Existential crisis: A tablet with a keyboard dock is just a PC, right?
Post-PC is a lifestyle I do not strive toward and I have very good reasons for that. Yet after buying my Galaxy Nexus, I started toying with the idea that maybe a tablet is not such a bad idea after all. I will not concede to the concept of a tablet being suited for all tasks, yet I can accept it for what it is -- a toy. I have not self-medicated, nor did I happen to change overnight, but there is a logic to my madness.
I am the type of person that gets easily bored by using the same thing over and over again, be it software or hardware, and it would only be a logical step to assume that a new device could put an end to my unconscious --or most likely conscious-- quest to find the perfect anti-boredom device. My needs are rather specific, and I struggle to find the reason why I would rationally want to make the switch to an all-purpose tablet, and there isn't one.
Incumbent mentality drives the wireless communications industry to the crisis point
It's been almost three years since the Federal Communications Commission began warning us that we are consuming more wireless bandwidth than the airwaves can support, and in those three years, relatively little has changed to fix the situation. Lightsquared attempted to cleverly utilize satellite-band spectrum to build a ground-based 4G network, but those attempts were squashed by the GPS lobby, and could take another five years to come back.
The FCC is still on its quest to free up a total of 300 MHz of wireless spectrum by 2015 for mobile broadband data services, but time is rapidly running out on that promise. Last Wednesday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the commission would be updating its wireless spectrum policies by the end of the year to help free up about 100MHz worth of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band.
Google+ signups top 400M, but only 100M active users
On September 20, 2011, Google+ opened to the public, after nearly three months of closed beta. To mark the year anniversary, today the search giant released new data that initially bodes well for the first year while raising questions about the service's real success.
"This week we also hit an important milestone--over 400,000,000 people have upgraded to Google+", senior vice president of engineering boasts. "Here too, I’m happy to report that we have just crossed 100,000,000 monthly active users on Google+ (plus.google.com and mobile app)". What? Only one in four are active?
Google, Acer and the joke that is the Open Handset Alliance
Google is the center of a controversy about Acer's cancelled Aliyun OS phone launch, and there is seemingly no end to punditry about the search giant applying pressure, possibly even making threats. At the end of the day the whole mess has very little to do with whether or not Google is tightening its leash or if the issues at hand are all about piracy, as Google Android chief Andy Rubin claims.
Acer openly violated rules set forth by the Open Handset Alliance, and Google made the device manufacturer aware of the consequences. Unfortunately, Google being the one to speak shines a spotlight on a much deeper issue with the Open Handset Alliance.
Don't have Windows 8? Use WinCDE to muount disc images
Windows 8 has many interesting new features, and one small but particularly welcome example will see the system able to mount ISO images for easier browsing.
Sounds good to us. If you don’t plan on upgrading any time soon, though, you could achieve something very similar just by installing a copy of the open-source WinCDEmu.
Aliens zapped my toaster, or why you should care about space weather
The launch of the iPhone 5, and the fuss that’s being made over it (wow, 2 million sales in 24 hours) shows once again how far IT is embedded in every part of our lives. How lost would we be without any of the electronic kit and systems we so depend on? Even your toaster likely has a microprocessor embedded in it. And all of that makes us very vulnerable in ways that were almost totally unknown to our grandfathers. It’s not the natural world that has changed. It’s us.
You may remember that a few weeks ago there were widely publicized warnings of a solar storm which, in the end, had limited effects. And no doubt this caused many people to think that solar storms are never what you might call a real and serious problem. But consider this: 153 years ago, beginning on August 28th 1859, a super space storm occurred of such proportions as to make Hurricane Katrina look like a minor inconvenience.
Steve Ballmer hints at Microsoft Surface costing $300-$800
Rumors of a $199 Microsoft Surface RT tablet popped up on the Web a month ago, feeding the idea of a cheap and even subsidized Microsoft tablet that would take the pricing war to any device from the Google Nexus 7 to Apple's new iPad. In an interview for The Seattle Times, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer mentioned a new price range for the the company's Windows 8 device, putting the previous rumors of a $199 Microsoft tablet to rest.
Even though Microsoft did not announce the pricing, when asked about Surface, Steve Ballmer said that it would go for "probably $300 to about $700 or $800," giving a rough estimate of what potential buyers should expect to pay for the much discussed tablet. The previous rumors might be dust in the wind after the latest "estimate," but at the same time it calls for speculation justified by the $500 difference which isn't unsubstantial to say the least.
Pale Moon 15.1 fixes big bugs
Firefox-variant Pale Moon 15.1 for Windows has been released, promising to resolve a “fairly large number of issues with the initial version”. Version 15.1, also available as a dedicated 64-bit build, includes fixes for the mouse wheel scrolling preferences, memory inflation while playing some canvas games and a fix for private browsing mode.
Pale Moon, which is optimized for speed and efficiency, offers a lightweight, fast variant to Firefox. This latest build comes after version 15.0 was released at the end of last month.
Apple claims two million iPhone 5 pre-orders in 24 hours
Who would have guessed after the less-than-mesmerizing announcement of the iPhone 5 that it would be the most popular smartphone from Apple yet?
Apple iPhone 5 pre-orders topped 2 million in a 24 hour period according to the Cupertino, Calif.-based corporation. Apple's latest smartphone is apparently twice as popular as its previous model, the iPhone 4S which managed one million pre-orders for the same period of time.
Why won't Google pull that offensive YouTube video?
Let’s everybody beat up on YouTube for not pulling that offensive anti-Muslim video that is infuriating people around the world. No, wait. As disturbing as this story is let’s instead take a moment to try and figure what’s really happening and why YouTube and its parent Google are behaving this way.
It’s easy to blame Google’s algorithmic obsession for this mess, but I don’t think that’s at work here at all. Yes, Google is very good (which means very bad in this case) at blaming one algorithm or another for pissing-off users. Google customer support is, in a word, terrible for this very reason, and it often seems like they don’t even care. But this case is different, because it has less to do with algorithms than it has to do with intellectual property laws.
Google ends Internet Explorer 8 support on Google Apps
Last year Venkat Panchapakesan, Google Vice President of Engineering announced the company's plan to limit support to modern browsers across Google Apps. To support modern web apps, support for browsers not supporting technologies like HTML5 had to be discontinued. Examples given at that time included desktop notifications or drag-and-drop file uploading, which both require browsers supporting HTML5.
For that reason, Google made the decision to support only the current and previous major version of a web browser. When a new major version of a browser gets released, support for the third oldest version gets discontinued automatically.
Motorola Droid Razr HD Developer Edition is coming
Motorola recently introduced the new Droid Razr HD family of smartphones, and to top off the recent announcement the Droid Razr HD Developer Edition looks ready to join the group.
What you will get is exactly the same device as the more "common" Droid Razr HD with an unlocked bootloader thrown into the mix. The result? A modding-friendly Motorola smartphone, and if the older Motorola Droid Razr Developer Edition is of any indication there will be no warranty and a hefty price tag.
HP's next attempt at a smartphone could target the developing world
After acquiring Palm, releasing a scant few smartphones, then terminating the business and open sourcing webOS, Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman now says the company isn't done with the smartphone business yet. In a television interview this week, Whitman said her company "took a detour into smartphones" and that it has no other option but to release a smartphone because in many developing markets, that is the primary computing device.
This is something we've heard from all kinds of technology companies and international development groups for the last few years, following more than a decade of attempts at bringing better computing capabilities to emerging markets. In many of these places, the notebook computer simply did not exhibit the same impact that mobile communications devices did.
Grab all Instagram pics from any user
From Justin Bieber to Selena Gomez, Rihanna to Barack Obama, just about everyone is using Instagram to share photos these days. And if you’d like to get a closer look at the contents of any particular account then all you need is a copy of the Free Instagram Downloader.
To get started, just click “Input User Name” and enter the user name of the account you’re interested in. If no-one comes to mind, try MTV, say, or perhaps TaylorSwift.
Windows 8 is a graphic shift in computing habits
Last in a series. If you read tech blogs as much as I do I am sure you have seen a number of articles criticizing Windows 8. Among these are articles that focus on the overall design of the Modern UI and its numerous inconsistencies. I saw a forum post on one website claiming that visual designers hate Windows 8?
The reason, hold on to your seat because this one is a doozy: the Modern UI design language has done away with drop shadows and realistic looking icons; in other words, the interface looks nothing like the skeuomorphic interfaces of Apple and to some degree, Google.
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