Developers say Google+ can catch up to Facebook in social
Well, so much for Facebook's 750 million active users as a competitive advantage.
IDC's quarterly survey of mobile developers couldn't have come at a better time for Google, soon after its Plus service opened on an invite-only beta basis. Developers -- 2,012 surveyed from July 20-22 -- are enthusiastic about Google+. "Two-thirds of respondents believe that Google can catch up to Facebook in social with Google+", according to the report.
Sprint's 4G gets cheaper with Samsung Conquer 4G Android smartphone
Sprint and Samsung have announced the seventh 4G WiMAX phone, The Samsung Conquer 4G, which differentiates itself by being the first to launch with a sub-$100 pricetag.
Sprint debuted its first WiMAX phone (HTC EVO 4G) a little less than a year and a half ago, and the flagship device became Sprint's best-selling smartphone of all time. By the one year anniversary of the launch of the EVO, Sprint had launched a total of 22 WiMAX-capable devices which included netbooks, tablets, hotspots, USB modules, and, of course, smartphones.
Yamaha shrinks smartphone magnetometer to 1.5mm
Smartphones come with dozens of sensors: gyroscopes, accelerometers, proximity sensors, ambient light sensors, barometers, and magnetometers, all for the sake of adding to the device's "situational awareness" without adding significantly to its size and weight.
Japan's Yamaha Corporation on Friday announced it has collapsed the size of its magnetometers by 56% to just 1.5 square millimeters, and claims to have created the world's smallest tri-band geomagnetic sensor for smartphones and tablets.
Want to know why cellular carriers are throttling your data?
They don't have capacity to meet demand and likely can't build profitable infrastructure fast enough. New data from Gartner explains why.
The analyst firm predicts that the number of mobile connections will reach 5.6 billion this year, up from 5 billion in 2010. By 2015, Gartner expects the number will reach a stunning 7.4 billion. That's not as fast as global population growth -- reaching 7 billion people this year -- but it's plenty enough to generate big revenues and big headaches for carriers and their customers.
Is your website secure? Netsparker can tell you
If you manage a website that has anything more than basic personal details, then it's vital to make sure it's secure. There are plenty of free tools around that promise that they can help, but which really delivers?
Netsparker's Community Edition is one popular solution, as it offers a strong core set of features with minimal restrictions (you can use it on as many sites as you like, for instance).
Android growth surge pushes US smartphone OS share above 40%
I've got a puzzle for the oft-vocal Apple Fanclub of bloggers and reporters. In June, many of them claimed that Verizon iPhone had stalled Android's US growth and that the days of massive gains were over for Google's mobile platform. How does that reconcile with ComScore's newest smartphone data, released today?
At TechCrunch, MG Siegler led the charge in ridiculous late-June post: "The Verizon iPhone Halted Android's Surge. The iPhone 5 Could Reverse It". Other Fanclubbers followed his lead. I rebutted the lot with "Android is unstoppable". The available data didn't support Siegler's assertion then, and even less so today.
Hulu, Spotify, Etsy, accused of using invasive 'shadow tracking mechanisms'
Website analytics company KISSMetrics licensed out a technology to dozens of companies, including streaming media companies Hulu and Spotify, that let them implant a tracking tag in a user's browser history that could "respawn" if deleted. Now, the company and its licensees are being sued.
UC Berkley School of Law posted a study at the end of July that revealed the use of these persistent cookies.
Patently unfair: Google's patent half-truths come home to roost
In the matter of a few short hours on Wednesday night, Google's seemingly well-intentioned and cogent argument against its competitors vis a vis Android blew up in its face. In the fallout, the search giant now appears to be speaking out of both sides of its mouth and may have strengthened its competitors' claims against it.
See, Google's chief legal officer David Drummond argued that there's a "a hostile, organized campaign against Android" using patents he calls "bogus." This came just days after it lost its bid for a host of Nortel patents to a consortium of companies that included Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research in Motion, and Sony.
Holding out for AT&T, T-Mobile keeps customer losses in check
T-Mobile USA has been listed as a "discontinued operation" by its parent company Deutsche Telekom all year, and regulatory approval of the wireless provider's merger with AT&T is still pending, yet the number 4 wireless carrier in the US has managed to prevent mass customer flight.
On Thursday, T-Mobile USA posted its earnings report for the second quarter of 2011, revealing that it had $5.1 billion in net revenue, down from $5.2 billion in the first quarter. This figure represents all service contracts, equipment sales, and all other sources of income for the company, so T-Mobile continued to lose customers and sold fewer handsets in the quarter.
Why is Amazon supporting a proposed federal sales tax law?
Amazon can't keep running away from states that require sales tax collection. Even they are now supporting a Democratic proposal to create an interstate agreement for standardized and simplified collection of taxes. Everyone's a winner except for those of you who have not been paying the use tax you're supposed to pay. It's a good and fair idea and it has no chance whatsoever of passage.
The remote buyer sales tax problem is an old one going back to the days of mail order and catalogs. The Internet has made it worse for states because the volume is so much greater, but the nature of the problem hasn't really changed. In that sense, the established court precedents might seem to close the books on the case.
Accurately measure application start times with AppTimer
Optimizing your PC's performance can be a tricky and complex business, but the best place to start is by benchmarking its current speed, ideally with real-life tests such as the time it takes to launch some of your larger applications.
Once that's done then it's easy to measure how your system changes over time. Whether you've installed a new security suite which seems to have slowed you down, or a new defrag tool looks like it's ramped up your speeds, then you won't have to guess what's happening; just run your tests again and you'll see precisely what's going on.
Sony's PlayStation Vita to miss holidays in US, Europe
Sony admitted Thursday that its upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld console would miss the holidays in both the US and European markets, although it still would be on track to release by the end of the year in Japan. The company had said just last month that the PlayStation Portable's successor would arrive for that all important retail season.
The Vita ships in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi+3G models through a deal with AT&T. It sports the familiar Sony controller interface with an OLED touchscreen, and adds a rear-mounted touchpad and six-axis motion sensors. A quad-core ARM processor and GX 543MP4+ graphics processor support the gaming experience.
PC Monitor: Keep watch on your computer anytime from anywhere on anything
Ever wondered what your PC is getting up to while you're away from it? Or maybe you have a more practical reason -- you're an IT manager -- for needing to know what various PCs are being used for when you're not around.
Either way, one of the most comprehensive and complete tools for monitoring and managing your PCs remotely lies in PC Monitor, a pair of tools that let you monitor and control Windows and Linux PCs over the network or Internet from any web browser or -- if you prefer -- iPhone, Android or Windows Mobile device.
Apple is a patent bully
"Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it", David Drummond, Google chief legal officer, writes in a blog post late yesterday afternoon. He's absolutely right.
For weeks I've been thinking about writing a commentary about how Apple has become a patent bully -- that its behavior answers an ongoing question of discussion going on for years. Drummond's blog post tipped me to doing it.
Clearwire says it will build LTE into its existent network, just like Sprint
Clearwire, the United States' only nationwide WiMAX network announced on Wednesday that it intends to add TDD-LTE to its catalog of services based on its existing 4G infrastructure. The announcement comes just one week after Sprint announced a similar plan with burgeoning LTE/Satellite network LightSquared.
Clearwire says it will initially implement LTE technology in urban areas on the infrastructure it built up for its 2.5GHz WiMAX 4G network, and eventually upgrade to LTE Advanced (currently known as 3GPP Release 10) when the technology is ready, and when funding is obtained.
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