You don't have to wait for Windows 8
It's a common human desire to keep up with the Joneses or even to play games of oneupmanship, and it's no truer when applied to PCs. While older kit and software may do the job admirably, there's no ignoring the desire for new shiny toys and the latest in cutting-edge technology.
Windows 8 isn't out yet -- the first beta isn't due to appear for another few months yet -- but that doesn't stop people from wanting it. Windows 8 UX Pack 2.0 gives you the next best thing: it makes Windows 7 look and feel just like Windows 8.
Mark Zuckerberg unveils Facebook Video Calling
Early this afternoon, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg debuted three new personal connection service updates -- group chat, chat redesign and video calling.
Last week, Zuckerberg hinted at something "awesome" coming today. Early rumors tipped to in-browser video chat powered by Skype.
Facebook has 750 million users
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the number during a live event early this afternoon.
Last week, Zuckerberg hinted at something "awesome" coming today. Early rumors tipped to in-browser video chat powered by Skype. A live event is underway now.
iPhone users waste twice as much time playing games
Gee, and I thought they were hunched over texting like the rest of us.
Nielsen has a hot, mobile gaming study out today that reveals gaming apps as being the most popular category. Sixty-four percent of people downloading mobile apps got a game in the previous 30 days. But the second-place finisher is a hoot -- weather apps (60 percent).
Is Firefox hogging RAM? Memory Restart can fix that
When Mozilla released Firefox 4 (and now Firefox 5), it appeared to have finally fixed some of the performance-related gripes of earlier releases. Compared to Firefox 3.6, Firefox 5 is lightning fast, but sadly behind the scenes all is not as it should be. Firefox still suffers from a memory leak that sees its memory demands slowly spiral over an extended period of time, stealing precious system resources and affecting your PC's performance as a result.
A simple restart fixes the problem, but it's still annoying. The good news is that Mozilla developers are targeting this memory leak and think they may have found a way to fix it. If we're lucky, the fix may even make it into Firefox 7, which is due to be released as Firefox Aurora imminently. In the meantime, how you can stop Firefox's increasing memory demands from spiralling out of control? The answer lies with a tiny add-on appropriately titled Memory Restart.
Steve Ballmer headlines Consumer Electronics Show again -- but why?
File this in the "if he's still CEO" department.
Today, the Consumer Electronics Association announced that, no surprise, Microsoft's CEO would give CES' kick-off keynote next year.
Did Google hand China to Microsoft?
It's rare that a public company takes moral stances where business interests suffer. But that's the choice Google made in January 2010, after reversing its search censorship policy in China. On Monday, ironically during the 235th celebration of America's freedom, Microsoft announced an English-language search deal with Baidu, China's leading search provider. Microsoft will censor the results Bing delivers.
I don't believe that the Baidu-Microsoft deal could have been possible, if not for the courageous actions taken by Google 18 months ago. Even then, Google should be faulted, having agreed to censor search results in China for nearly four years earlier. Google's decision to stop censorinp hurt its business in China, and not just search. Chinese manufacturer HTC is one of Android's biggest hardware OEMs. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Samsung has risen above HTC as premiere Android handset manufacturer over the last 18 months.
Microsoft pays University of Nebraska $250,000 to use Office 365
If you really are in need of some high profile clients, you can always pay them. That's exactly what Microsoft has done with the University of Nebraska. The university will receive $250,000 in incentives from Microsoft to migrate its email and calendaring system to the recently announced Office365 platform.
The school had been using IBM's Lotus Notes for these services, however that system had begun to age -- having been in use since 1997. IBM had pitched its cloud-based version of Notes to the school, but could not come close to Microsoft's offer. Google was also said to be in the running but probably lost out for much of the same reason.
Are you one of the two in three Americans who still doesn't use a smartphone? What a shame
Not sure? Does your carrier not require you to get a data plan? Do your fingers go clickety-clack across just nine numeric keys? If yes, then you don't have a smartphone. But you should, and may soon if a ComScore survey of 30,000 Americans 13 and older is to be believed.
For the three months ended in May, there were 234 million cell phone users in the United States -- 76.8 million with smartphones. That works out the 32.8 percent, which ComScore graciously rounds up to one-third. But don't feel left out just yet. There are two definitions of the "in-crowd" here -- the ins who use smartphones and the ins that belong to the majority. Sixty-six percent is still a big number using, ahem, dumb phones.
Bing to power english language results for China's Baidu
Microsoft is hoping to increase its search share in China through a new deal with the country's leading search site Baidu. The tie-up partners the Redmond company with a company that holds about a 75 percent share of China's search queries.
Google pulled out of the country last year over protests of China's stringent rules on censoring search results. The google.cn website currently redirects to Google's Hong Kong-based site, and only holds about 20 percent of the market, reports China-based research firm Analysis International. Bing's search share is practically non-existant in the country.
Moving to Google+? Facebook won't let you go
Talk about juxtapositions. Last week, Google quietly unleashed the Data Liberation Front and tool Takeout for moving user data from the company's services. Would you like to switch from Gmail to Windows Live Mail? Google Takeout can help. Over at Facebook, however, matters are quite different -- as one tool for extracting friend data shows. The world's largest social network wants to keep your friends. But you knew that already, right?
Developer Mohamed Mansour's tool Facebook Friend Exporter revved to version 2.2.1 yesterday. CNET's Stephen Shankland blogged about the Chrome Extension then, and Mashable's Eric Swallow today. Perhaps the utility got a wee bit too much attention. Mansour posted to the download page today: "Facebook is trying so hard to not allow you to export your friends. They started to remove emails of your friends from your profile by today July 5th 2011. It will no longer work for many people". I can't get the extension to work, BTW.
Verizon confirms end of unlimited data plans
Confirming rumors that have circulated for months, Verizon Wireless says that Thursday, July 7 it will no longer offer an unlimited data plan for smartphones according to a report in FierceWireless.
The new plans will have 4 options:
Cisco equips the Chinese police state
Chinese authorities in the southwest city of Chongqing are working with a group of Western companies, including Cisco Systems, to build a surveillance network of as many as 500,000 cameras over an area of 400 square miles, Wall Street Journal reports today.
What comes to mind at first is the use of such a network, including servers and software for the police to monitor them, to control political dissent. But surveillance systems can be used for legitimate purposes as well, even by police. Some are used for traffic control and monitoring, some for crime fighting and prevention.
If you're a Skype Premium subscriber, v5.2 for Mac has got something new for you
Today, Skype updated its Mac client with one major new feature and a promise of improved multi-tasking thanks to a tweaked control bar that allows video conversation windows to remain in focus even when switching to another application.
Skype for Mac 5.2 also heralds the arrival of group screen sharing for multi-video conferencing. This makes it easier for users to share their screens with other people in the conferencing call for the purposes of sharing documents, photos and presentations.
You can thank smartphones, FarmVille for game spending surge -- $74B this year
People love to play, eh? The global gaming ecosystem, which includes consoles, handhelds, software and social networks, will grow 10.4 percent in 2011 to $74 billion from $67 billion last year, says Gartner, which expects spending to reach $112 billion by 2015.
Software will account for more than half of gaming spending -- $44.7 billion this year. However, Gartner predicts that through 2015, software spending will recede before online games, which is the fast-growing segement.
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