AVG Premium Security 2011: New features could offer more
AVG's Internet Security 2011 offers all the major components you'd expect from a security suite: antivirus, a decent spam filter, effective capable firewall, browsing protection, identity protection and a range of interesting extras. Sounds great, and it's just as good in real life.
Plainly AVG wasn't satisfied, though, and the company has now released an enhanced version, AVG Premium Security 2011, which extends the original suite with a couple of additional functions. And the most important of these, by a considerable distance, is AVG Identity Alert.
Google's Chrome 13 claims even faster Google searches
Google on Tuesday released Chrome 13, adding its Instant Pages functionality to the stable build of its browser for the first time. The feature had been part of beta builds of Chrome since June, and aims to make surfing to top search results in Google much faster.
Instant Pages works by preloading the first search result after entering a query into Google. Of course, the functionality would truly be helpful when the result is what the user is looking for: all other search results on the page would not be preloaded.
Is iCloud sync done right?
Sync is the killer application for the connected world, an assertion I've been making for about six years now. With iCloud, Apple has the chance to catch up sync ground lost after becoming an early leader and falling away.
Late yesterday, iCloud launched in beta to developers. The service is slated to release this autumn, presumably concurrent with iPhone 5 and iOS 5.
Laplink slashes PCmover to under $1 for businesses upgrading from XP
Windows XP still has a solid three years left before it reaches End of Support (EOS), the point at which the formidable desktop operating system will be forced into retirement.
On the 24th of this month, we'll be celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Windows XP's release to manufacturing, and even though it seems like it will be a "this is your life" kind of retirement retrospective, the operating system still has a massive userbase in the enterprise.
Introducing WIMM, the 1 inch Android wrist computer
This is the WIMM Wearable Platform (which, for the sake of simplicity, I will be referring to strictly as "WIMM" for the rest of this article.) It's a tiny Android-powered module that will be used someday soon in watches, bike-mount computers, wearable interfaces, and anything else a clever company can come up with. It's the product of WIMM Labs, an all-star Silicon Valley company that has partnered with iPhone manufacturer Foxconn to usher in the era of the "first screen" and "micro apps."
The idea of the "first screen," WIMM Labs CEO and former Rambus president Dave Mooring told Betanews last week, is a response to all the other four screens that we interact with on a daily basis (TV, PC, smartphone, and now tablet). Technically, this would be the fifth screen, but it is intended to be the first one you look at.
Best Buy debuts Insignia HDTVs with TiVo functionality
It has taken more than two years, but the benefits of a deal struck in July 2009 between Best Buy and TiVo are finally being realized. The retailer on Monday debuted two HDTVs carrying its in-house Insignia branding, both featuring the TiVo user interface.
Consumers will not be charged a monthly fee, as the interface is the only similarity with the company's set-top boxes: the TVs do not have DVR capability. Best Buy initially will offer the sets in 32 and 42-inch sizes, it said.
LulzSec's 'Topiary' released on bail, banned from Internet
A British judge has released Jake Davis -- more commonly known as "Topiary" -- on bail Monday, however he has been banned from using the Internet as a condition of his release. Davis was apprehended last Wednesday by the Metropolitan Police as part of a larger effort against LulzSec and Anonymous.
Topiary originally served as the mouthpiece for the LulzSec hacktivist group, but following its disbandment continued his work for Anonymous. He famously taunted police following the arrests of more than a dozen suspected members of the hacktivist group by claiming "you cannot arrest an idea."
Android is No. 1 in 35 countries, approaches 50% global market share
Canalys issued its final second-quarter smartphone shipments data today -- and, whoa, by that measure Android is doing exceptionally well. Worldwide, smartphone shipments grew 73 percent year over year, but Android grew much faster -- 379 percent year over year. The analyst firm tracks smartphones in 56 countries, and Android was tops in 35 of them. For the quarter, Android reached 48 percent global market share.
Android's share is greatest among Asia-Pacific countries, which is the largest regional market. In South Korea, for example, Android market share is 85 percent -- 71 percent in Taiwan. Manufacturers shipped 107.7 million smartphones during Q2, 51.9 million of them running Android. HTC, Huawei, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and ZTE are among the manufacturers benefitting from Android's success and, of course, contributing to it.
Microsoft rolls new BitLocker tool, remote booting with DaRT in MDOP 2011 R2
Microsoft on Monday rolled out R2 of Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2011, the company's client-side management suite for Software Assurance subscribers which includes Asset Inventory Service (AIS) 2.0, Diagnostic and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) 7.0 and Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM).
The last major update to MDOP was in mid-March, and it included Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 4.6 SP1, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) 2.0, Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) 4.0, AIS 1.5, DaRT 6.5, and Microsoft Desktop Error Monitoring (DEM) 3.5.
Easily expose hidden application functions with WindowsMenuPlus 1.1
Sometimes Windows can be really frustrating, with lots of useful tweaks and tools buried away beneath layers of dialog boxes and hard-to-reach system tools. WindowMenuPlus 1.1 aims to place some really useful tweaks for your apps on to the menu that pops up when you either right-click its titlebar or taskbar button (Vista and XP only).
Options include being able to keep the current window on top of other windows (and make it semi-transparent at the same time), team a program's priorities, kill its parent process, get more information about it and quickly reposition or resize the window a number of custom ways.
Diglo: the Google+ of file sharing
One of the biggest early draws to Google's new social network Google+ is the ability for users to break their list of friends into "circles" which each have their own level of communication. For example, if you want to post a message just for your old college buddies and not your co-workers, you can select the appropriate group and share that content without having to worry about the wrong people being involved in the conversation.
Diglo, a social network specifically aimed at file sharers, takes the same approach to uploading and downloading content. Rather than just being a web-based locker like RapidShare or Megaupload, Diglo lets users set up a profile that can have as little or as much personal information as they like, and then they can begin sharing files with as many or as few people as they choose.
Will you wait for iPhone 5?
Apple-loving analyst Gene Minster claims there is "pent up demand" among Verizon subscribers for iPhone 5 -- that something like 74 percent of potential Apple smartphone buyers will wait for the newer model. Little more than half of AT&T potential iPhone buyers (or upgraders) also plan to wait. Munster also found that 64 percent of those surveyed plan to buy an iPhone as their next handset. The Piper Jaffray analyst bases this amazing discovery on a sample of 216 cell phone users. Hell, we can get more people right here and now with a poll.
Two-hundred sixteen? Geez Louise, and now his findings are making headlines on this fine August morning. I saw it first at Apple Insider. Of course, people are going to wait with rumors of iPhone 5 coming in September -- or October, as All Things Digital claims today. But to call it three-quarters of buyers based on little more than 200 people -- quick! Kick me so I don't pass out from shock.
Why I chose iOS and Windows 8 development over Android
Android is hot from a device sales perspective -- 550,000 activations per day. However, even though apps for Android phones are surging in the marketplace, it does not yet appear that the same is true for Android tablets. As popular as Android is, it is my personal opinion that iOS and Windows 8 should be the focus of future development.
The sheer popularity of iOS and the beauty of Apple's hardware make iOS a prime candidate for app development. I'm not saying developers shouldn't target Android at all, but I believe iOS and Windows 8 offer (or will offer) the best user experiences going forward.
The Final days of Flash: Adobe releases public preview of Edge HTML5 editor
Adobe on Monday rolled out the first public preview of Adobe Edge, the company's HTML5 design tool that makes the creation of HTML5 graphics and animations feel like editing a movie.
In the Spring of 2010, the "Flash vs. HTML5" debate went into full battle mode when Apple CEO Steve Jobs published a letter called "Thoughts on Flash," where he said Adobe's Flash platform was a relic of the PC era, and that in the Post-PC era, different tools and standards needed to be used.
This is leadership? US cybersecurity is a revolving door of exiting officials
Personally, I never understood what got people so excited about Barack Obama. But back in 2008 people were positively gooey about him, and one of the lesser reasons was "cybersecurity". Obama "got it". He understood the deadly seriousness of this business.
In July, 2008 then-Senator Obama told a gathering at Purdue University: "As President, I'll make cybersecurity the top priority that it should be in the 21st century. I'll declare our cyber-infrastructure a strategic asset, and appoint a National Cyber Advisor who will report directly to me. We'll coordinate efforts across the federal government, implement a truly national cyber-security policy, and tighten standards to secure information - from the networks that power the federal government, to the networks that you use in your personal lives".
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