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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.
Live report: Will Google Chrome OS change Linux?
The mysteries of just what Chrome OS is, and how much of an operating system it truly is, may be resolved today.
PDC 2009: Microsoft cares about Web browser performance
The effort to give users of the world's dominant Web browser the impression of quality, is a personal one for the man who leads that battle.
Nokia re-affirms its commitment to Symbian, sort of
Maemo won't necessarily be replacing Symbian in the Nokia N-Series, but that's definitely a place where it will be found.
E-book readers will be in short supply this holiday season
E-readers are hot this year, and a lot of compelling new products have been released, but are there enough electrophoretic displays to go around?
Sony looks to finally open a single storefront for downloads
Sony has had many different download portals for movies, music, e-books, and games, and now it's looking to make a single shop for all of it.
Tuning out the tablet: Time to give the endless speculation a rest
Wide Angle Zoom: Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying....won't put an iTablet on the market.
Five improvements for IT managers in 2010
If businesses are to improve their efficiency for next year, they need to stop and reassess the basic tenets of their job.
AOL's spinoff from Time Warner to shed 2,500 jobs
As AOL moves toward become an independent company again, it will cut nearly a third of its workforce.
Gartner: SMS-based money transfer will be bigger than mobile browsing, search
Gartner issues its predictions for the 10 things our phones will be doing in 2012.
Don't forget to upgrade to Firefox 3.6 beta 3 today
Mozilla has released the latest beta its Firefox 3.6 browser software, just over one week after beta 2.
First Look: iPhone 2.0 software delivers big thanks to App Store
By Mykel Nahorniak on July 10, 2008, 12:30 PM
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Okay, I'll admit it. The iPhone makes me giddy with excitement. It's been a year since I first opened its box, feeling like a boy on Christmas morning. Looking at the 2.0 firmware file on my Desktop, all those feelings came rushing back. Except this time around, the software is what I'm most interested in.
This day has been promised by Steve Jobs for over 6 months, and the global release of the iPhone 3G ensured that the new firmware and App Store would be available to US consumers one day early. A direct link to the iPhone 2.0 software, not yet officially available, has enabled early adopters to test out the newly opened platform and the third-party applications it brings with it.
Continue reading First Look: iPhone 2.0 software delivers big thanks to App Store...
Creative inPerson the biggest hit at CES
By Mykel Nahorniak on January 9, 2008, 10:45 PM
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The spotlight item from Creative this year was the inPerson, a WiFi video phone device. The booth at CES was standing-room only, as many were eager to see a demonstration of the inPerson's capabilities.
Despite lackluster demand for video phones in the market, the inPerson demo drew a crowd that rivaled Panasonic's 150-inch HDTV display. Creative hopes its solution will entice people to forgo voice calling for something more futuristic.
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Microsoft: The future is in fashionable PCs
By Mykel Nahorniak on January 9, 2008, 6:50 PM
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This year at CES, almost every booth has a section dedicated to devices designed with aesthetics in mind. Microsoft has become a big proponent of this new fashion-device movement with a dedicated team working with OEMs to develop fashionable hardware.
At any Starbucks, it's not uncommon to see people with their laptops finishing homework, or catching up on e-mails. As it leaves the confines of the office or home, the computer is no longer just a utilitarian device, and now makes a statement about its owner.
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Panasonic announces new full-HD camcorders
By Mykel Nahorniak on January 9, 2008, 8:59 AM
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Featuring Leica lenses, image stabilization and 1920x1080 progressive recording, Panasonic unveiled two HD cameras on Tuesday poised to take the throne from Canon in the portable camcorder market.
Apart from storage options, both cameras are identical. The higher-end model, the HDC-HS9, can record to an SD memory card or its built-in 60 GB hard drive, giving it a total capacity of 29 hours of HD-quality video. Its brother, the HDC-SD9, is limited to SD only.
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Sprint prepares for April WiMAX US rollout
By Mykel Nahorniak on January 8, 2008, 11:28 PM
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Despite early adoption woes, manufacturers are still confident the WiMAX standard will take hold of the high-speed wireless industry as early as April.
Sprint, one of the major players involved with WiMAX, recently rolled out its Xohm mobile Internet service for Sprint employees located in Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. The wireless company said Tuesday it plans to have two WiMAX modems released in April, when the network is slated to become available to the public in select cities.
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The HD DVD booth at CES: A somber sight
By Mykel Nahorniak on January 8, 2008, 12:37 AM
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The atmosphere at the HD DVD booth Monday at CES was anything but enthusiastic. Demonstrators forced smiles while politely answering questions from visitors, but their attempts to mask the appearance of utter defeat at the hands of an ally proved challenging.
After last week's announcement from Warner Bros. that it would use Blu-ray as its exclusive content medium come next May, and the HD DVD Promotions Group's subsequent and prompt cancellation of all one-on-one meetings with the press, it's hard to ignore the message the HD DVD Group is sending to the general public. The format war is far from over, however.
Toshiba unveils new line of stylish external hard drives
By Mykel Nahorniak on January 7, 2008, 3:25 PM
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As the demand for stylish hardware increases, manufacturers are stepping up to the plate. The latest external storage line from Toshiba is designed with aesthetics in mind.
Available in colors like Carbon Grey, Hot Rod Red and Gecko Green, Toshiba's goal is to tap into trends currently being reflected in consumer electronics.
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Microsoft's turns Xbox 360 into IPTV device, but not in US
By Mykel Nahorniak on January 7, 2008, 3:10 PM
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Earlier today, Microsoft and BT unveiled a new IPTV service dubbed BT Vision. Powered by Microsoft's Mediaroom software, the capabilities of the platform are leaps and bounds ahead of those offered by current cable providers.
Also new is the device customers can use to watch TV. BT Vision utilizes the Xbox 360, adding an option to the gaming console's media features to launch the television interface. Although the version on the console isn't an exact copy of the one provided on capable set-top boxes, Microsoft ensured BetaNews the end-user experience is identical.
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iTunes tagging comes to HD Radio
By Mykel Nahorniak on January 7, 2008, 2:55 PM
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Joining Polk and JBL, Sony, Alpine and JVC have unveiled HD Radio-equipped units that take advantage of the data stream that accompanies the audio on an HD station.
With an iPod connected, consumers have the ability to "tag" a song being played for review at a later time. When the iPod is connected to a computer, all tagged tracks are highlighted for a more streamlined purchasing experience.
Ford updates SYNC, adds HD Radio as standard option
By Mykel Nahorniak on January 7, 2008, 1:34 PM
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Microsoft SYNC, an operating system that will soon be equipped in all new Ford vehicles, was recently updated to analyze the performance of the engine and deliver the results in easy to understand reports. SYNC 2.0 also includes a 911 Assist feature that calls emergency services automatically after a crash using a connected cell phone.
As Microsoft designed the platform to be upgradeable, all Ford vehicles currently on the road have the ability to be upgraded as well.
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Intel: Harpertown Xeon Performance Will Beat QC Opteron
By Mykel Nahorniak on September 19, 2007, 12:01 PM
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In the only raw performance test figures revealed yesterday by Intel Senior Vice President Pat Gelsinger at Fall IDF in San Francisco, preliminary tests of the company's forthcoming quad-core "Harpertown" architecture Xeon 5400 show it beating a quad-core Opteron 2300 system in the critical SPEC floating point throughput rate test by just over 4%.
"We have leadership on a broad range of benchmarks," Gelsinger proclaimed yesterday, "literally every benchmark. But the area where competition is closest is in bandwidth-intensive and floating-point areas. And what we see here is [that], with the improvement of the 1600 [MHz] front-side bus, [and] the larger cache of 3.2 GHz, going from [Intel] Clovertown to Harpertown, a 34% improvement."
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Red Hat, 3G Lab Developing Wireless OS
By Mykel Nahorniak on July 30, 2001, 11:58 PM
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Popular Linux company Red Hat and UK-based 3G Lab announced Monday plans to create an operating system to be run on wireless devices. Based around Red Hat's eCos, the embedded configurable operating system, the new OS will power Web-enabled mobile phones. The software will be open source, thus allowing developers to download the API and create applications designed for the OS.
The new software is slated to be dubbed eCos/M3, and will have specific features geared towards improving battery life and ensuring smooth streaming media content. While suggested to be the first "wireless Linux," the OS will in fact not be based on Linux or any derivative. eCos is able to run on devices with a much smaller memory footprint than that needed by Linux.
AOL Preps Open Messaging System
By Nate Mook and Mykel Nahorniak on July 25, 2001, 5:31 AM
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America Online has indicated plans to institute a new messaging system allowing users of competing services, such as Microsoft's MSN Messenger, to communicate with AOL members. The near-complete technology is set to begin beta testing later this summer. This decision comes after increased pressure from the FCC to make future generations of the AOL instant messaging service compatible with third-party clients.
AOL plans to begin the testing phase in union with an undisclosed leading technology company in the next month. Two servers will be linked between the businesses, and a series of trials will be run to test the stability and compliance of the new software.
Majestic Takes Gaming to New Level
By Nate Mook and Mykel Nahorniak on July 20, 2001, 12:00 AM
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In its third and final beta stage, EA's Internet-based Majestic has set the benchmark for other game developers by immersing a player within a plot more than ever before. In the pilot episode, participants must find clues leading to a conspiracy involving mind control devices and aliens using Majestic's homepage, which is full of links pointing to actual Internet locations. The closer the player comes to solving the mystery, the more real it becomes.
When first setting up an account on Majestic, players may optionally fill out their phone number, fax number, and e-mail address. Brining the game into the real world, Majestic will often make phone calls and send faxes, e-mails and instant messages providing tips and inside information. Reminiscent of The Game starring Michael Douglas, Majestic blurs the line between reality and fiction.
Adobe Introduces 'Save as XML' Feature
By Mykel Nahorniak on June 4, 2001, 2:54 PM
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Currently in beta, Adobe has released a 'Save As XML' plug-in for its popular Acrobat software. This feature enables users to save content from a tagged PDF file into XML, HTML or plain text format, allowing placement of content into other applications. A tagged Abobe PDF file is usually created from Microsoft Office 2000 applications, using the 'Web Capture' feature to convert a Web site to Adobe PDF format.
Currently, the following formats are available:
Launch Events Showcase Office XP
By Nate Mook and Mykel Nahorniak on June 1, 2001, 5:27 AM
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Microsoft launched Thursday their much anticipated Office XP suite in 15 countries throughout the world. Conventions to celebrate the event were held in cities across the United States, including New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Washington DC also showcased the XP debut, with BetaNews in attendance.
Lacking much press coverage, the day was kicked off by Senior Executive at Microsoft, Jeff Raikes, with an introduction to Office XP and outline of key features. Individual demonstrations followed, offering further insight into functionality added by this latest release.
Intel Debuts Wireless Chip
By Mykel Nahorniak on May 17, 2001, 12:44 AM
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Semiconductor giant Intel, announced Wednesday that they have produced the technology to bring many futuristic gizmos to today's market. Currently, a wireless device is made up of several different chips, each entitled to their own task such as communications, memory and processing. Intel plans to integrate each of these aspects into one main semiconductor, enabling users to take advantage of faster performance in smaller wireless Internet devices. The company also stated intentions of bringing these new chips to consumers by the middle of next year.
According to Al Fazio, principal engineer for Intel's technology and manufacturing group, "What we're doing here is to take those various components and build them on a single process technology, all produced on a single wafer, a single chip and therefore all done in one facility." With Intel's newly developed technology, many new devices can be created. Such things as video watch phones, cell phones combined with personal digital assistants and Internet-ready PDAs are within reach. While the technology is still experimental, Intel is not speculative about the capabilities of their research. Developers claim that the new chips will be up to 5 times more powerful than those seen in current wireless devices, and are capable of operating at speeds up to 1 gigahertz. The new chip technology also significantly cuts down on battery usage. Cell phones which utilize the new semiconductor can run up to one month without requiring a charge.
3Com Dropping 30 Percent of Employees
By Mykel Nahorniak on May 7, 2001, 3:13 PM
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3Com announced Monday that it will be downsizing, leaving 3,000 employees without jobs. That number is 30 percent of the entire 3Com work-force. This move sparks hopes that profitability will return by fiscal 2002. Lately, many tech companies have had to face this decision due to poor profit returns.
The beginning of job cuts involving 3Com began back in February, when the company announced that 10 percent of its telecommunications division would be let go. This decision proved to be an asset to the company's total profit returns. Also, certain product lines such as its Audrey and Kerbango appliances have been discontinued.
Gates to Unveil Office XP in May
By Mykel Nahorniak on April 30, 2001, 2:59 PM
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On May 31, Microsoft founder Bill Gates will be unveiling the latest addition to the slew of Microsoft products, Office XP. One of the most anticipated features this software contains is advanced voice recognition capabilities. Users will be able to manage their Office functions through the power of their voice. Another important add-on is Office XP's 'smart tags', which allow users to link web resources with spreadsheets, databases, and other office documents. Previously codenamed Office 10, Office XP is the first set of XP products Microsoft plans to release.
Along with voice recognition and smart tags, Office XP offers exclusive integration with Windows 2000 Server, the ability to cut, copy and paste multiple data sets, color schemed appointments, and a document recovery feature, which will guarantee no data loss in the event of an error.
Ximian GNOME 1.4 Offers New Features
By Mykel Nahorniak on April 24, 2001, 10:32 PM
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Ximian, Inc.(formerly known as Helix Code), released the latest version of their GNOME shell software earlier today. This build offers innovative software updating, new file management functionality, online support, and is packaged with the Mozilla Web browser.
The current version does not run properly on the unstable version of Debian GNU/Linux, however Ximian is working on a fix.