Android faces a tougher battle, with Verizon and Mozilla backing LiMo
The road ahead for Google's Linux platform for mobile devices just got a little cloudier, with two of the companies whose allegiance it would need to ensure its success, this morning announcing they're backing its principal competitor.
If Google thought it would have a cakewalk in its efforts to advance an open mobile smartphone platform based on Linux, it's realizing now it may need more traction. This morning, the LiMo Foundation -- comprised of both hardware and software vendors with a stake in Linux on cell phones -- added several more powerhouse members to its coalition, including memory maker Infineon, major US telco Verizon, and Firefox browser maker Mozilla.
Samsung and LG join forces to combat Qualcomm, DVB-H on US mobile DTV
An agreement between Korea's principal developers of mobile digital television technology has paved the way for a direct agreement between them and the US' leading broadcasters for a standard to compete with cell phones and satellite.
Next February, American analog television stations will cease transmission, as their broadcasters complete their move to an all-digital standard on new frequencies, using the ATSC DTV broadcasting standard. So there will already be one over-the-airwaves standard for US broadcasters, and very likely Canadian. This has left many wondering, does there really need to be a second or even third standard exclusively for mobile digital television?
Dell denies it's phasing out its XPS systems early
While the enthusiast community was puzzling over how an entire product line that just replaced its flagship desktop only two weeks ago was being canceled, Dell found itself quelling yet another false rumor propagated by a major news source.
In a blog post yesterday evening inspired partly by BetaNews' inquiries yesterday, Dell spokesperson Anne Camden flatly dismissed as "incorrect" a Wall Street Journal story Tuesday that stated the company was making plans to phase out its premium XPS systems, beginning with four models next month.
Next Office:Mac will bring back VBA support
The Mac business users' community was in an uproar two years ago over the removal of a key feature of Office that was created, ironically, for Windows. Now, the company that "listens to its customers" is finding a way to restore it.
Easily Office 2008's most lamented missing feature for Mac users, the lack of support for Visual Basic for Applications -- Microsoft's first, best genuine effort at making its principal application engines cross-platform -- will return in the next edition of the product, according to an announcement this morning by the Mac Business Unit of Microsoft.
Stalemate on terrestrial radio royalties tightens with new Senate bill
On one side of the issue is the poor artist who never sees more than a dime for her work. On the other is the poor broadcaster struggling to earn a profit in a changing radio landscape. And in the middle of it all, as always, is Congress.
Last November, opponents of US House legislation to lift the exemption for terrestrial radio stations from paying performance royalties for recorded music, advanced a draft resolution pledging that the House would never pass such a measure, directly calling such royalties a "fee" and indirectly calling them a "tax." With little change on that front in the House, the stagnation now finds itself being duplicated in the Senate, with a proposal yesterday for an identically worded, possibly non-binding, resolution.
Microsoft sets higher prices for SBS, Essential server packages
There will be quite a bit more added to Microsoft's upcoming mostly-preconfigured packages of Windows Server 2008 for small and medium businesses; but it will expect those firms to pay quite a bit more as well.
Last February, we learned Microsoft would be devoting more humanpower and resources to the task of marketing specially configured Windows Server 2008 packages for small and medium business. Today, we know what it expects those SMBs to pay, releasing details on suggested prices for four configurations for two to four servers and five clients apiece minimum, ranging from just over a thousand dollars to over $7,000.
Gates gives first hints 'Windows 7' beta cycle could begin soon
If what the Microsoft chairman said last week in Tokyo is to be taken seriously, then the beta cycle for the next version of Windows must begin in a matter of weeks. If no such announcement happens, then the Gates era is truly over.
What will likely be Bill Gates' last Asian tour as Chairman of Microsoft has already generated plenty of news, especially with his public display of walking away from the Yahoo deal. But now that Microsoft has released its transcript of Gates' speech in Tokyo last Wednesday, prior to his press conference where the focus was on his Yahoo comments, we realize that he had intended to make news on a different front.
Google's Picasa sends its last 'Hello' on May 15
Obsolescence comes in many forms, one being the natural kind, the other planned. Then there's the suddenly, unexpectedly enforced kind, which is rarer but which reared its ugly head today with one of Google's more innovative, but old, ideas.
Of the dozens of Google experiments over the years, some in "beta" and some in "release" form, not all survive to adolescence. One that is due to expire next week is Hello, an interesting take on person-to-person photo sharing that, on its face, sounded like a good idea.
Microsoft to release Office 2007 SP1 via Automatic Update in June
Five months after the first service pack for Office 2007 was made generally available to customers, the company has determined it will be safe to provide it over its automatic update service.
The original intent of Automatic Updates was to ease the burden of ensuring clients had the latest software, especially security patches. But with the growing variety of permutations of Windows installations, any problems clients might find with their automatically updated systems can only be tracked and identified through extensive field testing.
Dueling approaches to net neutrality clash in US House
Should the FCC be the final authority deciding just what constitutes "net neutrality," and how ISPs should be punished if they fail to provide it? Or would you rather the matter be resolved in the federal court system?
What congresspeople are mostly in agreement with is the notion that there should be a level playing field with regard to government's treatment of Internet Service Providers. What they've been arguing about over the last several years is where that field should be situated, who gets to pay for it, and who gets to do the nasty job of leveling it. That argument entered a new phase yesterday on Capitol Hill with the re-introduction of net neutrality legislation that failed in the last Congress.
Latest XNA Game Studio CTP adds support for Zune games
Download XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP from BetaNews FileForum now.
The next phase in Microsoft's efforts to scale games across Windows to a certain portable device, begins this week with the introduction of a preview of the next XNA Game Studio. But as we discovered, it could use some help.
Internet Archive emerges victorious in national security row with the FBI
A National Security Letter was issued last year to the Internet Archive, seeking information about what it called a "subscriber" in conjunction with an anti-terrorism investigation. The IA challenged the letter, and as we learned yesterday, it won.
Last November, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation served a National Security Letter (NSL) to the Internet Archive, the project to preserve much of the Internet's content at various stages in his history, as a perpetual online museum. The letter appeared to contain boilerplate language that would normally be used in requests to ISPs for national security information, as this one did request certain data about so-called "subscribers."
Vietnamese Firefox 2 users were given malicious content
About 17,000 users of Vietnamese-language Firefox may have been wondering why their systems keep pulling up these video game cheat Web sites at random, for the past two months. But Mozilla didn't know what was up until last Tuesday.
The executable code for a Vietnamese language pack for Firefox 2 was the apparent victim of a virus located on the hard drive of its sole author. As a result, Windows Firefox users with the Vietnamese language pack have been victims of malicious page redirects, apparently since last February.
Opera browser now has its own alternative to Firefox' Firebug
Recently, Opera's developers have been touting it as the most compliant browser with Web standards. Now they're using that as leverage to help introduce Dragonfly, a tool they hope will promote Opera as a kind of standards watchdog.
Easily among the most useful and well thought-out extensions to Mozilla Firefox has been Firebug, an add-on by independent developer Joe Hewitt which instantly converts any active Web site into a fully-fledged JavaScript/XHTML/CSS/DOM diagnosis studio. You can see why an element is parsed and laid out the way it is by pointing at it, and letting Firebug take you to the code in question. Up until now, no tool with similar functionality and reliability has existed within the browser context; Microsoft's Web development tools are centered around Visual Studio and Expression.
MySQL tries twice to clarify its commercial software stance
You actually need a reliable database to keep track of the multitude of permutations deriving from MySQL executives' recent comments defending their company's right to make money off of its product.
The perennial problem among corporations that do business using an open source business model has been spelling out for its customers whether they mean "free as in 'speech,"' or "free as in, 'The global economy has collapsed, anarchy is rampant, and looting is widespread."' Since its absorption into the realm of Sun Microsystems, MySQL has had more and more difficulty appeasing a growing number of open source community proponents who worry that its commercial endeavors will divert the division's attention from adhering to the tenets of the General Public License.
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