Win a chance to buy a pair of Google Glass specs
Select developers already have access to Google’s futuristic glasses, but now the search giant has launched a competition giving ordinary American citizens the chance to buy a pair before they’re launched, and become a "Glass Explorer" (as Google terms those "bold, creative individuals who want to help shape the technology").
To be in with a shot you need to tell Google, via Google+ or Twitter, what you would do with the glasses if you had a pair. The more creative your answer, the more likely the chance of you actually being selected. "Wear them on the subway and get mugged" probably won’t win.
BBC Sport launches a dedicated Android app
When the BBC launched a dedicated sports app for iOS devices a month ago, it said it was working on an Android version and expected to release it in a matter of weeks. Well the good news for sport-loving Android owners is that day has finally arrived.
The new BBC Sport app is compatible with devices running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and above, and has been optimized for screens up to 7-inches so should display perfectly on devices such as Google’s Nexus 7.
Winners of the UK's 4G auction announced
UK Telecoms regulator Ofcom has announced the winners of the auctions for 4G spectrum on the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands, and it’s a list with no surprises. After more than 50 rounds of bidding the winners are EE, Hutchison 3G UK, Niche Spectrum Ventures (a subsidiary of BT), Telefónica, and Vodafone.
The Office for Budget Responsibility had expected the auction to raise £3.5bn but in the end it actually raised considerably less -- £2.34bn. A fraction of the £22bn the 3G spectrum auction brought in for the Treasury in 2000.
StackMob launches new Enterprise Marketplace
According to Gartner, by 2017 around 25 percent of enterprises will have their own app stores for managing home grown and corporate-sanctioned apps on PCs and mobile devices. Bring Your Own Application (BYOA) is becoming almost as important as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in some corporate workplaces.
StackMob, a cloud-based mobile platform provider, has today launched a new Enterprise Marketplace for third-party services, aimed at offering a simple and effective way for larger organizations to build and deploy their own full-featured mobile applications.
The Windows Store is like a Bangkok night market -- full of cheap knockoffs
When Windows 8 launched on October 26 2012, the Windows Store had an estimated 9,000 apps available to purchase or download. Today, according to the excellent MetroStore Scanner, that figure has risen to 43,083 worldwide, of which 28,904 are available in the US store, and 26,385 in the UK one.
The biggest problem with the Windows Store is not the overall number of apps -- in four months it’s seen reasonable growth although the number of new weekly additions has slowed -- the issue is more with quality. While there’s no shortage of third-party apps, many of which are very good, you can’t help but notice how many big names are absent.
Burger King sold to McDonald’s -- according to the company’s hacked Twitter feed
Burger King’s Twitter account was just hacked and has been turned into an amusing (and rather crude) advert for fast food rival McDonald’s, complete with the Chicken McNuggets header and golden arches logo as the avatar.
No one is entirely sure who is behind the action at the moment, although there’s a shout out to DFNCTSC, the Defonic Team Screen Name Club, a loosely organized collective responsible for hacking Paris Hilton’s mobile phone and posting her address book a while back.
Developer preview for Ubuntu Phone due this week
Canonical says it will be publishing images and open source code for the Touch Developer Preview of Ubuntu for Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 on Thursday 21 February. So if you have a spare compatible handset -- or you don’t mind converting your existing phone -- you can try out the fledgling mobile OS in time for the weekend.
The aim is to encourage developers to create apps for the new operating system, but enthusiasts are welcome to take it for a spin too. According to Canonical, tools that manage the flashing of the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 will be available on the same day as the images, along with detailed installation instructions.
Chubby Checker sues HP over penis size app
A few weeks ago I wrote about Apple allowing a member-measuring app into the App Store (which BetaNews readers seemed to love) and now news reaches us that veteran singer Chubby Checker has got his knickers in a "twist" and is suing Hewlett-Packard over a penis size estimator that bears his name.
The "Chubby Checker" app for HP’s Palm OS platform was pulled from all Palm and HP listings in September last year and the developer, Magic Apps, is no more, but that hasn’t stopped the singer’s lawyers going to war over the (frankly genius) use of the name and demanding a stiff half a billion dollars for "irreparable damage and harm" to Checker.
Valve launches Steam for Linux and announces a celebration sale
After two months of public beta testing, the Linux version of Valve’s popular multiplayer gaming ecosystem has been officially released and is available to download for free from the Ubuntu Software Center.
To celebrate the release, Valve is cutting the price of 50 Linux titles by between 50-80 percent in a week long sale that will end on Thursday, 21 February at 10 AM PST. Games currently on sale include Bastion, Trine 2, Counter Strike Source, Serious Sam 3, and Darwinia.
Why I love Kindle
Second in a series. I had a nice surprise Valentine’s Day gift delivered to my door this morning -- a box of ten copies of my new novel (I Know What You Did Last Supper) courtesy of my publisher and fresh off the press. It seemed weird holding the book. Not just because it’s my first novel (co-authored with a friend), but because I haven’t held an actual book for maybe two years now.
When the Kindle first came out, I resisted it. I’ve loved books since I was child, and couldn’t ever imagine switching to an ebook reader. But then I was given the device as a Christmas present in 2009 and despite all my reservations fell in love with it almost immediately.
Cloud aggregator KiteDesk exits beta, adds iOS app
The vast majority of us use multiple cloud services for email, social media, and file storage, which means having to regularly switch between different websites or apps to access our data. KiteDesk aims to solve that problem by aggregating information from all of the popular cloud services into a single application.
Aimed at busy consumers and professionals, the service presents email messages, social media posts, contacts, calendar events, and files from the likes of Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook and Dropbox, in a single stream and lets you search for, share, and comment on content.
Get your phones ready -- The Brit Awards to be Shazam-enabled
British broadcaster ITV has agreed to a deal with Shazam -- the popular music identification service -- allowing viewers of this year’s The Brits music awards to access exclusive content during the live broadcast -- a UK first.
By using Shazam to tag the show between 8pm and 10:15pm on February 20, viewers will get access to exclusive behind-the-scenes content from performers and guest presenters.
Vertu launches its first Android smartphone. Anyone got a spare $21,700?
Luxury British smartphone manufacturer Vertu used to be owned by Nokia and made its name producing incredibly expensive Symbian handsets. But times move on, and the company is now focusing on producing incredibly expensive Android handsets.
The first new product of this endeavor is the Vertu Ti. The 3.7-inch device sports a brushed titanium frame (making it up to five times stronger, and at 180g (6oz) quite a bit heavier than most other phones), with real leather trim and a sapphire-screen.
Microsoft’s 'getting started' guide for Surface tells you everything you need to know
If, like my colleague Joe Wilcox, you’ve already been lucky enough to get your hands on Microsoft’s new Surface PC, or you’re thinking of buying it in either the Windows 8 Pro or RT editions (and a stunning 45 percent of you say you'll be purchasing the former), you’ll want to download the new getting started guide immediately.
The official PDF manual from Microsoft Press is 68 pages long (1.35MB) and starts by introducing the device and explaining the differences between Surface RT and Pro, and also lists the accessories available to buy, before guiding readers through the setup process.
Tesco launches free Netflix rival
UK supermarket chain Tesco is set to launch a free online video streaming service called Clubcard TV.
Currently being internally beta tested by employees and set to launch officially this spring, it will (as the name suggests) be available to all shoppers with a Tesco loyalty card. And the really good news is it will be entirely free. According to Tesco, the new service is a "thank you to our customers -- there are no charges, contracts or subscriptions". Rumors that
Wayne's Bio
Wayne Williams has been writing about computers, technology, and the web for over 30 years now. He’s written for most of the UK’s PC magazines, and launched, edited and published a fair few of them in his time also. If you like what you read, you can Buy Me a Coffee!
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