Take control of your PC resources with Kiwi
It doesn't matter how much RAM you pack into your cutting-edge PC running off a SSD disk -- programs have a habit of gobbling up all the resources they can get their hands on, resulting in sluggish performance and a sudden desire to take a pickaxe to your digital companion.
You can often diagnose problematic programs simply by opening Task Manager to review which ones are currently swallowing up all your RAM and CPU cycles, but it only works in real time. If you want to be able to monitor selected applications and processes over a more extended period of time, try Kiwi Application Monitor 1.4.6.
The roles we play
Today, Comic-Con 2011 wraps up here in San Diego. It's family day, where the halls fill up with locals -- following three days of celebrity panels, costume contests and other festivities. The event is all about people, whether someone comes to see a celeb, meet the authors of favorite books, games or movies or to do role play.
Many attendees have come here as someone else. For a day, or even a few, they take on another persona. They become someone else -- perhaps whom they would rather be, but most certainly not who they are. They can be heroes and even stars, for most anyone well-costumed will be repeatedly stopped for photos. Comic-Con lets them be not just someone else but someone special.
Are you one of the 20 million Google+ users?
Google+ has done in about three weeks what took Facebook years -- reach 20 million (presumably) active users.
In May 2006, Facebook opened to the public, already with about 6 million active users (mainly from schools). The service reached 20 million active users 11 months later. Google announced the G+ service -- invite-only during early testing phase -- on June 28. But those invites trickled out at first. Three weeks later, Google+ already had 20 million subscribers, or so claims Pluser Leon Håland.
Browser blowout: Which is fastest, most standards compliant [benchmarks]?
The browser wars are back, not least due to hectic and ever shorter release schedules, just about every other week there seems to be some new build promising that it's the faster way to get around online.
But which browser really delivers the best performance? We decided to pit the leading contenders against each other in a gruelling set of benchmarks to figure out the truth for ourselves.
Evidence builds that Google+ will soon get social games
For those of us who like the fact that Google+ remains free of the clutter that games on Facebook cause to our news feeds there, we may soon find that reprieve short lived. More evidence surfaced Friday that Google does indeed plan to add some type of gaming functionality to its social network.
Tech blog Slashgear discovered evidence within Google+'s help files that make reference to a 'Games Stream.' This likely means that Google plans to separate those incessant game status posts from the standard stream, but is eventually planning to add some type of social gaming to its platform.
I'll tell you something about Windows
Microsoft must move beyond Windows, as clearly seen in fiscal 2011 fourth quarterly and yearly results, announced late yesterday. The operating system remains a pillar of the company's revenue stream and will long be the identifying brand. But its relevance is diminishing, in developed markets for now. Emerging markets will come much later.
For the third quarter in a row, sluggish PC shipments diminished Windows & Windows Live revenues -- and there is little sign anything will change anytime soon. Revenues fell by 1 percent and operating income by 4 percent during fiscal fourth quarter. Global PC shipments grew by 2.3 percent, according to Gartner, and 2.6 percent, according to IDC. US PC shipments were disastrous, falling 5.6 percent year over year, according to Gartner, and declining 4.2 percent by IDC's reckoning. Microsoft estimates global PC shipments grew by 1 percent to 3 percent. Windows actually underperformed, by comparison, with OEM revenues declining by 1 percent for the quarter and growing by a tepid 2 percent for fiscal 2011. OEM sales accounted for three-quarters of Windows revenue during fiscal Q4.
Finally, VirtualBox 4.1 brings Aero support, VM cloning
Oracle has announced a major update to its open-source, cross-platform virtualization software. VirtualBox 4.1, which allows users to run different operating systems in virtual environments through a window, boasts a number of major new features, including support for VM cloning and an experimental WDDM graphics driver providing Windows Aero support in Windows guests. There's also a networking mode (UDP tunnel) that's designed to allow VMs running on different hosts to connect easily and transparently.
In addition to these new features, VirtualBox 4.1 sports some user-interface improvements, including the ability to keep the aspect ratio scaled in Windows and Mac OS X hosts when manually resizing the guest window. In addition to this it features numerous bug fixes and other minor tweaks.
Todo Backup 3.0 beta is now available
EASEUS has released a public beta of its Todo Backup 3.0 software. Version 3.0 adds a number of major new features to this versatile backup application, which is capable of backing up and cloning entire disks and partitions as well as offering file-based backup tools.
EASEUS Todo Backup 3.0 Beta adds support for dynamic disks while improving compatibility with SSD drives, and adds one-click options for system backup and restore as well as migrating a drive image to new hardware.
Americans buy nearly 3 out of every 10 iPhones
Yesterday, I posted a quick stub about AT&T's contribution to the overall proliferation of iOS-powered devices for the last quarter: 3.6 million iPhones (both 3GS and 4) and an indeterminate amount of iPads less than 545,000 in total. AT&T's iPhone sales alone, I concluded made up 10% of all the iOS devices sold for the quarter.
One commenter complained that the article lacked context, and I'll give him that… But it was meant to serve as a single piece of a larger puzzle that will hopefully present a more complete picture of where Apple products are going, who's using them, and what it means to the mobile device market as a whole.
1 million 'users' download Mac OS X Lion
While I studiously covered Microsoft's fiscal fourth quarter earnings, Apple announced that more than "1 million users" purchased Mac OS X 10.7 Lion during the first day of availability. That's why I'm posting this later than everybody else.
For some reason Apple made a distinction between "users" and "copies" of software, which I find surprising. Is the distinction meaningful, I wonder. Users is appropriate from perspective of how the software is sold -- from the electronic Mac App Store for which there is an Apple account and person attached to it. On the other hand, users could refer to number of installs per copy, which would mean more installations than sales. Apple probably means the former, but I call it out because the company is typically quite deliberate in use of language.
Motorola should cash in its valuable wireless patents, says Carl Icahn
Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn thinks Motorola Mobility might be sitting on a goldmine with its wireless patent portfolio, and thinks the mobile communications company should perhaps begin shopping them around.
In an amended schedule 13D Icahn filed with the SEC today, the investor's beliefs were clearly laid out:
Microsoft Q4 2011 by the numbers: $17.37B revenue, $5.87B profit, 69 cents EPS
Microsoft closed its fiscal year on a high note, despite globally slow PC sales that weighed down Windows division sales. The Redmond, Wash.-based company announced fourth quarterly and yearly results after the market closed today.
For fiscal 2011 fourth quarter, ended June 30, Microsoft's revenue rose 8 percent to $17.37 billion, year over year. Operating income: $6.17 billion, or 4 percent increase. Net income rose 30 percent to $5.87 billion, or 69 cents a share. Earnings per share rose by 35 percent year over year.
Anonymous claims NATO hack, withholds pilfered information
Hackers with the group Anonymous claimed Thursday that they had hacked into the servers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). However, it wouldn't release much of the gigabyte of information it stole because doing so would be "irresponsible," seemingly indicating some of the data may be sensitive to security interests.
"Yes, #NATO was breached. And we have lots of restricted material," the group tweeted over its @AnonymousIRC account. "In the next days, wait for interesting data :)"
Windows Phone transition is killing Nokia
Today's dismal Nokia second-quarter earnings results offer little good news. Apple now leads Nokia in smartphone sales, 20.3 million units to 16.7 million. The sliver of good news: Nokia will ship a Windows Phone handset this year, which probably isn't soon enough.
Nokia smartphone sales collapsed during second quarter, plummeting an awe-numbing 34 percent year over year. By comparison Apple smartphone sales soared by 142 percent. The percentages alone are sobering enough.
AT&T-compatible Google Nexus S arrives next week
Is better late than never really applicable in the rapidly-changing smartphone market?
Finally, seven months after debuting for T-Mobile, the Samsung-manufactured, Google-branded Nexus S is headed to AT&T. Best Buy starts taking preorders today for the smartphone, which goes on sale July 24 -- $99 with two-year contract.
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