Microsoft responds to reported Xbox One issues
It just wouldn't be a major launch event without reports of problems. Last week, Sony dealt with panic over customers receiving PS4 consoles that amounted to paperweights, displaying only a "blue light of death". This week Microsoft deals with similar issues, with news of troubled disc drives and scratched consoles.
The problem does not seem to be widespread, but any disgruntled customer can be a loud one, meaning that the few lead the news cycle, and also generate poor publicity. While the old saying may go "there's no such thing as bad publicity", Microsoft really doesn't want potential buyers worrying that they've paid $500 for damaged goods.
Avira Savings Advisor -- holiday shopping cost savings and fraud prevention
When it comes to holiday shopping, I am a bit of a scrooge. I love the holidays and I love gifts, but the actual shopping is a chore. While online-shopping has reduced my need to leave the house and interact with other humans, even that can be problematic. After all, there are so many online retailers nowadays, that it can be hard to choose. Not to mention, if you find a good price, how can you know it is a reputable website?
Luckily, Avira, the often-trusted security company, has unveiled a solution called Avira Savings Advisor. The company says, "just in time for the holiday shopping season, security expert Avira announced today the release of Avira Savings Advisor -- a free browser add-on that helps shoppers find the best prices and the most trustworthy e-commerce sites to buy online".
Apple buys PrimeSense: Could Macs or AppleTV get their own Kinect?
Using a peripheral to interact with your computer is so passé. Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners have the Kinect to dance in front of, and PlayStation gamers have a camera that can be used in much the same way. PC users can turn to the likes of Leap Motion if they like the idea of eschewing traditional forms of control, and an increasing number of smartphones can recognize eye and hand movements. Now it looks as though Apple is joining the party by buying 3D motion detection specialists PrimeSense.
This may not be a firm that sounds all that familiar, but you're almost certainly aware of the Israeli company's work -- Kinect for the Xbox. Yep, you read that correctly. Apple is buying the firm behind one of the most interesting and innovative features of Microsoft's game console. While no details of the purchase have been revealed, and no mention made of any money that may have swapped hands, PrimeSense has confirmed that the purchase is going ahead.
Time chooses Twitter to help pick its Person of the Year
Time magazine's Person of the Year is an annual tradition, dating back to Charles Lindbergh in 1927. The tradition has continued ever since, encompassing such luminaries as Mahatma Gandhi, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and controversial figures such as Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and twice Richard Nixon.
This time around, the news magazine is asking for help, and seeking it from Twitter. However, before your ego swells, the publisher is only taking your vote into consideration, not making it the deciding factor. "While the choice is ultimately made by TIME editors, this will give everyone who's interested an unprecedented chance to air their opinion and cast a vote before the final decision. Using Poptip, TIME will gather votes on Twitter, where readers can weigh in on who made the biggest impact in 2013 via Tweets", says Twitter's Andrew Fitzgerald.
CHM to PDF converts your CHM files to something more portable
Commonly used for everything from program help to e-books, Microsoft’s Compiled HTML Help (CHM) format works very well on the PC. CHM files aren’t always as easy to browse on other platforms, though, so if you need to access their content elsewhere then you might be interested in CHM to PDF.
This free program is extremely easy to use. Just choose your source CHM file, click Convert, and a PDF of the same name (but with a PDF extension) will be produced in the same folder.
Spanning Cloud provides protection for Salesforce data
CRM data is the life blood of any sales-based business so it's important to look after it. That's doubly true if you're contemplating moving your CRM activity to the cloud. In order to address this, Texas-based backup and recovery specialist Spanning Cloud Apps is expanding its product range to cover the most popular cloud CRM package Salesforce.com.
Unlike other solutions Spanning Backup for Salesforce is embedded within the main Salesforce user interface. This means that backup and recovery options can be reviewed without leaving the package and key activities shared directly to Chatter feeds.
Kindle Fire HDX Origami Case [Review]
My colleague Alan Buckingham reviewed the Kindle Fire HDX 7 over the weekend. I too have been testing the new HDX variants of Amazon's tablets and share many of my colleague's sentiments. However, for me, one of the most intriguing things about the tablets is not a feature but an associated accessory -- the Origami Case.
If you aren't familiar with the word origami, it is an ancient Japanese art form involving paper-folding. One of the typical clichéd objects to represent with origami is a crane (the bird, not the construction equipment). However, the number of objects to create is limited only by your imagination. Heck, you've probably done origami and never realized it -- ever make a paper airplane in school? Well, it turns out you were an artist; not a troublemaker!
Hear almost any text file read aloud with Balabolka
When you need to read a long document then you could just sit at your PC, scrolling for an age, until you’re finally done. But having the computer read to you could make much more sense. There’s no eye strain, no document navigation issues, and you might even be able to do something else as you listen.
Windows provides a simple text-to-speech solution in Narrator (Control Panel > Ease of Access Center), and this can easily read the current document in many applications. For real TTS power, though, the free Balabolka is hard to beat.
HTC One Google Play edition now receiving the Android 4.4 KitKat upgrade
As some of you may know, Taiwanese maker HTC is among the first Android vendors to reveal its KitKat upgrade plans, shortly after Google launched the new mobile operating system. The company's US arm announced, in mid-November, that the code for the Google Play edition of the One is finished and sent to the search giant to commence the roll-out.
A little over a week after, the HTC One Google Play edition is now finally receiving Android 4.4 KitKat via an over-the-air update (hit the link to download the file). The OTA file comes in at a hefty 305 MB and will upgrade your device to build KRT16S, which is the latest one available as of today (the same build version was just rolled-out to some Nexus devices in the first post-KitKat update).
FastKeys is an ultra-versatile PC automation tool
When writing about new programs we’ll normally start with a general outline of what they do, but FastKeys ($9.99) makes that unusually difficult. It’s a highly versatile Windows automation program with support for several time-saving technologies, but how these are used is very much up to you.
The program could be a simple Start Menu replacement, for instance; move your mouse to the top edge of the screen and a basic Start menu appears. This starts off with just a few links (Office, system applets, Documents folder, a few web shortcuts, shutdown options), but can easily be expanded to add more.
Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 -- phablet size, mid-range specs
Samsung has reshaped the smartphone market with the Galaxy Note series by giving large-screened handsets mass-market appeal. The South Korean maker has sold tens of millions of its stylus-equipped phablets and other similar devices, with the recipe also being applied by rival companies, such as HTC, LG, Nokia or Sony, seeking to make great strides of their own. After all, consumers love phablets as this segment accounted for 21 percent of all smartphone shipments in Q3 2013, according to research firm IDC.
And, today, Samsung introduces a new phablet in its lineup, called Galaxy Grand 2. The device is the successor of the Galaxy Grand, which was introduced in mid-December 2012 albeit with a smaller, 5-inch display. So how big is the new model?
Free Any Burn is a portable, easy-to-use burning tool
Finding the right disc burning tool for you can sometimes be a problem. The big commercial suites are expensive, but smaller freebies are often buggy, unreliable, sometimes weighed down with adware. So it’s good to find a small but capable alternative in Free Any Burn.
The program arrives as a compact download, only around 1MB. You can just unzip and run it right away, no installation required, no adware hassles. And it’s extremely portable: the authors claim it can run on anything from Window 98 upwards, so this really is a program you can run just about anywhere.
Digital: transforms modern businesses and delivers a global 360 degree vision
December 1998. I started my Internet career at one of the first European e-commerce websites. At the time, we used to call it New Information and Communication Technologies. In 2013, 15 years later, some of these technologies are still seen as "New". But while in some countries seniors are stigmatized just when their experience is at its fullest, we refuse to see technologies age and be fully integrated. Ironic isn’t?!
Fear of technologies that are difficult to master is understandable, but why reject them all? Why not fully embrace them and establish the boundaries of what is understandable and useful as well as personal privacy limitations? These same technologies allow us to voice our opinions directly to those who created them and to provide collaborative feedback so they may be continually improved upon in order to enhance and remain relevant to our daily lives.
Bitcoins can now be used to buy a trip into space
Bitcoin is rarely out of the news these days. There have been stories about Bitcoin thefts, its use by cybercriminals, the first Bitcoin ATM, and most recently the virtual currency’s value soared to over $900 after the FBI told a US Senate committee hearing that it offers "legitimate financial services".
If you’re a bitcoin miner or collector, and are wondering what to do with your stockpiled virtual currency, you’ll soon be able to add "buy a trip into space" to the list of possibilities.
Check your Android apps for privacy risks with Clueful
You’ve found an essential Android app. You click "Install", wanting to check it out immediately. And so, let’s be realistic, you’re probably not going to spend a long time reviewing the app permissions, and thinking about whether it really needs to "send SMS", or not. Much easier to just click "Accept" and give it a try.
Skipping basic security checks can catch up with you later, of course, but install Bitdefender’s Clueful and this doesn’t have to be such an issue. This free app warns you of privacy risks whenever you install something new, and can produce a detailed report on your system whenever you like.
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