Which matters more to you, Android or iOS? [poll]
Yesterday's Flurry blog post "iPad 2 and Verizon iPhone Take Some Wind Out of Android's Sail" sent the Apple Fanclub of bloggers and journalists into a tizzy. They're still blogging about this great news today. But is it really so great?
I don't think so, because the data is limited in reach and the analysis supporting it overlooks too much. So I'm asking for your help in getting different perspective. If you develop for multiple mobile operating systems, please tell us which matter more to you -- in comments or by sending email to joe at betanews dot com. I'll explain more in the closing paragraphs. Meanwhile please answer the two polls below -- one for developers and another for mobile device buyers (which could be developers, too).
Microsoft's Tulalip slip-up may have revealed its new social network
It's got a funny name, and it may be Microsoft's next big thing. Microsoft Research employees accidentally published this week an internal project known as "Tulalip" which appears to be some type of social networking platform. The site has since been removed, but the questions still remain.
The name Tulalip comes from the name for a group of Native American tribes that call the Redmond, Washington area home. It's not known why Microsoft chose the name as the company isn't answering many questions on it.
Microsoft releases apps to hook up Windows Phone with Windows Home Server 2011
The Windows Home Server team on Friday announced the final release of Windows Server Solutions Phone Connector, an add-in utility that lets users turn their Windows phone into a remote Windows Home Server 2011 management terminal or media streamer.
With the server-side add-in and the appropriate mobile application, the user's Windows Phone gets a hub specifically for "My Home Server" where he can view alerts, initiate backups, manage user access, or view and access content located on the server.
Self-publish your e-novel with Sigil
Everyone with writing sensibilities dreams of becoming a published author. Magazine publishing houses are full of frustrated novelists "getting by" writing magazine and online articles while trying to find time to cram in a novel or two.
The self-publishing route is nothing new, but it's only now you can actually get published for no upfront costs by publishing digitally using a service like Lulu. The problem is, Lulu wants to distribute your finished work in the EPUB format, and if your manuscript is in Word format, how can you avoid paying a hefty fee in order to generate the required file? The answer lies in a simple, open-source and cross-platform solution called Sigil.
Forget FarmVille, now you can play Google News
You could spend real money for virtual goods on the farm, or earn merit badges for being an informed citizen instead. For free.
Late yesterday, Google announced "News Badges" -- more than 500 of them -- for readers of Google News. I was feeling crappy yesterday (still am today -- and I'm not looking for sympathy badges), otherwise you would have read this story last night. Maybe. I kind of chuckled about the whole concept and joked with other Betanews writers about it.
E-textbooks are destroying the old publishing business model
In May, Nature Publishing Group and California State University announced a three-year partnership to use $49 e-books for certain Biology classes over a more expensive and less versatile paper book. Soon, state universities in Texas and Florida will follow suit. While there are hundreds of startups pitching various ways to bring e-textbooks to universities, Nature's initiative is one of the first widespread e-textbook programs to come from the publishing industry.
The most interesting part?
OSForensics keeps watch on pesky Windows Registry changes
Install one program, run another, remove a third, and all kinds of changes will be made to your system: files added, others deleted, Registry keys modified and more. Understanding exactly what's going on can help you uncover malware, troubleshoot conflicts and solve many other problems, and the latest beta of OSForensics makes this very easy indeed.
The program has always been able to monitor and report on file-based changes. So you could use it to create "before" and "after" signatures of your current system, then compare the two for a report of all the files that have been created, modified or deleted. And OSForensics 0.98 has extended this by adding the ability to check for Registry changes, too.
Google shares soar in early trading, up more than $70
Investors rewarded Google on Friday for strong second quarterly earnings results, with shares up more than 13 percent in early trading. Google traded $599.69, up $70.75, or 13.38 percent soon after the opening bell. The stock closed at $528.94 yesterday. Shares rose more than 10 percent overnight in after-hours trading. Google opened at $597.87 this morning.
Google announced Q2 earnings late yesterday. Revenues rose 32 percent to $9.03 billion, year over year; net income climbed to $2.51 billion up from $1.84 billion a year earlier. That's $7.68 earnings per share. Operating income was $2.88 billion.
Adobe releases Flash 11 and Air 3 betas
Adobe has released public betas of the next generation of both Adobe Flash Player, and Adobe AIR, highlighting how the essential browser plug-in and cross-platform runtime component share similar code and technologies.
The most notable new feature is found exclusively in Flash Player 11 Beta: support for 64-bit browsers. 64-bit support has been in development since Flash 10.2, but until now has been available only as a limited pre-release build, codenamed Adobe Flash Player "Square". By incorporating it into the Beta release of Flash Player 11, Adobe has signalled its readiness for final release, due later this year.
RealPlayer beefs up its Android beta app with dozens of new features
RealNetworks on Thursday updated its still-in-beta RealPlayer for Android, introducing dozens of new user-requested features to the still very new media management application.
While Real could just be riding on Spotify's coattails by choosing to roll out an update to its beta today, the two items really can't be compared since a lot of RealPlayer's new features are related to management of photographs and videos as well as music. But since Real no longer controls Rhapsody, Spotify's real competitor in the space, this is about as close as the company can get.
Microsoft adds an ounce of hacking prevention to Hotmail
Microsoft introduced a new feature within Hotmail on Thursday that it hopes will assist the company in detecting compromised accounts, as well as prevent users from locking their accounts with passwords that are easily guessed by attackers. The company's thinking is that you will know your friend's account was hacked well before Microsoft would.
"When someone's account gets hijacked, their friends often find out before they do, because the hijacker uses their account to send spam or phishing email to all their contacts," Hotmail group program manager Dick Craddock said.
DOD suffers millions of attempted hacks every day, unveils new cyber plan
Last March, a total of 24,000 files containing Department of Defense information were stolen by a "foreign intelligence service" in a hack of a defense contractor, Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III and the American Forces Press Service revealed on Thursday.
Details about the attack, such as who the victim was, and the type of data that was stolen, were not disclosed. This is because Deputy Secretary Lynn was simply using the figure to underscore the importance of data security in the new Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace, which was unveiled today.
Is Amazon's tablet positioned to be an iPad killer?
The Wall Street Journal shook the tech world Wednesday with news that Amazon plans to release its own Android-based tablet in October, a clear effort to take Apple head on now that it has nearly dominated the e-reader market with its market-leading Kindle device.
While the device is not a replacement for the Kindle, it's likely that the e-retailer will make it compatible with its array of services. Amazon already has a stable of offerings that could make any tablet successful: its cloud-based music service, its own music store, the Kindle e-bookstore, and its streaming and downloadable video offerings.
You can't trust rumors about Apple
In case you hadn't noticed, very few rumor stories appear here at Betanews. We purposely err on the side of factual reporting rather than spread gossip. There are plenty of sites doing that all to well. Today's Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and MacBook Air no-shows are examples why we cautiously write about rumors. Particularly when it comes to Apple. The rumors are often wrong.
But in this era of grubbing for pageviews, it's easy for bloggers and reporters (and their editors, if there are any) to justify publishing rumors, particularly about hot company Apple. Often, the mass of readers see only the headlines and assume the rumor to be fact. Look around and tell me a tech company for which there are more rumor stories circulating than Apple. The company's secretive character is major reason.
Patch My PC Free: Easy updates for handful of apps
It's no secret that keeping your Windows PC up-to-date is essential, for security reasons alone. Actually achieving this, though, takes considerable time and effort, which is probably why there are so many Windows tools around promising that they can help -- and Patch My PC Free is one of the latest.
Launch the program and it'll immediately highlight any updates required by some key applications and tools: Firefox, Java, Adobe Reader/ Flash/ AIR, QuickTime and so on.
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