Faster UK 4G from EE -- nice speed if you can get it
My colleague Mihaita Bamburic reported earlier on EE's rollout of faster 4G LTE services in 12 major UK cities with a potential to double current average internet speeds.
Despite the claims that this would make EE's mobile network unequaled in Europe I can't say I was especially excited by this news. Living as I do within 20 miles of one of those major cities -- Manchester -- it's sometimes hard to get a 3G signal here let alone 4G.
Put on your bell bottoms and grab Polamatic for Android
"You give us those nice bright colors. You give us the greens of summers". Sorry, wrong camera, but these trips down memory lane can get confusing as we grow older. No, the old Kodachrome may be dead, but Polaroid looms large in our nostalgic history and memories. It was a must have in its day, and remains today as an image (pun intended) of those bygone days of our youth -- okay, my youth, you may plead the fifth if you wish.
Now Appadana wants to confuse us old geezers by bringing back those days of yore with a Polaroid app for Android devices. Polamatic aims to recapture the good old days when muscle cars ruled the roads and disco took over the airwaves. Queue up your Donna Summer -- or Cheap Trick if your prefer -- and head over to Google Play for the opportunity of doing something you could have easily done years ago -- though for much more cost.
EE announces 'double speed 4G' in 12 major UK cities, new shared and pay as you go plans
On Wednesday, UK mobile operator EE (formerly known as Everything Everywhere) announced that, tomorrow, it will enable faster 4G cellular connectivity in twelve major local cities, with theoretical download speeds topping 150 Mbps.
The UK cities are Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield. EE says that, in practice, users should see "double the current average speeds to 24 - 30 Mbps". The UK mobile operator claims that this should make its 4G network "unequalled" on the old continent, "faster than mobile networks in the US and Japan, and equal to the best in South Korea".
Bitdefender Total Security 2014 review
When you buy a program with “Total” in the name then you probably expect a very complete feature list, and Bitdefender Total Security 2014 certainly does not disappoint in this regard: the suite offers antivirus, firewall, anti-spam, browsing and social networking protection, privacy tools, parental controls, online storage, anti-theft service, PC tuneup module and more.
And although some people prefer to ignore the frills and assess security packages on their core essentials, Bitdefender does just as well here. An AV-TEST report on Bitdefender Internet Security 2013, for instance, shows it detecting 100% of the test malware samples -- this program is strong on the basics, too.
Opera 15 is a fresh start, not the end
Opera Software made a bold move earlier this year when the company announced that it would use WebKit as its rendering engine and V8 as the JavaScript engine for all new products. Later on it revealed that it would follow Google and use the Blink Fork instead of WebKit, but that did not change the explosiveness of the move.
It took the Norwegian company five months to release the first final version of Opera for PCs that is powered by the new engines. While that seems like a long time for users who wanted to find out how the change would affect them personally, the development time is not that long.
Microsoft announces new Dynamics CRM to deliver improved customer experience
Microsoft has announced that it is releasing an updated version of its Dynamics CRM package in the fall of 2013. The new package is designed to help enterprises engage with their customers and will be available as both cloud and installed systems.
The refreshed version is designed to deliver a fast and fluid user experience, enabling people to access information that’s relevant to their jobs and have deeper insight into customer requirements. It also offers improved social collaboration features as well as the ability to access information on a variety of devices including Windows 8 tablets and iPads. Android, iPhone and Windows Phone 8 versions will be available shortly after the package's release.
Touchy subject -- How do you use Windows 8? [Poll]
Although Microsoft created Windows 8 with touch devices in mind, there weren’t actually all that many Windows friendly touch screen PCs and tablets available at launch.
Since then of course, every manufacturer -- including Microsoft -- has rolled out devices designed to take advantage of the touch features built into the OS. We’ve seen regular PCs with touch screens, tablets, hybrids, and all manner of weird and wonderful variations.
A unicorn named Ouya knocks on my door
Hope is not yet lost. Though I pre-ordered, and paid, on day one, my Ouya console languished in Never-Never Land, perhaps cavorting with its brethren, the Lost Boys. This was a point of pain for more than just me, as other early backers of the little Android game box also failed to receive promised deliveries, despite the console becoming available in the local big-box store.
The anticipation, and mounting frustration, came to a close as my console came knocking on my door in the guise of a delivery man. It is here and sitting in my living room, still housed in its cozy little box, though that will be changing when I get a few spare minutes later today. At that point the review begins, and I will give it a few days before taking to this mini-series again to give impressions -- fairness is in order for any bit of technology and judgement should not be rushed, despite frustration caused by overdue deliveries and unkept promises.
Emsisoft Anti-Malware 8.0 improves cleaning, reduces memory usage
Emsisoft of Thalgau, Austria, released Emsisoft Anti-Malware 8.0, a major new version of its dual-engine protection tool for Windows. It is designed to run alongside existing security products and offer extra lines of defences against malware.
Version 8.0, which uses BitDefender's scanning engine alongside Emsisoft's own, promises to cut memory usage for faster, leaner performance, improved malware cleaning, user-interface tweaks and more.
Microsoft's experience shows us what to expect from Oracle's Java 'security push'
It has been a very rough year for Java from a security point of view.
Two-thousand thirteen started with a number of zero-day attacks targeting Java, including those that resulted in breaches at Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and Twitter. As the year went on, the Department of Homeland Security and others recommended disabling or even uninstalling Java. Apple went so far as to effectively block the Java 7 web plugins twice in one month on OS X. As the security situation around Java seemed to deteriorate, the criticism of and frustration with Oracle continued to increase.
Bing introduces Usage Rights to image search
Looking for a cool image to add to your blog? Need that perfect picture for your new business presentation? It sounds simple enough, but in many cases you could be breaking the law, as many images on the internet are simply not free to use and rights must be checked. Bing now wants to help you with that.
The search engine introduces a new option to its web service -- Usage Rights. "We are excited to offer the 'Search by License' feature for Bing image search. At Bing, we love helping creative artists whether you’re a blogger, teacher, student or even a small business owner looking to market your latest creation", says Bing Images Program Manager Rizwan Ansary.
Windows Store now offers 100,000 apps, but quality concerns remain
Every Friday, my colleague Martin Brinkmann details the best Windows 8 apps that surface in Store during the week. I have closely followed the series mostly to check new arrivals (since I use Windows 8) but also to get a feel of the quality and value that developers bring to the new ecosystem.
As some of you have mentioned in the comments, the highlighted apps are not exactly up to par with offerings available on Apple App Store or Google Play. The most noteworthy ones are few and far between, something that is immediately noticeable after browsing through the available selection on Windows Store. The most resounding apps come, for instance, from Microsoft, Nokia, Shazam, Twitter and a couple other major players. There is more to it, of course, but the quality and value are still inadequate these days.
Stable Opera 15 arrives with new features and rendering engine
Just a month after unveiling the first beta to the public, Opera Software has released Opera 15.0 FINAL. The latest version of the browser receives a complete reboot, sporting a different rendering engine, revamped interface and a number of new features.
The new release does not spell the end of the previous version, however, with Opera 12.15 FINAL still available (and due to receive an update shortly) for those reluctant to move on.
AltaVista goes to great server in the sky
Let us pause for a moment to remember AltaVista. Current owner Yahoo quietly announced in a blog post at the end of last week that the once popular search engine is to close on July 8. The news was tucked away in a raft of other closure announcements. Users will be redirected to Yahoo Search.
It's hard to appreciate now that in the days before Google's algorithm made the fast indexing of large numbers of sites possible, searching the web was something of a hit and miss affair. Search engines relied on fixed indexes that were slow to update and found it hard to cope with the rapidly increasing number of sites.
Microsoft waves bye-bye to TechNet customers
On the heels of the death of Google Reader, Microsoft chooses to make cuts of its own, though which will weigh heavier on customers remains to be seen. Microsoft operates a pair of subscription services designed to help out developers and system administrators, but today announces one will be joining its version of the Google Graveyard.
Today, emails began rolling out to TechNet subscribers announcing the death of the service. The message informs users of impending doom arriving on August 31 of this year.
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