explained during a press briefing, "but now for $99. We're trying to bring the cost down of the solution, so the customers - if they want the same set of features, but $149 may be a little too much for them, they can get this for $99 now."
UK pricing, sadly, wasn't part of Fear's briefing.
Hitting that all-important sub-$100 is vitally important for the future success of 3D Vision: while $149 seems like a considered purchase, for many - and especially those who have already splashed out on a multi-hundred-dollar Nvidia graphics card which supports the 3D Vision technology - a sub-$100 price point is an impulse purchase.
While the dropping of the battery packs and wireless communications hardware has helped drop the price, Nvidia has also given the glasses a bit of design polish. "You can see from the glasses, they have a slightly updated fit and style - the hinges on the temples have been designed to be a little bit more flexible, a little bit more comfortable, a little bit lighter as well, a little bit better ergonomic fit," Fear claimed - and having tried the glasses out at CeBIT, we'd agree.
While the idea of being tethered to your PC might not appeal to most, there's a very specific market Nvidia is targeting: business users. "The target market for this product we're going after is people who want a little bit lower price point, but also for LAN parties and iCafe gaming centres," Fear explained, "where people want the same experience, but they want some of the more added benefits that wired glasses can give you."
Those benefits, Fear explained, include 100 per cent uptime with no batteries to run down, and a clever notch in the USB connector itself that allows the glasses to be tethered to a secure service via a Kensington lock to prevent theft.
At first glance, a wired set of glasses seems a retrograde step for the company - but its focus on the iCafe sector is a clever move: if gamers get a chance to try the technology for themselves, they're far more likely to decide to splash out on upgrading their home rig to 3D Vision.
That bargain-basement price point does hide one extra cost, however: in order to make use of Nvidia's 3D Vision glasses, whether wired or wireless, you'll need a certified monitor which supports a 120Hz refresh rate - and, at the moment, those fetch a significant premium over traditional 2D displays.
Speaking to Fear, it's abundantly clear that 3D Vision is Nvidia's trump card, and the unique selling point the company will be focusing on in its fight against rival graphics manufacturer AMD - with AMD countering with a 3D technology of its own, along with a clever multi-monitor technology called Eyefinity.
With 3D Vision support now added to YouTube, and the price of the equipment ever-decreasing, Nvidia could find itself with the edge it needs to maintain its lead in the discrete graphics market - but only time will tell if consumers are willing to put up with wearing dorky glasses in order to experience the immersion that 3D gameplay can offer.
"It's all the same quality, all the same features, as our current wireless glasses," Nvidia's Andrew Fear explained during a press briefing, "but now for $99. We're trying to bring the cost down of the solution, so the customers - if they want the same set of features, but $149 may be a little too much for them, they can get this for $99 now."
UK pricing, sadly, wasn't part of Fear's briefing.
Hitting that all-important sub-$100 is vitally important for the future success of 3D Vision: while $149 seems like a considered purchase, for many - and especially those who have already splashed out on a multi-hundred-dollar Nvidia graphics card which supports the 3D Vision technology - a sub-$100 price point is an impulse purchase.
While the dropping of the battery packs and wireless communications hardware has helped drop the price, Nvidia has also given the glasses a bit of design polish. "You can see from the glasses, they have a slightly updated fit and style - the hinges on the temples have been designed to be a little bit more flexible, a little bit more comfortable, a little bit lighter as well, a little bit better ergonomic fit," Fear claimed - and having tried the glasses out at CeBIT, we'd agree.
While the idea of being tethered to your PC might not appeal to most, there's a very specific market Nvidia is targeting: business users. "The target market for this product we're going after is people who want a little bit lower price point, but also for LAN parties and iCafe gaming centres," Fear explained, "where people want the same experience, but they want some of the more added benefits that wired glasses can give you."
Those benefits, Fear explained, include 100 per cent uptime with no batteries to run down, and a clever notch in the USB connector itself that allows the glasses to be tethered to a secure service via a Kensington lock to prevent theft.
At first glance, a wired set of glasses seems a retrograde step for the company - but its focus on the iCafe sector is a clever move: if gamers get a chance to try the technology for themselves, they're far more likely to decide to splash out on upgrading their home rig to 3D Vision.
That bargain-basement price point does hide one extra cost, however: in order to make use of Nvidia's 3D Vision glasses, whether wired or wireless, you'll need a certified monitor which supports a 120Hz refresh rate - and, at the moment, those fetch a significant premium over traditional 2D displays.
Speaking to Fear, it's abundantly clear that 3D Vision is Nvidia's trump card, and the unique selling point the company will be focusing on in its fight against rival graphics manufacturer AMD - with AMD countering with a 3D technology of its own, along with a clever multi-monitor technology called Eyefinity.
With 3D Vision support now added to YouTube, and the price of the equipment ever-decreasing, Nvidia could find itself with the edge it needs to maintain its lead in the discrete graphics market - but only time will tell if consumers are willing to put up with wearing dorky glasses in order to experience the immersion that 3D gameplay can offer.
Microsoft to show tablet version of Windows 8 next week
Bloomberg is adding fuel to the rumor fires claiming that Microsoft may show off the tablet version of Windows 8 next week at the AllThingsD conference. If and when that happens, here’s what to watch for.
Steven Sinofsky, the President of Microsoft’s Windows client division, is slated to take the stage during the three-day confab, which kicks off on May 29. Ever since Sinofsky’s appearance at the show was confirmed earlier this week, there’s been talk that he’d show off an updated version of Windows 8 there.
In spite of Microsoft’s vague claims about the accuracy of recent Windows 8 information that has leaked and been announced (by both Microsoft partners and Microsoft’s own CEO), it is widely believed that there will be different user interfaces on different versions of the operating system. The version tailored to run on ARM-based tablets is expected to sport a touch-centric user interface, which has been known both as MoSH (modern shell) and the “Immersive” user interface.
As WithinWindows’ Rafael Rivera noted in April, the immersive UI seems to be “a Windows Phone-inspired, Metro-like, tiles-based user interface as an alternative to the more mainstream Aero and Aero Lite (formerly Aero Basic) UIs.” I’ve also discussed the significance of the “immersive” concept. The immersive UI is expected to be the primary (if not sole) interface for Windows 8 tablets and slates. The Aero interface is expected to be more of a classic Windows Shell and will be the UI for Windows 8 desktops and non-touch-centric Windows PCs.
With Sinofsky being Sinofsky, I’m doubtful that we’ll hear him refer to anything as “Windows 8″ next week at the AllThingsD show. (He prefers to call the next version of Windows “Windows Next.”) I’m also highly doubtful he’ll let anyone see a build number or anything that indicates how far along Microsoft is with the development of Windows 8. (I’m hearing Microsoft is fairly well along with Milestone 3, and that June 2011 may mark the end-of-development for that internal milestone build.)
If Sinofsky decides to show Windows 8 next week — and don’t let anyone kid you, it’s his decision as to whether he does or not — he’ll do so to show the naysayers that Microsoft isn’t totally clueless about slates/tablets.
I’ve heard Microsoft may share more details about Windows 8/Windows Next at the company’s upcoming Worldwide Partner Conference in mid-July in Los Angeles. That may seem like a strange venue, but Microsoft’s resellers are its salesforce. And the keynote line-up for the WPC event includes a disproportionate number of Microsoft OEM (original equipment manufacturer) execs. The WPC is the place Microsoft often shares its roadmaps with its partners and highlights new PCs and devices that it wants them to go out and sell.
The real launch pad for Windows 8 remains the company’s mid-September developers conference, which may or may not ultimately be named as the Windows Developer Conference (WDC). Microsoft is widely believed to be planning to deliver to testers a first preview or beta of Windows 8 in conjunction with that conference. Hey, maybe we’ll even hear about the Jupiter app model/platform and Visual Studio 2012 at that time. The upcoming devcon is slated for September 13 to 16 in Anaheim, Calif.
While DigiTimes reported earlier this week that Microsoft and its partners are planning to get Windows 8 on ARM out before the end of calendar 2011, I’m still hearing and believing that Microsoft isn’t going to deliver certain versions of Windows 8 ahead of others. My contacts continue to believe that Microsoft will get the next version of Windows out in 2012, just like Ballmer said this week (in spite of a weak attempt to change the meaning of his original statements).
Steven Sinofsky, the President of Microsoft’s Windows client division, is slated to take the stage during the three-day confab, which kicks off on May 29. Ever since Sinofsky’s appearance at the show was confirmed earlier this week, there’s been talk that he’d show off an updated version of Windows 8 there.
In spite of Microsoft’s vague claims about the accuracy of recent Windows 8 information that has leaked and been announced (by both Microsoft partners and Microsoft’s own CEO), it is widely believed that there will be different user interfaces on different versions of the operating system. The version tailored to run on ARM-based tablets is expected to sport a touch-centric user interface, which has been known both as MoSH (modern shell) and the “Immersive” user interface.
As WithinWindows’ Rafael Rivera noted in April, the immersive UI seems to be “a Windows Phone-inspired, Metro-like, tiles-based user interface as an alternative to the more mainstream Aero and Aero Lite (formerly Aero Basic) UIs.” I’ve also discussed the significance of the “immersive” concept. The immersive UI is expected to be the primary (if not sole) interface for Windows 8 tablets and slates. The Aero interface is expected to be more of a classic Windows Shell and will be the UI for Windows 8 desktops and non-touch-centric Windows PCs.
With Sinofsky being Sinofsky, I’m doubtful that we’ll hear him refer to anything as “Windows 8″ next week at the AllThingsD show. (He prefers to call the next version of Windows “Windows Next.”) I’m also highly doubtful he’ll let anyone see a build number or anything that indicates how far along Microsoft is with the development of Windows 8. (I’m hearing Microsoft is fairly well along with Milestone 3, and that June 2011 may mark the end-of-development for that internal milestone build.)
If Sinofsky decides to show Windows 8 next week — and don’t let anyone kid you, it’s his decision as to whether he does or not — he’ll do so to show the naysayers that Microsoft isn’t totally clueless about slates/tablets.
I’ve heard Microsoft may share more details about Windows 8/Windows Next at the company’s upcoming Worldwide Partner Conference in mid-July in Los Angeles. That may seem like a strange venue, but Microsoft’s resellers are its salesforce. And the keynote line-up for the WPC event includes a disproportionate number of Microsoft OEM (original equipment manufacturer) execs. The WPC is the place Microsoft often shares its roadmaps with its partners and highlights new PCs and devices that it wants them to go out and sell.
The real launch pad for Windows 8 remains the company’s mid-September developers conference, which may or may not ultimately be named as the Windows Developer Conference (WDC). Microsoft is widely believed to be planning to deliver to testers a first preview or beta of Windows 8 in conjunction with that conference. Hey, maybe we’ll even hear about the Jupiter app model/platform and Visual Studio 2012 at that time. The upcoming devcon is slated for September 13 to 16 in Anaheim, Calif.
While DigiTimes reported earlier this week that Microsoft and its partners are planning to get Windows 8 on ARM out before the end of calendar 2011, I’m still hearing and believing that Microsoft isn’t going to deliver certain versions of Windows 8 ahead of others. My contacts continue to believe that Microsoft will get the next version of Windows out in 2012, just like Ballmer said this week (in spite of a weak attempt to change the meaning of his original statements).
California may scrutinize AT&T/T-Mobile Merger
California may now be involving itself in the AT&T and T-Mobile merger that is slated to occur pending regulatory approval. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has not launched an official investigation, but may do so soon. Staff at the Commission requested information giving directions on the merger. The document refers to a letter sent to the Commission by AT&T earlier in May.
The letter sent by AT&T, under normal circumstances, would have been satisfactory to the Commission. The Commission, however, took a vote on May 26, and agreed that it would give the staff further direction. CPUC can now do one of three things:
The letter sent by AT&T, under normal circumstances, would have been satisfactory to the Commission. The Commission, however, took a vote on May 26, and agreed that it would give the staff further direction. CPUC can now do one of three things:
- Direct staff to notify AT&T that it must file an application because it is in the public’s interest for CPUC to review the merger.
- Direct staff to notify AT&T that no application is deemed to be necessary.
- Direct the staff to notify AT&T that the Commission considers the recent data requests for information on the merger as stopping the 30-day time period until further notice. This means that the merger would not be pre-approved after the 30 days have passed.
How can I easily create a windows 7 boot disk?
new acer laptop (3 weeks old) froze up on him. He tried a ctrl alt del, when that did not work, he unplugged it. Now the pc wil not boot into windows. He gets to the screen where he can enter the BIOS or set up boot orger. The alt and taping the f10 did not work. Acer says they will mail recovery cds, as there seems to be an error with the OS and recovery partitions on the hard drive. It will take a week to get them. Son would rather have his pc working sooned, as sharing the 3 family computers with 6 other siblings means he does not have much computer time
In windows 7, can a boot cd be created, like in previous versions of windows? If so, how? I work at a pc helpdesk, but I am a phone tech, basic trouble shooting, so I wil need detailed instructions.
In windows 7, can a boot cd be created, like in previous versions of windows? If so, how? I work at a pc helpdesk, but I am a phone tech, basic trouble shooting, so I wil need detailed instructions.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Microsoft investments and acquisitions
Microsoft has come along way since the days of Windows 1.0 and even Windows 95. It wouldn't have been possible to grow so substantially without making some heavy investments and buying up the perfect startup companies.
Over the years, Microsoft has made some important investments including: Apple Computers, BestBuy, Nextel Communications, and many Internet service providers. Investments play a key role in startup companies to further expand their ideas and improve software and hardware systems everywhere.
Microsoft has also made a lot of bold and strategic acquisitions of companies, including: Hotmail, Groove Networks, Rare, and of course their latest takeover, Skype. One of Microsoft's bigger purchases in the last few months has been Skype; an Internet phone software company that provides free calling from computer-to-computer, and even supported mobile devices running Skype.
The InfoGraphic, provided by Ripetungi, show just how many investments and acquisitions Microsoft has made over the past decade. The motive behind any acquisition is to further your own products and integrate them into your existing software or hardware. It will be interesting over the next few months to see where Microsoft is headed with their latest Skype purchase.
WP7: What to expect next week at the Mango event
Neowin will be covering the New Zealand and London events live, but in the meantime, here's a list of what we know, and what is expected to be announced:
Official announcements:
- Sockets support
- Full IE9 integration with hardware graphics support
- Twitter "people hub" integration
- Conversation view for email
- Further Exchange corporate settings support
- Full skydrive support
- Full multitasking support
- Massive SDK improvments
- Full custom ringtone support
- Deep OS-wide chat integration for Facebook/AOL/Windows Live
- "Linked Inbox" support
- Bing "vision" integration (Picture based recognition of objects)
- Bing "sound" integration (Similar to that of Shazam)
- Xbox Live "Game Sync" (Synchronize game saves between devices)
- Xbox Live GUI overhaul
- Group SMS
- Detection when sending SMS of online IM contact
- Album art on lock screen
- Turn-by-turn Bing Maps
- Voice-to-text for SMS
- People tile improvements
- Built in screenshot support
- Wifi Hotspot support
- Office 365 support
- Visual Voicemail
- Battery Saving features
- Native Facebook checkins
- Augmented camera support
- New hardware chassis
- App search (from start menu)
- Marketplace improvments
WP7: Microsoft "inadvertedly" confirms "Mango" codename
Microsoft is in the middle of sending out invites to their Windows Phone 7.5 "launch" events around the world to press members, but a Polish journalist got an interesting surprise in the mail this week.
In a somewhat unexpected move, Microsoft sent the journalist from WP-7 a package. Inside the package was an actual fresh mango, with an invite to the Polish version of the events we are seeing worldwide for the launch of the update to the platform. This essentially confirms the company's internal name for the update is "Mango," even though they have never confirmed it publicly. It will be interesting to see if that's the name the release will carry, or if it will carry the rumored title of "Windows Phone OS 7.5" until release.
Microsoft is planning on unveiling the new platform next week with two major events simultaneously in New York and London on May 24, and other events around the world. Neowin will be on the ground covering the event as it happens, so be sure to RSVP to our live coverage of the London and New Zealand events.
Microsoft Office Web Apps to officially support Chrome with Office 2010 Service Pack 1
Microsoft’s Office Web Apps — the Webified versions of Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint — already work with Google’s Chrome browser. But as of the release of Service Pack 1 of Office 2010, they’ll be officially supported by Microsoft in Chrome.
That’s in the fine print of a May 16 post on the Office Sustained Engineering blog which provides an update on the first SP.
Microsoft already had said to expect Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1 to be released in final form by “mid summer” 2011. Today, the Softies tightened up that date a bit, saying that SP1 would be out by the end of June 2011.
Microsoft execs previously noted that SP1 will consist of cumulative and public updates to date for the various point products that are part of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010. It also will include some other so-far unspecified fixes, which Microsoft officials said they’d detail between now and the time of the release. Products that will get fixes and updates include Office 2010 suites, Project 2010, Visio 2010, Office 2010 servers, Office Web Apps, Search Server 2010, SharePoint 2010 Products and FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. Microsoft is planning to update all 40 SKU languages for Office when SP1 ships.
Microsoft began specifying some of the fixes that will be in Office 2010 SP1 in today’s blog post and simultaneously at the TechEd 2011 conference in Atlanta. On the “so-far-disclosed” list:
That’s in the fine print of a May 16 post on the Office Sustained Engineering blog which provides an update on the first SP.
Microsoft already had said to expect Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1 to be released in final form by “mid summer” 2011. Today, the Softies tightened up that date a bit, saying that SP1 would be out by the end of June 2011.
Microsoft execs previously noted that SP1 will consist of cumulative and public updates to date for the various point products that are part of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010. It also will include some other so-far unspecified fixes, which Microsoft officials said they’d detail between now and the time of the release. Products that will get fixes and updates include Office 2010 suites, Project 2010, Visio 2010, Office 2010 servers, Office Web Apps, Search Server 2010, SharePoint 2010 Products and FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. Microsoft is planning to update all 40 SKU languages for Office when SP1 ships.
Microsoft began specifying some of the fixes that will be in Office 2010 SP1 in today’s blog post and simultaneously at the TechEd 2011 conference in Atlanta. On the “so-far-disclosed” list:
- Outlook fixes an issue where “Snooze Time” would not reset between appointments.
- The default behavior for PowerPoint “Use Presenter View” option changed to display the slide show on the secondary monitor.
- Integrated community content in the Access Application Part Gallery.
- Better alignment between Project Server and SharePoint Server browser support.
- Improved backup / restore functionality for SharePoint Server
- The Word Web Application extends printing support to “Edit Mode.”
- Project Professional now synchronizes scheduled tasks with SharePoint task lists.
- Internet Explorer 9 “Native” support for Office Web Applications and SharePoint
- Office Web Applications Support for Chrome
- Inserting Charts into Excel Workbooks using Excel Web Application
- Support for searching PPSX files in Search Server
- Visio Fixes scaling issues and arrowhead rendering errors with SVG export
- Proofing Tools improve spelling suggestions in Canadian English, French, Swedish and European Portuguese.
- Outlook Web Application Attachment Preview (with Exchange Online only)
- Office client suites using “Add Remove Programs” Control Panel, building on our work from Office 2007 SP2
Red Hat releases Enterprise Linux 6.1
Red Hat has released Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.1 with numerous security updates and patches.
Red Hat released its popular RHEL 6 distribution back in November 2010 and typically the firm operates on a six month update schedule for current release tracks. So it is no big surprise that Red Hat has announced RHEL 6.1 in May, which brings out patches and security fixes and, according to Red Hat, maintains application compatibility and certification.
Aside from patches and updates, there are improvements to storage capabilities and file system updates, virtualisation, resource management and an updated scheduler all make the grade. RHEL 6.1 includes a technology preview of the firm's Enterprise Identity services, which are based on the open source FreeIPA project.
RHEL has almost become the default Linux distribution in many large enterprises. Although it doesn't have the cutting edge feel of other distributions, its conservative nature coupled with the cost and quality advantages of open source software have made Red Hat a significant software vendor that has over $1bn in annual revenue.
Many large server vendors also came out in support of RHEL, with IBM saying it worked with Red Hat closely to develop RHEL 6.1. Yesterday Red Hat became one of the founding members of the Open Virtualisation Alliance, a body set up to promote the virtues of Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) technology.
Those who have an active subscription to Red Hat's support services can grab RHEL 6.1 from today.
Red Hat released its popular RHEL 6 distribution back in November 2010 and typically the firm operates on a six month update schedule for current release tracks. So it is no big surprise that Red Hat has announced RHEL 6.1 in May, which brings out patches and security fixes and, according to Red Hat, maintains application compatibility and certification.
Aside from patches and updates, there are improvements to storage capabilities and file system updates, virtualisation, resource management and an updated scheduler all make the grade. RHEL 6.1 includes a technology preview of the firm's Enterprise Identity services, which are based on the open source FreeIPA project.
RHEL has almost become the default Linux distribution in many large enterprises. Although it doesn't have the cutting edge feel of other distributions, its conservative nature coupled with the cost and quality advantages of open source software have made Red Hat a significant software vendor that has over $1bn in annual revenue.
Many large server vendors also came out in support of RHEL, with IBM saying it worked with Red Hat closely to develop RHEL 6.1. Yesterday Red Hat became one of the founding members of the Open Virtualisation Alliance, a body set up to promote the virtues of Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) technology.
Those who have an active subscription to Red Hat's support services can grab RHEL 6.1 from today.
Microsoft calls Intel's Windows 8 claims 'factually inaccurate' and 'misleading'
Microsoft has discounted claims made by a senior Intel executive that Windows 8 on ARM will not run older applications.
Renée James, SVP and GM of Intel's software and services group claimed that Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system for the ARM architecture won't be able to run older applications. The comments were made during a presentation at Intel's investor event. They flew in the face of Microsoft's claims and demonstrations that showed that it already had applications working on a very early beta of Windows 8 for ARM.
James also claimed there will be four versions of Windows 8 for ARM processors, adding that applications would not be compatible even across chip vendors. During James' presentation, she pointed out that Intel's architecture allows applications that run on Windows on the desktop to work seamlessly with Windows on any other Intel chip.
James' comments were startling to say the least. Microsoft demonstrated a very early beta of Windows 8 running on ARM-based chips at CES with applications such as Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer, and even emphasised how little work it had to do in order to get the operating system and applications working. Given that this was a very early beta, the swish demonstration was pretty impressive and it seems to discredit James' claims.
So it is no big surprise to learn that Microsoft has strongly contradicted Intel's claims in a fiery statement to The INQUIRER.
"Intel's statements during yesterday's Intel Investor Meeting about Microsoft's plans for the next version of Windows were factually inaccurate and unfortunately misleading. From the first demonstrations of Windows on SoC [system-on-chip], we have been clear about our goals and have emphasized that we are at the technology demonstration stage. As such, we have no further details or information at this time."
Intel might have a point if developers have to modify their code slightly if they want to run in a native Windows 8 ARM mode. However it is more than likely Microsoft will include some sort of virtual machine in order to maintain software compatibility, in the same way that Apple still allows code designed for PowerPC Macs to run on Macs that have Intel x86 chips.
Intel might have realised that it doesn't need to cosy up with Microsoft anymore. After all, the traditional desktop operating system seems to be making way for web browser based applications and the action in the IT industry seems to be moving from PCs to mobile devices. Of course Microsoft won't disappear overnight but it's safe to say that in the next few years the firm's decades old PC operating system model will be overtaken by operating systems that are primarily based on the Linux kernel.
So while James' comments might be surprising given Intel and Microsoft's close relationship, they could be motivated by the realisation that Microsoft simply doesn't have the pull, or the future, that it once did.
Renée James, SVP and GM of Intel's software and services group claimed that Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system for the ARM architecture won't be able to run older applications. The comments were made during a presentation at Intel's investor event. They flew in the face of Microsoft's claims and demonstrations that showed that it already had applications working on a very early beta of Windows 8 for ARM.
James also claimed there will be four versions of Windows 8 for ARM processors, adding that applications would not be compatible even across chip vendors. During James' presentation, she pointed out that Intel's architecture allows applications that run on Windows on the desktop to work seamlessly with Windows on any other Intel chip.
James' comments were startling to say the least. Microsoft demonstrated a very early beta of Windows 8 running on ARM-based chips at CES with applications such as Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer, and even emphasised how little work it had to do in order to get the operating system and applications working. Given that this was a very early beta, the swish demonstration was pretty impressive and it seems to discredit James' claims.
So it is no big surprise to learn that Microsoft has strongly contradicted Intel's claims in a fiery statement to The INQUIRER.
"Intel's statements during yesterday's Intel Investor Meeting about Microsoft's plans for the next version of Windows were factually inaccurate and unfortunately misleading. From the first demonstrations of Windows on SoC [system-on-chip], we have been clear about our goals and have emphasized that we are at the technology demonstration stage. As such, we have no further details or information at this time."
Intel might have a point if developers have to modify their code slightly if they want to run in a native Windows 8 ARM mode. However it is more than likely Microsoft will include some sort of virtual machine in order to maintain software compatibility, in the same way that Apple still allows code designed for PowerPC Macs to run on Macs that have Intel x86 chips.
Intel might have realised that it doesn't need to cosy up with Microsoft anymore. After all, the traditional desktop operating system seems to be making way for web browser based applications and the action in the IT industry seems to be moving from PCs to mobile devices. Of course Microsoft won't disappear overnight but it's safe to say that in the next few years the firm's decades old PC operating system model will be overtaken by operating systems that are primarily based on the Linux kernel.
So while James' comments might be surprising given Intel and Microsoft's close relationship, they could be motivated by the realisation that Microsoft simply doesn't have the pull, or the future, that it once did.
7 Best “New” Web Browsers With A Chance Against Chrome & Firefox
A lot of the following browsers ship with addons that you would otherwise have to obtain yourself, so they may make for a fresh breath of air.
Chromium [Cross-Platform]
Since Google Chrome is a fork of the open-source browser project, Chromium, anything that applies to Chromium can be applied to Google Chrome, while not everything that pertains to Chrome can be applied to Chromium.For instance, to illustrate the very first point, both Chromium and Google Chrome offer Search Suggest, which presents you with a list of suggestions as you pause when you’re typing in your search query. An area where the two browsers differ is in crash reporting or usage statistics; by default, sending these reports is opt-in and disabled in Chromium. Chromium also comes without a PDF Viewer and Adobe Flash Player, but all is not lost since you can actually utilize any of the extensions in Chrome’s Web Store in Chromium.
Acquiring this browser takes a bit more than just finding the Download section and clicking on the installer link. You can follow these instructions here or you can use the unofficial, portable version on SourceForge.
Chromium-Based Browsers: SRWare Iron & RockMelt
SRWare Iron [Cross-Platform]
If you like Google Chrome’s speed, but are concerned with privacy, SRWare’s Iron web browser might be for you. Since Google Chrome and SRWare Iron are based on the open source Chromium project, you’ll spot few differences. On the internal side of course, Iron doesn’t include Chrome’s information-collecting features, such as URL-tracker, error reporting, etc. Aside from those internal differences, Iron works pretty much the way you’re used to in Chrome. Chrome extensions and themes will also work on Iron, just like Chromium.
To check out the portable version and the regular install in Windows, head to the website. Mac users can download Iron here, while Linux users can go to this thread.
RockMelt 2 [Windows + Mac] + iPhone Sync
If you’re big on sharing interesting news on Facebook, Twitter and/or email, RockMelt (in beta) might be worth a look. It’s similar to Flock, the social browser derived from Mozilla Firefox, in that it targets the die-hard social media addict so it integrates notifications from sites like Facebook and Twitter. It comes with a few tricks of its own though, the iPhone app [iTunes link], which syncs your items marked to read later, as well as bookmarks.
Though RockMelt doesn’t support Google Sync, you can sync your RockMelt browsers across PCs and Macs with your Facebook account.
Wyzo 3 [Windows + Mac]
A few things have changed since we last reviewed Mozilla-based Wyzo, but it remains the most useful browser for the frequent downloader since it comes with FireDownload, a download accelerator, and FireTorrent, an extension that turns this browser into a torrent client. One new feature in Wyzo 3 is the inclusion of SkipScreen, the extension that allows you to skip waiting screens from popular file-sharing sites, such as MegaUpload and the like, while it no longer seems to ship with CoolIris and FireGestures.
Maxthon 3.0 [Windows/Android]
We first took a look at Maxthon in 2008, where we noted that Maxthon began as an extension of Internet Explorer and so, it uses the same rendering engine. These days, Maxthon supports both the Trident rendering engine (which is the layout engine for IE, so you can still view IE-optimized websites) as well as Webkit, which powers Google Chrome and Safari and renders Maxthon’s Ultra Mode, loading pages almost instantly.
In addition to its dual display engines, Maxthon also has a sea of nice features, such as mouse gestures, bookmark sync with Maxthon Passport, speed dial, popup blocker, online notepad, RSS reader, instant translator, screen capturing tools, and resource sniffer, which detects all video, image, and audio links on a website. The Android app also has a few of these features, namely the RSS reader, speed dial, download manager and gestures.
Opera 11 [Cross-Platform]
In addition to extensions, Opera contains a few more impressive features that make it stand out from the crowd. With Opera, you don’t need another desktop mail program, torrent client, or web server, as Opera offers these services. Since Opera also offers browsers for mobile phones and tablets, you can use Opera Link to sync your bookmarks, speed dial, custom searches, etc. Opera users also get a free space on the My Opera community, that they can use as a blog or to share files.
One additional cool feature that we should mention is Tab Stack, which is one among many other tab management features Opera has, and can help you not only group tabs, but also streamline your workflow.
Internet Explorer 9 [Windows 7/Vista]
IE9 is heaps better than its predecessors, and sports a more minimalistic look, but perhaps the biggest feature it has over other browsers is, without a doubt, its integration with the Windows OS. Jumplists definitely take advantage of sites like Twitter and Facebook, which behave more like applications, and make some functions more seamless.
Google Is Serious, Chrome 13 Hides URL Bar
"A few months ago, we heard about Google playing with the idea of killing the URL bar in its Chrome browser. Chrome 13 provides a first view how this feature will work. There is a new flag and a context menu option that hides the traditional URL bar and moves a shortened version into each tab."
The Android Toolkit: 5 essential apps
I’m sure there will be some muttering along the lines of, “Oh, geez, not another software list article”. I tend to tune them out myself. The difference here is that I will be discussing applications that I use daily with my tablet.
File Manager
Possibly the most critical app in my kit is a file manager. I’ve used several since I first got an Android smartphone. I started with Astro File Manager from Metago, but I can no longer recommend it since the author seems to have abandoned it and will not respond to support emails. It works fine if you use Android 2.2 or lower; newer revisions have major compatibility issues that cause Astro to crash regularly.I moved on to File Expert by Geeksoft. File Expert is a great app for file management, and has the ability to connect to a SMB-based network (Windows networking). This allows you to access your Windows file shares across the network and copy files to and from the server with your tablet. An added bonus is that File Expert also has a built-in FTP and HTTP server, so that you can access the tablet remotely.
File Expert does have some issues with running under Android 3.0 and higher. Recent revisions of the app will lock up the entire tablet requiring a hard reboot during any process that involves file copying or deleting. I have been working with the author to help get these issues resolved. He has been quite responsive to support and is willing to go the extra mile to fix bugs. Great service for a free app.
While I am waiting to help the author of File Expert to send me code to test, I have been using ES File Explorer from EStrongs. It is also an excellent, free file manager, with built-in SMB and FTP access. It’s solid and stable, but the interface isn’t as intuitive as File Expert. The clipboard is extraordinarily powerful, but it takes some figuring out. I definitely recommend it to Android 3.x users.
Security/Antivirus
Let’s face it, malware is going to be an issue no matter what platform you run. And there’s also the problem of losing your device by negligence or theft. I went through a number of options before I discovered Lookout Mobile Security.I cant say enough good things about Lookout. The free version comes with anti-malware scanning, contacts backup, and remote location of missing devices. The premium version adds a comprehensive privacy advisor, additional data backup, remote wipe and lock, and premier support, for $3 a month or $30 a year. It allows you to cover two devices, which is great for someone like me with an Android tablet and an Android smartphone.
Instant Messenger
Pretty much everyone with a smartphone and a computer uses instant messaging. Your preferred chat client may be AIM, or Yahoo, or Google Talk or Facebook chat. Many people like me have accounts on multiple chat services. For years I have been using the Trillian IM client from Cerulean Studios, and I’m a paid member of the premium service.Good news for Adnroid users, however. Just recently they released a new version of Trillian for Android, and have made it a free app. It works perfectly with Android 1.6 to Android 3.1+, and covers a wide array of instant messenger services.
Office Suite
Any business professional that travels a lot is going to want an office suite. If you work with formatted documents, spreadsheets and presentations, carrying a tablet with an office suite instead of a laptop makes it a lot easier for a traveling professional.I can really only recommend two apps for this category. The first is the old granddad of mobile office suites, Documents To Go by Dataviz. The most mature of the available office suites, it has excellent document compatibility with the Microsoft Office suite applications, and cloud access to Google Docs. The pro version retails for $14.99.
I also recommend Quickoffice Pro. While it does not have all of the document formatting capabilities that are in Documents To Go, it is still a solid, dependable application. It has a wide assortment of cloud access, including Google Docs, Dropbox, Box.net, SugarSync and mobile.me. It retails for only $7.99, which makes it a really good deal for the capabilities it provides.
Backups
No toolkit would be complete without a comprehensive backup application. Fair warning: if you want to do a complete backup of your applications and data, you really need to consider rooting your device. Pretty much all of the available applications require root access.There are numerous backup applications available, but the one that really strikes me as truly complete is Titanium Backup. Many times through my testing I have had to wipe and restore my android devices. Being able to do a complete backup of all of my installed apps plus the associated data has made the process a great deal easier–and I can take the backups and copy them to my server for safekeeping.
So what are YOUR must-have Android toolkit apps?
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