Apple tool solves Leopard to Lion Migration woes
Last month, Apple released Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" to reasonably favorable response -- well, not Betanews -- but the update process has been called into question a few times. After releasing a migration tool to make it easier to upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion, Apple has now unveiled the Migration Assistant Update for Mac OS X Leopard, which serves the same purpose for anyone looking to upgrade from the older Leopard OS.
The app is designed to simplify the process of moving from Leopard to Lion, making it possible to transfer personal files and data along with applications -- at least those that are Lion compatible -- and system settings to a new machine running Lion.
Google+ gets social gaming: prepare a circle for obnoxious game requests
Google's new social network took a lot of the good stuff from Facebook, Twitter, and Google Wave and mashed it all together to make Google Plus. Today, social games, one of the more lucrative, but possibly more obnoxious facets of Facebook has launched on Google Plus.
With the Circles feature of Google+, the constant stream of game-related feed updates and promotions that has been known to pollute Facebook can at least be corralled into its own little area. Google is hailing this as a major improvement to the social gaming experience.
I want my Windows Update Rollup!
When you set up a new Windows system, especially an XP system, you may be faced with a titanic load of updates to apply to it in order to bring it up to date. If you don't have a loaded-up WSUS server or similar system this means pulling potentially hundreds of megabytes over your Internet connection, and multiple reboots. Microsoft could make it a lot easier.
F-Secure just brought this up by asking for an "update rollup" for Windows XP SP3. A perfectly reasonable request if ever there were one. When they set up a minimal install of XP SP3 (e.g. no calc.exe) in a VM they have to apply 157 updates after SP3. As they point out, SP3 itself was basically just an update rollup. So why doesn't Microsoft do more?
Crimey, I can watch Netflix on Chromebook
Damn, video streaming looks good, too, and there are no dropped frames. To critics who have never used Chromebook, I say: Underpowered my arse. This is the first computer I've used that just keeps getting better.
First, I must apologize. Google's PR agency reached out to me late yesterday afternoon about a new update to Chrome OS. I wondered if it was the same update I downloaded last week, asked, and after an exchange of emails assumed that it was. Wrong! Chrome OS prompted for the new update today -- so that's two delivered in less than 7 days. Outstanding!
HTC takes majority stake in Beats by Dr. Dre
HTC continued to diversify its product portfolio on Thursday, announcing it had purchased a majority 51 percent stake in Beats Electronics, a US company that produces high end headphones and speakers. The company is a joint venture of rapper Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine.
In monetary terms the investment comes to about $300 million USD, according to reports.
Box hits tablets from all sides with Honeycomb, PlayBook, HTML5 apps
Web-based file storage and content sharing service Box.net on Thursday unveiled three new apps for the tablet world: one for Android Honeycomb, one for BlackBerry PlayBook, and one for HTML5-compatible browsers. These new products bring Box to essentially all mobile platforms in some way and round out its app offerings which already included iOS, Android, and WebOS.
Like Amazon has done with its Kindle e-book platform, Box is attempting to attain what it calls "mobile ubiquity," or a meaningful presence on any mobile device that comes along, irrespective of platform.
TeamSpeak 3 adds Android and iOS clients, improves voice quality
TeamSpeak Systems GmbH has released TeamSpeak 3 for Windows, Mac and Linux. This powerful teleconferencing tool is designed to allow users, both home and business, take part in group voice conversations on a large scale.
Version 3.0, which coincides with the release of mobile client apps for both iPhone/iPad and Android, boasts a dedicated 64-bit build for Windows and Linux users for the first time. It's been rebuilt from the ground up in C+++ to improve compatibility and performance, and boasts improved voice quality and latency, 3D sound effects, improved security and privacy and a new feature that allows users to share files during voice chats.
Samsung's Bada outsells Windows Phone in Q2
Whoa, that can't be good.
Today, Gartner released worldwide handset sales for second quarter 2011. To be clear these are real sales. IDC and most other analyst firms measure shipments into the channel, not sales to end users, which Gartner does. These aren't good numbers for Microsoft.
SSDownloader: 50 security apps in just a few clicks
Your friend's PC has been hit by malware, and you're trying to help him out. He doesn't have any security apps installed, though, and so normally that means a lengthy browsing session around your preferred vendors, locating and downloading the tools they need.
Unless, that is, you've a copy of the free, portable SSDownloader to hand. It's a small and easy-to-use download manager that can grab your choice of 50 security applications in just a few clicks.
Gizmodo won't be charged in iPhone 4 prototype case
Bloggers with Gizmodo will escape prosecution surrounding the receipt of an iPhone 4 prototype last year, which the site paid for and ultimately reported on. Two other individuals will be charged however, as they allegedly were behind the sale of the device to the blog.
Brian Hogan, 22, of Redwood City, Calif. and Sage Wallower, 28, of Emeryville, Calif. both face one count of the misappropriation of lost property, with Wallower also charged with possession of stolen property. Their arraignment has been set for August 25 according to a statement from San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe.
It's official: Apple is the world's most valuable company
Yesterday's cat-and-mouse chase, where Apple and Exxon Mobile kept passing one another, didn't last today. Apple's market capitalization surpassed Exxon's early in the day and stayed that way though market close.
Apple's market cap is $337.17 billion, compared to Exxon Mobile's $330.77 billion
Broadcom: We're not confident about WiMAX in the U.S. any more
It would appear that U.S. companies are ready to abandon WiMAX.
At the end of July, Sprint made the bombshell announcement that it had entered a 15-year partnership with LightSquared to share its network infrastructure with the new network, and that it would essentially be receiving a free LTE network if it agreed to build it on top of its existent towers. Sprint's WiMAX partner Clearwire, has laid out no further plans for its WiMAX expansion, and also has committed to incorporating LTE into its network, and eventually upgrading to LTE-Advanced several years down the road.
Apple intimidation drives developer innovation
Mark this day -- Aug. 10, 2011 -- on a calendar, for it may be remembered as a turning point for Apple, when it finally claimed and maintained largest market capitalization and the beginnings of a developer revolt broke iOS mobile apps dominance. What's that axiom about Rome declining at the height of power and rotting from corruption within?
Yesterday, several times, Apple's market valuation topped Exxon, making it the world's biggest company. But Exxon closed a few billion bucks ahead of Apple. As I write early this afternoon, Apple has surged ahead of Exxon and is set to close the day of trading with higher market cap.
Kindle comes to Linux and ChromeOS, but it's the iPad users that Amazon wants
As of today, Amazon's Kindle e-reader is available on all platforms. The retailer on Wednesday launched Kindle Cloud Reader, an HTML5 Web app that gives users browser-based access to their Kindle library and the Kindle store on platforms that have no dedicated Kindle app, such as Linux and ChromeOS.
Similar to the Amazon MP3 Cloud Player, Kindle Cloud Reader gives users the option to read their e-books while connected, or to cache content to their local machine for offline consumption, and the bookstore has been integrated into the web app's experience.
Microsoft offers quarter-million in prizes to improve Windows security
If the security of your system depends on users making intelligent security decisions then you're basically doomed. After all these years of experience with end users on the Internet we know that they can't be trusted to make those decisions correctly. At least not often enough.
That's why the best security technologies are the ones that happen in spite of the user. These have been a focus for Microsoft over the last 10 years and remain the last, best hope of userdom.
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