Amazon launches Prime video streaming on Xbox 360
Amazon has been in the business of streaming video since 2008, and has offered its streaming on demand platform as a subscription service for a little less than a year-and-a-half. Today, Amazon's Prime Instant Video service launched on the venerable Xbox 360.
Xbox Live Gold members have had access to Netflix and NBC Universal content on their 360s for nearly four years, and in that time, the service has grown to include ESPN, Crackle, Epix, SyFy, Hulu Plus and more. Today's addition of Amazon Prime on Demand adds approximately 17,000 titles to the mix.
Is Israel behind the 'Flame' worm?
Security researchers are warning of what they call one of the most sophisticated worms to date, and believe that this time, the worm may be the work of a nation-state rather than hackers. Called "Flame", the Trojan has hit Middle Eastern countries particularly hard, most notably Iran.
According to Kaspersky, Flame is capable of stealing "computer display contents, information about targeted systems, stored files, contact data and even audio conversations". The worm appears to be targeted to specific computers, likely indicating its creators are searching for specific information.
Is Samsung Chromebook Series 5 550 worth spending $549?
Google and Samsung couldn't have done more to hide the second-generation Chromebook and new Chromebox during Consumer Electronics Show 2012 in January. They're cloaked no longer, as I explain in my "Samsung Chromebook Series 5 550 first-impressions review". The products launched today, and they're worth a look. But is the new Chromebook worth buying?
Everyone should ask first about performance, because by the specs Samsung's new Chromebook is an under-performer -- Celeron processor in an Core i-processor world. But there are different measures of performance, and only one really matters: Is it good enough for what it's meant to do? I partly answer the question in my review, but the topic is so important for this computer I've dedicated another post just to it. Quick answer: Performance is good enough. However, price-performance is another matter.
Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook first-impressions review
Today, Google and Samsung officially launch the second-generation Chromebook, starting with the Series 5 550, which like its predecessor comes in WiFi-only and 3G combo models. I had the pleasure of using the new Chromebook for the past week as my only PC. The overall user experience is surprisingly satisfying and refreshing. In a computer market dominated by Mac and Windows, Chromebook is freedom from duopolies that define the experience within walled gardens and around desktop applications. But changes introduced with Chrome OS 19 make the user experience much more desktop-like, as Google cedes some of the browser motif for familiarity and usability, with multitasking being high among the reasons.
If you read no further, the answer to your question is this: Yes, you can use Chromebook Series 5 550 as your primary, and only, PC. Google has succeeded offering online and offline capabilities balanced to most computing needs, while keeping cloud benefits primary but seamlessly integrated. For two months last summer, I used the original Samsung Series 5 Chromebook as my primary PC, in the first weeks and as my only one later on. I'll repeat the experiment at least through the end of June, and I might not go back -- strange, considering new OS X and Windows versions debut within months. That commitment says much about my positive first impressions.
Meet Samsung Series 3 Chromebox
Chrome OS is taking up new residence. Today Google and Samsung launch Chromebox, a Mac mini-like computer to which buyers attach keyboard, mouse and monitor. The idea isn't novel: Users keep their existing peripherals while upgrading hardware and migrating to a spanking new operating system. For anyone looking to get off the OS X or Windows train, Chromebox proves to be an affordable alternative running Google's browser-boasting, cloud-connected Linux-based OS.
Samsung Series 3 Chromebox joins Samsung's second-generation Chromebook, the Series 5 500, also launched today, and it's a bargain by comparison -- $329 versus $449 for WiFi-only laptop and $549 for 3G combo. The chromebox also sports a faster processor, 1.9GHz vs 1.3GHz for Chromebook. The cloud-computing device, now with loads of local functionality and storage, is well-suited for educational institutions and small businesses.
Facebook IPO destroyed investor confidence in social networks, says Vkontakte CEO
Pavel Durov, the outspoken founder and CEO of popular Russian social network VKontakte says the site's initial public offering has been indefinitely postponed due to a chilling effect caused by the Facebook IPO, which has been called the worst performing IPO of the last decade.
VKontakte (VK) is not nearly as large as Facebook in membership, but it has remained one of the top 50 most popular sites in the world for several years, and is Russia's fourth most-popular site altogether.
Is Intel Inside iPad, iPhone a pipedream?
Intel CEO Paul Otellini told investors this month that Apple could build its iPad and iPhone lineup on the Atom family of microprocessors any time it wants to. And he’s going to do everything in his power to make that prospect so enticing that Apple can’t refuse. Pipedream? Not hardly.
Now, I understand why some of you would consider this to be pure fantasy. Intel has been trying to pry its way into the smartphone and tablet markets for five years now, and until this year the company has had little to show for it.
Space Invaders OpenGL is all retro fun
If you’ve played a few PC-based recreations of Space Invaders then you’ll know they can be, well, more than a little basic. And that’s a shame. Sure, we know the 1978 arcade original wasn’t exactly a visual feast, but that’s no excuse for the basic graphics and dull soundtrack you so often see in more modern versions.
At first glance, it didn’t look as though Space Invaders OpenGLwas going to do much to change our views. A portable game, its single executable is only 662KB in size, which doesn’t exactly leave much room for extras. (To put that in perspective, Civilization V’s music files alone require more than 1,500 times as much hard drive space.)
Why aren't you reading this story on Samsung Galaxy S III?
If you live in parts of Europe, the Middle East or Asia, arguably the hottest smartphone on the planet is selling out fast, and, whoa, it's not iPhone 4S. May 29 dawned on the continent to a new day for Samsung smartphones and sunset for Apple's flagship, which is oh-so similar to the one released in early 2010. Buyers looking for freedom from the walled garden or simply stunning software innovation can choose to "think different", borrowing the long-discarded Apple marketing phrase.
Twenty-six days ago, I asked: "Is iPhone 4 obsolete?" Nearly 2,000 of you answered "Yes" -- that's 65 percent -- by saying you will buy Galaxy S III. Now remains the question: How many of you planning to buy, really will do so?
Here's an iOS app for our UK readers -- HMRC Tax Calc
How much tax are you going to be paying over the coming year? It’s not always the happiest news, but it’s the sort of things that it is certainly best to know in advance -- rather get the bad news now than get a nasty surprise further down the line. HMRC Tax Calc is a free app for iOS from HMRC which can be used to work out how much tax you’re going to be paying from your wages each week or month as well as showing you what this means for your annual tax bill.
The app is designed for people whose tax situation is fairly simple -- if you have anything other than a tax code of 810L or a National Insurance letter A, you’re going to have to look elsewhere to have your tax calculations done for you. All you need to do it tap in your gross pay or wages along with how many hours a week you work, and everything else will be done for you. At a glance you can see how much of your earnings are tax free and where all the rest goes.
VisiPics quickly finds duplicate photos
You started off with good intentions, creating a neat image library where all your digital photos are properly organized in sensibly-named folders. But the organization probably didn’t last. It’s all too easy to drag and drop images to other folders, resave them in other formats or resolutions, maybe rework them with minor edits, and before you know it your hard drive is cluttered with a host of duplicate (or very similar) images.
Locating these files manually can be tricky, but fortunately there are some very capable tools around which can do most of the hard work for you. And VisiPics is one of the most interesting. It’s not been updated for a very long time (the current release dates back to 2008), but the program worked just fine on our Windows 7 test PC and still has the power to clean up your photo library.
TED Notepad is more intelligent
If you’ve tried a few Notepad replacements before then you’ll know they’re usually aimed at a fairly technical audience. And so top-of-the-features-list will be items like “code folding” or “syntax highlighting”, which is fine if you’re a developer, but not quite as interesting for everybody else.
TED Notepad is a little different. It’s not short on developer-friendly options -- it’s easy to play around with indents, search and replace supports regular expressions, you can even add custom scripts or programs to process text according to your own rules -- but you don’t have to get into these complexities, unless you really want to. And so the program is just as appealing to regular users who want something like Notepad, but a little more powerful.
Take one of these 27 downloads out for a spin
May is coming to a close, and as June beckons there are still countless software releases to keep track of. If you’ve had trouble keeping up with everything, this handy roundup is here to bring you up to speed.
This past week saw the release of WikidPad 2.1_01, a wiki-style text editor that can be used to capture thoughts and ideas -- stored locally or exported as an HTML file to upload to the web. If you need to store reminders of things you need to do and appointments you need to attend, PNotes 9.0.107 is a great sticky note tool that may be able to help you out. There’s also PNotes Portable 9 for anyone who likes the idea of running the same program from a USB drive. If pictures are more important to you than words, Juicebox 1.0.2 can be used to create a stunning gallery to show off your digital photos -- all in HTML5 glory.
Smartphones put privacy on the tsunami hazard map
Now, finally, the tide of public opinion on Internet privacy begins to flow in the other direction. Consumers are becoming more hesitant to share their data and are less tolerant when those with access to their data violate trust. That presents a tremendous threat to some of the titans of our day -- and an equally monstrous opportunity for others. Apple, Google, are you listening?
Honestly, I’m amazed that the issue was ever able to germinate and flower, particularly here in the United States, a country that distinguishes itself on the right to privacy. And a country that spent much of the last century wringing its collective hands over the Orwellian nightmare that awaited us down the road of technological advancement.
Get organized with WikiPad
Wikis are normally all about group collaboration, but it doesn’t have to be that way. WikidPad is a simple text editor that allows you to construct a custom personal wiki on your own PC, perfect for organizing thoughts, ideas, to-do lists, contacts and more.
How does it work? Suppose you need to buy a few birthday presents for someone. Just enter BirthdayPresents in the start page, and because that’s a mixed-case “wikiword” it’ll be automatically underlined; double-click it and a new page called “BirthdayPresents” will appear in the navigation pane. You can click this and enter new text there; you might add subpages below that one with, perhaps, possible present ideas; and if you type BirthdayPresents on some other page then it’ll automatically act as a link to your new page.
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