RSSTechnology News Headlines and Software
November 19, 2009, 8:17 PM
PDC 2009: What have we learned this week?
There was the freebie that no one will forget, the heebie-jeebies courtesy of Scott Guthrie, and a teensy bit clearer picture of how this cloud thingie should work.
News Display:
10 things about Microsoft's PDC 2009: The good, the bad and the ugly
By Joe Wilcox on November 20, 2009, 4:00 PM
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Microsoft's 2009 developer conference wrapped up yesterday in Los Angeles. Not since PDC 2003 has Microsoft talked so much and said so little. As I listened to the keynotes and have reviewed the sessions, words "series finale" repeatedly popped into my head -- like a TV show coming to its end after a long run. Good or bad for Microsoft, a computing era is ending. Perhaps PDC 2009 demarcates the transition.
PDC 2003 was memorable for demos that wooed but seemed insubstantial. Within weeks after that developer conference, I began telling my clients (I was a senior analyst for JupiterResearch then) to expect Microsoft to delay Windows Longhorn sometime in early 2004. The delay came, followed by several others, as Microsoft dumped features to get Windows Vista out the door -- late -- missing holiday 2006.
E-book readers will be in short supply this holiday season
By Tim Conneally on November 20, 2009, 2:02 PM
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Black Friday is just a week away and the demand for ebook readers looks to already be too great.
Earlier this week, Sony said its 3G-connected Daily Edition Reader may not arrive in time for the holidays. Preorders for the device began on Wednesday, but it will not ship until some time between December 18th and January 7th, and it is not expected to land in stores until after the holidays.
Sony looks to finally open a single storefront for downloads
By Tim Conneally on November 20, 2009, 11:12 AM
2 Comments
Sony yesterday discussed its plans to open a download shop similar to iTunes or Amazon Digital Downloads.
Reportedly given the tentative name "Sony Online Service," the online store would make the many different types of Sony digital content available in a single place. The company has a number of content portals already, but each is geared toward a related piece of hardware and run by a different business unit of the giant Sony conglomerate.
Tuning out the tablet: Time to give the endless speculation a rest
By Carmi Levy on November 19, 2009, 11:42 PM
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I'm sure I'm not the only one who looks at renderings of Apple's long-rumored tablet - or iTablet, or whatever name the faithful have assigned to it this week - and wishes the FedEx truck would pull up to my door with an early demo in time for the holiday season. I'm sure I'm also not the only one who's ready for the endless speculation to, well, end.
I don't think I've ever seen an unreleased product generate so much discussion without so much as a peep from the vendor of record. I realize the frenzied speculation is as frenzied as it is because we're talking about Apple, and that if this were any other company, we'd collectively yawn our response before moving on to the next big thing. This is a company that seems unique in its ability to generate so much activity around what is, for now at least, vapourware. And while I appreciate the value of healthy exchanges in advance of a major product launch, I can't shake the feeling that the never-ending iTablet fever is just a little much, and that we'd all be doing ourselves a favor by giving it a rest and waiting until Apple actually ships a working product.
Five improvements for IT managers in 2010
By Ed Moyle, TechNewsWorld on November 19, 2009, 8:51 PM
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Every year around this time, everyone from antimalware companies to analyst firms line up to tell us about the top IT and security trends -- what they are and why we should care. This year, chances are they'll tell us all about cloud computing, virtualization, and social networking, and why these technologies are the new best (or worst) friends for security folks in 2010.
Now if you're sensing a bit of snarkiness here, you're right -- I find these lists a bit frustrating. That's not because of inaccuracies in the lists themselves (to the contrary, many of them are dead-on), but instead because they sometimes inappropriately drive how IT managers make budgeting decisions. Don't get me wrong, keeping abreast of the new areas is always valuable -- and I'm always fully on board with keeping us and our staff up to date and capable of reacting to new types of threats. But it's also important to keep in mind that what's new isn't always what's most critical. Where should you be investing budget dollars? At critical areas, not just what's new and shiny.
Live report: Will Google Chrome OS change Linux?
By Tim Conneally on November 19, 2009, 12:02 PM
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Google announced its open source Chrome OS last July and it has been a little more than a mystery to the wondering public since that time. Now, an official first look is mere hours away.
At 10:00 am PST (1:00 pm EST), Google will present a live webcast of Chrome OS, the search giant's attempt to "rethink what operating systems should be." Speakers this afternoon will include Sundar Pichai, Vice President of Product Management and Matthew Papakipos, Engineering Director for Google Chrome OS.
AOL's spinoff from Time Warner to shed 2,500 jobs
By Tim Conneally on November 19, 2009, 10:02 AM
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As Time Warner continues the process of spinning AOL off into a separate, independent company, AOL will lose a third of its workforce. The spinoff is expected to be completed on December 9. In filings with the Securities and Exchange commission earlier this month, Time Warner said the split will cost more than $200 million in restructuring charges.
Today, AOL has reportedly instituted a voluntary layoff program, asking for 2,500 employees to give up their jobs in exchange for severance packages. If this number cannot be reached, AOL will begin laying off people anyway. The soon-to-be spun off company is looking to reduce its operating expenses by $300 million.
PDC 2009: Microsoft cares about Web browser performance
By Scott M. Fulton, III on November 19, 2009, 1:21 AM
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I know when I've hurt a man's feelings. In a segment of the technology business that has recently become fiercely competitive, it's difficult to report bad news about a team that tries very hard to build a good Web browser. It was very apparent from our interview today at PDC 2009 in Los Angeles that Microsoft Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch has an emotional and personal investment in the product he's building.
"If I had a script engine that was twice as fast as the one before, the Web should be twice as fast," said Hatchamovitch today. "But if JavaScript is 10 percent of my site, at most, I'll shave 5 percent off; and if the site was 1.8 seconds, yea, I'm not going to be able to tell...Yes, we understand that there's a microscope on JavaScript performance. We've made progress on JavaScript performance -- we're all in the same neighborhood now."
Nokia re-affirms its commitment to Symbian, sort of
By Tim Conneally on November 18, 2009, 5:06 PM
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Nokia has always been solid on its dedication to the Symbian platform, but a report from an N900 event yesterday cast some doubt on Symbian's future in certain branches of Nokia's product line, specifically the high-end N-series of smartphones.
I reached out to Nokia to find out exactly what is going on with Maemo and Symbian in the N-series, and received equal parts affirmation and denial.
Gartner: SMS-based money transfer will be bigger than mobile browsing, search
By Tim Conneally on November 18, 2009, 4:36 PM
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Technology market research company Gartner Inc. has released a report which predicts what the top ten mobile applications will be in 2012 based on current activity in the smartphone field, including such factors as consumer and industry interest, potential revenue, and existing business models.
Based upon this information, Gartner predicts the number one "killer app" that everyone will have on their mobile device will be one that is currently uncommon in the United States, but available elsewhere in the world: Money Transfer.
Don't forget to upgrade to Firefox 3.6 beta 3 today
By Tim Conneally on November 18, 2009, 2:35 PM
16 Comments
Download Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 for Windows from Fileforum now.
Here's what happens when our beloved Scott M. Fulton, III is away from his test machine while covering PDC 2009: you get a Firefox beta announcement with none of the scores, charts, or metrics you're accustomed to getting. Instead you just a plain old "Go download this!" message from yours truly.
PDC 2009 Post-keynote Day 2: What are we learning today?
By Scott M. Fulton, III on November 18, 2009, 2:20 PM
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The Day 2 keynote is actually still ongoing at the time I'm writing this -- it's run 20 minutes over schedule, and the SharePoint demos are still going on. But here's an assessment of the information we've received thus far today: First of all, the first news on Internet Explorer 9. If you weren't listening closely to Windows Division president Steven Sinofsky, you might have missed this little fact: The team is only three weeks into the project, having just started after the Windows 7 launch. Now, think about that for a bit: The implication here is that the development team cannot work on the operating system and the Web browser at the same time. This from the company that used to argue that the two components were inseparable.
Then there is the whole "three weeks in" news...It's difficult to believe that Microsoft hasn't really been working on a Web browser since last March, and I actually expect Dean Hachamovitch, who leads IE8 design, to contradict that bit of information. He and his team haven't been lying dormant.
Spectrum crisis is just a part of the problem for universal broadband, says FCC
By Tim Conneally on November 18, 2009, 1:58 PM
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Early in October, Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski said there is a wireless spectrum crisis approaching, and that our wireless broadband consumption is growing so explosively that it would take more than 50 years to deliver the necessary spectrum at our current pace.
But an FCC task force has concluded that this is only a single part of the problem if we want to provide America with robust and affordable broadband. Over the last few weeks, the task force has identified critical gaps in policymaking, government programs, and trade practices in all corners of the broadband ecosystem.
Microsoft gives free laptops to PDC 2009 attendees
By Joe Wilcox on November 18, 2009, 1:01 PM
14 Comments
Windows 7 took the Professional Developer Conference stage this morning in the guise of Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft's Windows & Windows Live division. Sinofsky stood before the crowd of Microsoft developers as a victor. Last month, his team released Windows 7 nearly flawlessly and to generally positive reviews (PDC Day 2 live blog).
Sinofsky did not pitch a three-screen strategy -- PC, TV and mobile device -- as I expected based on statements Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, made during the Day 1 keynote. For PDC, Microsoft is missing one screen. The company doesn't plan to announce its next-generation Windows Phone -- or Windows Live, for that matter -- until next year's MIX conference.
Nokia's N900 arrives in U.S., bodes the death of Symbian on N-series phones
By Tim Conneally on November 18, 2009, 11:56 AM
8 Comments
Nokia's intriguing N900 "pocket computer" has officially launched in the United States. The device, a smartphone that evolved out of Nokia's Mobile Internet Device (MID) family, signifies a new era for the Finnish mobile tech leader.
Vice President of Nokia retail sales, Alessandro Lamanna summed it up in a prepared statement today: "Consumers from every segment of the population are looking for more out of their mobile device - more power, more ability, more connectivity." So in order to deliver these results, Nokia paired the 600MHz TI OMAP 3430 chipset with the Linux-based Maemo platform, and locked it up inside a 3G phone with a 3.5" touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard.
PDC 2009: Live from the Day 2 keynote
By Scott M. Fulton, III on November 18, 2009, 11:33 AM
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Microsoft's Windows division president Steven Sinofsky is the headliner for today's Day 2 keynote at PDC 2009, and Betanews has its usual front-row seat.
11:04am PT: Promise of discussion on Windows Mobile at MIX '10 next March 15-17 in Las Vegas -- notice once again that the number "7" is omitted from the reference to this product. Keynote ends 35 minutes over schedule.
Beta of Opera 10 for Windows Mobile available now
By Tim Conneally on November 18, 2009, 10:07 AM
13 Comments
Today, Opera Software has released the beta version of Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Phones, with support for touchscreen- and keypad-driven Windows Mobile 5 (PPC), 6.0, 6.1, and 6.5 devices.
The keywords with this release are: speed, simplicity, and compatibility.
PDC 2009: Windows Server's plan to move customers back off the cloud
By Scott M. Fulton, III on November 18, 2009, 2:21 AM
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Much of the value proposition for Windows Azure -- the star of the show Tuesday at PDC 2009 in Los Angeles -- has been its ability to open up new business avenues for customers who had not been able to envision hosting high-intensity data center operations before. Azure could give these customers a leg up, a new and more affordable way to get off the ground.
But once they're off the ground, the question becomes, why stay up in the air? What's to keep those customers grounded -- to mix metaphors like an old editor of mine -- in the cloud? The surprise answer to that question is coming from a senior product manager for Windows Server, not Azure. Scott Ottaway told Betanews today that provisions are being planned for customers to move their deployed applications back off the Azure cloud, onto on-premises data center servers.
With YouTube Direct, now users can yank videos from big media
By Tim Conneally on November 17, 2009, 3:10 PM
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Google today announced YouTube Direct, an open source platform that lets media organizations directly connect with YouTube users to request and rebroadcast their YouTube clips.
The application allows custom YouTube uploaders to be built into another site, so users can submit their videos directly and track the viewing metrics in their own profile. Google highlights the rise of citizen journalism as a major reason for the program.
PDC 2009 Day 1, post-keynote: What are we learning so far?
By Scott M. Fulton, III on November 17, 2009, 1:43 PM
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What we're seeing evidence of today is a kind of Microsoft restructuring in progress -- a slow shift toward a future revenue model that actually began about two years ago. Rather than alert Dow Jones as to the need for major structural change, the company did what its MVPs have always suggested enterprises do for themselves: Don't panic, plan, and take things slowly.
But this means juggling a lot of balls in the air in mid-transition, the move to a more global network-centric and license-based revenue model. So individuals who were looking for the launch of a boxed product today, something with a jazz theme and a celebrity to accompany it, were probably disappointed -- but that's no evidence of the lack of a strategy. We're seeing a framework shift, and if you look at Microsoft using the old frame, you don't see the whole picture.
Looking for the full list of software downloads you used to find here? That same listing is now over at Fileforum!
Realtek High Definition Audio Codecs for Windows 2.37
November 20 - 5:08 PM ET
ConvertXtoDVD 4.0.5.315a
November 20 - 5:08 PM ET
n-Track Studio 6.0.7.2527 Beta
November 20 - 5:08 PM ET
Your Uninstaller! 6.3.2009.12
November 20 - 5:08 PM ET
SoftMaker Office 2010 Beta
November 20 - 5:07 PM ET
Vuze for Windows 4.3.0.2
November 20 - 2:33 PM ET
Advanced SystemCare Free 3.4.1
November 20 - 2:12 PM ET
Paint.NET 3.5.1
November 20 - 1:51 PM ET
SQLyog for Windows 8.2 RC2
November 20 - 1:30 PM ET
foobar2000 1.0 Beta 1
November 20 - 1:09 PM ET
PeaZip for Windows 2.8
November 20 - 12:49 PM ET
VirtualBox 3.1.0.55019 Beta 2
November 20 - 11:56 AM ET
Super Flexible File Synchronizer 4.80
November 20 - 11:14 AM ET
Mozilla Camino 2.0
November 19 - 6:57 PM ET
Speccy 1.00.057 Beta
November 19 - 6:41 PM ET
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