Clarizen links with JIRA to streamline development
Work collaboration and project management specialist Clarizen has announced that it now provides connectivity to JIRA, Atlassian's bug and issue tracking software. The integration allows users to plan projects, portfolios, resources, budgets and more, while seamlessly integrating research and development activities from JIRA to Clarizen and vice versa.
"While Clarizen customers appreciate our native functionality, they are also looking for ways to seamlessly interact with their other mission-critical systems," says Guy Shani, chief strategy officer at Clarizen. "A core part of our business is to continually support the needs of our customers, so we listened to those who have standardized on JIRA in their R&D environment. Rather than managing bugs and issues in a silo, our new integration allows the data to sync with broader projects and cross-departmental teams using Clarizen. The bi-directional nature of the integration now closes the loop between project management and R&D, allowing teams to fully implement agile methodologies".
Amazon announces all-new Kindle Fires -- faster performance, better screens
It’s all about tablets this week as following on from Microsoft’s Surface reveal, Amazon today announces three new Kindle Fires -- the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD, and the Kindle Fire HDX, in 7 and 8.9-inch sizes. The new devices offer a slimmer design, better screens, faster hardware and an updated OS.
The $139 Kindle Fire HD has a high-definition display with 1280 by 800 resolution and 216ppi -- 66 percent more pixels than the previous generation Kindle Fire. It’s powered by a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor, and has dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus audio.
Google (arguably) improves YouTube commenting with censorship
I am a big fan of YouTube. I particularly enjoy videos by iJustine and Chris Pirillo. While the videos are great, the comments usually aren't. Quite frankly, YouTube comments are often vulgar, racist and upsetting -- an overall blemish on humanity in my opinion.
Today, Google announces that "starting this week, you’ll see the new YouTube comments powered by Google+ on your channel discussion tab. This update will come to comments on all videos later this year, as we bring you more ways to connect with familiar faces on YouTube."
Microsoft's Surface 2 lineup can win you over, but it won't
If we are to believe all the comments posted on the Interwebs by Microsoft fanboys, then the Surface lineup should have delivered two of the most popular tablets on the market and Apple and Android OEMs should have gone out of business by now. But, once reality sets in and we overlook the silly one-sided comments, people just don't care enough about Microsoft's slates -- the 4.5 percent Windows market share, from IDC's Q2 2013 report, coupled with the $0.9 billion write-off speak for themselves.
Now there's a second-generation Surface lineup which was unveiled yesterday, comprised of Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2, that quietly wants to change people's perception about Windows-based slates and their preference towards Android tablets and iPads. On paper, the new Surfaces look great. Microsoft appears to have gotten the hint -- more power, more battery life, more versatile kickstand, more accessories. The new Surface lineup is simply "more" than its predecessor. Yet I don't think many people will notice that and rush to pre-order now or buy on sales day.
Google apologizes for yesterday's lengthy Gmail outage
The response to an apparent Gmail issue seems mixed here at BetaNews -- some claim to have experienced email delays, while others noticed nothing. But, regardless of how real or wide-spread the problem was, a problem did exist and Google would like to explain how it happened in an effort to retain trust in its email service.
"We’d like to start by apologizing -- we realize that our users rely on Gmail to be always available and always fast, and for several hours we didn’t deliver. We have analyzed what happened, and we’ll tell you about it", begins Sabrina Farmer, Senior Site Reliability Engineering Manager for Gmail.
Apple's iPhone 5s failure
If a prominent analyst's sales estimates are correct, Apple hit, at best, a single rather than homer launching iPhone 5s and 5c. Yesterday, the company announced first-weekend sales of 9 million, which compares to 5 million for iPhone 5 a year earlier. But today, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster tells Bloomberg:
"When I saw that 9-million number, I basically fell out of my chair. But you have to put that 9 million in context here". Apple's so-called sales includes "channel fill of the 5c". Based on that, the real number of total new iPhone sales was "closer to five-and-a-half million". I cannot overstate what the number really means for the launch.
Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements gain new mobile-friendly features
Adobe has released brand new versions of its consumer-level photo-editing and video-editing suites with the launch of Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 and Adobe Premiere Elements 12.
Version 12 of both suites add mobile-friendly features and a number of new editing tools, but critically remain standalone applications, allowing users to purchase them outright as opposed to signing up for an ongoing cloud subscription.
Apple updates iMac range with four new models
We're delighting in iOS 7 (mostly) and enjoying our new iPhones. Thanks Apple! As if this wasn’t enough, there are now new updated iMacs coming out from the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant. All told, there are four new models: two 21.5-inch and two 27-inch variants, with entry-level and high-end versions of each to choose from.
All four iMacs feature updated quad-core Intel Core i5 processors, and graphics and Wi-Fi have also been enhanced. With support for next generation 802.11ac, wireless performance is improved by up to three times. There's also support for faster PCIe-based flash storage, with a claimed speed boost of 50 percent. Graphics performance has been improved across the board with new chips from Intel and NVIDIA to be found throughout the range. No sign of Mavericks yet; the new iMacs are supplied with Mountain Lion.
Will you buy Surface 2?
11 months ago my colleague Joe Wilcox asked BetaNews readers if they intended to buy Surface RT. Then a month later he posed the same question for Surface Pro. Out of the 2,753 responses to the first question, a sizable 61.75 percent said they would buy the tablet at some point. Which, judging from the poor sales Surface RT experienced, may have been over optimistic. Unless a large portion of the RT tablets Microsoft sold were snapped up by BetaNews readers…
The positive response was echoed in the Surface Pro poll, with a whopping 73.4 percent of 2,165 responders saying they would buy the flagship tablet, and just 16 percent giving a definite no (10.67 percent were uncertain). Clearly this shows people like the idea of Surface, and are enthusiastic about it, but just not enthusiastic enough to get their wallets out.
O&O Defrag 17 now available; securely wipes free drive space
O&O Software has announced the release of O&O Defrag 17, the latest edition of the company’s powerful defrag tool.
Top of the new features list this time is the ability to securely wipe your hard drive’s free space while defragging, ensuring snoopers won’t be able to recover confidential files.
Surface Blades -- true innovation from Microsoft
Many years ago, my parents bought me the Atari Jaguar. While the system proved to be a failure, one of its features stuck with me as fascinating. Games could come with plastic inserts that fit over the controller's buttons. This enabled a game developer to enhance the experience of the game by offering visual representations of things like bombs and missiles instead of just pressing "1" or "2".
During yesterday's Surface 2 event, Microsoft announced a new accessory called The Surface Remix Project. This accessory plugs into the Surface keyboard port and replicates hardware buttons that a music producer or electronic performer may use. It may prove popular with professional musicians and amateurs alike. While making music may be well and good, you would be short-sighted to think it ends there.
Microsoft's Surface 2 tablet lineup now available to pre-order
Today Microsoft opens the pre-order books for its second-generation Surface lineup. The two slates, Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2, come with major under-the-hood and external changes, including beefed-up processors that are faster and help deliver better battery life and revisions to the built-in kickstand, as well as a slew of new accessories.
Surface 2 comes with the most noteworthy improvements of the two new slates. It now sports an Nvidia Tegra 4 processor which Microsoft says is up to four times faster than the Tegra 3 chip from the old generation, offers 25 percent more battery life, comes with a two-angle kickstand and features a full HD -- 1920 by 1080 resolution -- display which, again, is better than before (Surface RT's panel has a lower resolution of 1366 by 768). Pricing starts at $449 for the base 32 GB model. The 64 GB model costs $549.
Remotely add password protection to your lost or stolen Android phone
Protecting your phone may well be something you don’t think about until it is too late. I'm one of those people who can't stand PIN protection on phones -- heck, I hate the lock screen… I just want to switch on and start using my phone! For people like me, there is a new feature in the superbly useful Android Device Manager. This free tool was released back at the beginning of August, but there's now an interesting new option that has been quietly added.
Previously when you lost your phone you had a couple of options -- call it to locate it, or remotely wipe it (which is quite an extreme length to go to). Now when you head to the Android Device Manager Page you'll find a new feature in the form of device locking. But how does this work if you have not enabled locking on your handset?
SteamOS brings Linux to your television
Last year, Gabe Newell of Valve infamously called Windows 8 "a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space". However, this was not just lip service -- the company put its money where its mouth is and released its game-distribution service, Steam, for Linux. Today, Valve takes this a step further and announces a new Linux-distribution called SteamOS.
"As we've been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we've come to the conclusion that the environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself. SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen. It will be available soon as a free stand-alone operating system for living room machines", says the company.
Blackberry may have found a buyer -- but is there any value left?
Technology moves at a feverish pace. It feels like only yesterday that the iconic Blackberry was the market leader for smartphones. However, fast-forward to 2013 and we see a struggling company laying off 4,500 employees and losing close to a billion dollars in one quarter alone. On August 13, Blackberry (formerly known as RIM) announced the possibility of selling itself, hinting at strategic alternatives.
Today, Blackberry announces that "it has signed a letter of intent agreement under which a consortium to be led by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited has offered to acquire the company subject to due diligence". In other words, it is exploring being bought by Fairfax.
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