Sharp to make LTE smartphones & tablets for LightSquared network
LightSquared, which could become the newest built-from-scratch nationwide mobile broadband network if it can achieve regulatory approval, has partnered with Japanese consumer electronics maker Sharp for the network's 4G LTE consumer devices. This announcement comes one year after Lightsquared announced its first hardware partnerships with Qualcomm, Nokia, AnyData and BandRich.
“Sharp has a rich history of producing unique products that push the extremes of design and functionality, and we’re proud that they will be developing innovative devices for LightSquared’s 4G-LTE network,” said Sanjiv Ahuja, chief executive officer of LightSquared. “LightSquared’s wholesale-only business model and open network will provide Sharp with a platform from which they can aggressively expand into the U.S. wireless market with an exciting portfolio of smartphones and tablets.”
My God, does ANYONE use Internet Explorer?
You might think almost no one after looking at results so far to Betanews poll: "Which is your primary web browser?" Only 9.88 percent of respondents answer some version of Internet Explorer, while 50.01 percent choose Chrome. These results could change dramatically, particularly if a fanboy war erupts or simply thousands of IE-loving Microsoft employees take the poll. But for now, the (currently) 1,812 respondents hugely favor Chrome. I'm shocked.
Betanews readership tends to be highly technical, with tech enthusiasts, IT managers and Windows fans core among them. So I expected early poll results to skew towards Internet Explorer. Instead, Chrome 14, which only released about two weeks ago, locked 35 percent in early polling and has stayed there since. Who are these people using Chrome?
I'm giving up Google Chromebook
My real journey with Chrome OS started with a family trip on July 31. But some journeys come to an end. As much as I like the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook, which I have used continuously since July 31, we must part ways. In a few days I will return to running Windows 7, which is another journey and story to go with it that will get brief explanation here. That is really topic for another post.
My two-month journey to the cloud can offer lessons to Google, which has much work to do yet before Chrome OS is really ready for the masses -- that is unless the problems I observed are specific to my Chromebook (which I highly doubt). The browser-based, Linux OS is still an early-adopter product -- the bleeding edge that cuts quick and sometimes deep. I'm not convinced even Chrome OS should have a future at all. But I can see where Google is going with this thing, particularly following last month's release of Chrome 14 with native code. I'd rather see one Google operating system -- Ice Cream Sandwich or successor running Chrome.
Sony announces Fall VAIO refresh
It must be Monday in Japan. Why else would Sony announce new laptops on a Sunday morning here? Today, the electronics company revealed autumn upgrades to its VAIO S & F series laptops and L desktop. The new systems are available immediately.
VAIO S series laptops come with 13.3-inch or 15.5-inch displays, with prices starting at $999. These models are thin, less than 1-inch thick, but nowhere as petite as Sony Z series notebooks. F series laptops are thicker, heavier and cheaper to buy. Prices start at $719, $749 and $799 for models with 14-inch, 15.5-inch and 17-inch displays, respectively.
Pale Moon 7 is fast, really fast
Firefox 7 was finally released this week, to promises of improved memory management and better performance than ever before.
But if it still doesn’t quite deliver the speed you need then you could always turn to Pale Moon 7, a browser that takes the same Firefox source code and makes more use of compiler optimizations to increase its speed and efficiency.
Your PC needs one of the 24 updates released this week
It was another busy seven days of software releases, with the much anticipated final build of Firefox 7 hitting the severs. With improved memory usage and performance, this is a great upgrade to the popular browser. Firefox Portable 7.0 was also released, and the relentless Firefox update cycle continues with the release of Firefox 8.0 Beta 1, Firefox Aurora 9.0a2, Firefox 10.0a1 (Nightly) and Firefox 10.0a1 UX, which is a sideline project of Nightly, introducing a brand new Firefox user-interface.
Also released by Mozilla is SeaMonkey 2.4.1, a suite of Internet tools including an email client, IRC client and web editor. Again a portable version is available in the form ofSeaMonkey Portable 2.4. Rounding up Mozilla’s trio of releases is Thunderbird 7. This email client includes more tools than ever to help you to manage your inbox and while many of the changes amount to little more than minor tweaks, this is now a solid and impressive piece of software. Fans of portable software will be pleased to know that Thunderbird Portable 7.0 has also been released.
Google Chrome usage rises as Firefox and Internet Explorer fall
Internet Explorer lost market share (again) in September, with Google Chrome collecting the difference. Meanwhile, Firefox share is stagnant, as Chrome pushes ever closer to the No. 2 spot in global browser usage share.
It's first day of the month, and that means new browser share data from Net Applications. Internet Explorer usage share is 54.39 percent, down from 60.35 percent in November 2010. Firefox fell to 22.48 percent from 23.52 percent during the same time period. September marked the fourth consecutive month of decline for Firefox. Meanwhile, Chrome usage share rose to 16.2 percent from 9.57 from November to September, consecutively gaining share for all 11 months.
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