Microsoft's core platform isn't software, it's trust
For the first time in a half-decade, I watched a Microsoft Build keynote this morning. Time gives fresh perspective, looking at where the company was compared to where it is today. Listening to CEO Satya Nadella and other Softies, I repeatedly found myself reminded of Isaac Asimov's three laws or Robotics and how they might realistically be applied in the 21st Century. The rules, whether wise or not, set to ensure that humans could safely interact with complex, thinking machines. In Asimov's science fiction stories, the laws were core components of the automaton's brain—baked in, so to speak, and thus inviolable. They were there by design; foundationally.
Behind all product design, there are principles. During the Steve Jobs era, simplicity was among Apple's main design ethics. As today's developer conference keynote reminds, Microsoft embraces something broader—design ethics that harken back to the company's founding objectives and others that share similar purpose as the robotic laws. On the latter point, Nadella repeatedly spoke about "trust" and "collective responsibility". These are fundamental principles of design, particularly as Artificial Intelligence usage expands and more corporate developers depend on cloud computing platforms like Azure.
Auslogics Disk Defrag Touch is a very different defragger
Australian developer Auslogics has released Auslogics Disk Defrag Touch, a very major touch-oriented revamp of its Auslogics Disk Defrag package.
The most immediately obvious change is the very Windows 8-like interface, and we don’t just mean "it uses a few colorful tiles". The program runs full-screen, has the same bold design, a very similar layout for its controls and options: it actually feels like you’re running a Windows 8 app (although it also runs on Windows 7).
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean: a dozen or so of the biggest improvements
It appears that this round of mobile operating system updates will be incremental for all platforms involved.
Following Apple's announcement of iOS 6, and Microsoft's announcement of Windows Phone 8, Google on Wednesday outlined the upcoming features of Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean," and revealed the update will provide mostly under-the-hood changes that aren't geared toward "wowing" users.
Google unveils Nexus Q, the 'Tiny Android computer'
If Boxee shook up the design world by turning the standard set-top box form factor into an odd geometric shape, Google has completely eliminated the "box" from the equation, and unveiled the Nexus Q, a streaming home entertainment hub for connecting your TV to your Android devices and to Google Play for content distribution.
It features:
Google's Nexus 7 tablet goes up for sale at $199, ships in July
At Google's I/O 2012 developer convention on Wednesday, the long-rumored Asus tablet sporting the Google Nexus brand was finally revealed. Confirming the rumor from Gizmodo Australia earlier this week, the tablet is known as Nexus 7.
As the rumors had suggested, the $199 device is going to be the first to run Android 4.1 (aka Jellybean), sport a 7-inch, 1280 x 800 display, run on a quad-core 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 processor with 1GB of RAM and a "12 core" GeForce GPU, be Wi-Fi only, and offer a 1.3 megapixel forward-facing camera, accelerometer, and NFC chip for device-to-device communication. The total weight of the device is just 340 grams.
Game Over! Giant Robot has the video game culture art you crave
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While getting ready for the E3 Expo I decided to stop by Giant Robot in the Los Angeles Japanese cultural district of Sawtelle. There, Giant Robot Owner/Publisher Eric Nakamura was hosting a show of video game culture influenced art.
8 CES tech trends that will change your life
We're just back from the consumer electronics extravaganza in Las Vegas where we saw some amazing new gadgets and gear including new TVs, tablets, smartphones and new high tech automobiles.
Much of the technology we saw may not be available for some time (if at all) but we did see some trends that will sooner or later make many of your high tech possessions obsolete.
Samsung offers Galaxy Note as a tool for 'creatives'
Apple products are deeply entrenched in the creative world. Both Mac and iOS-based devices are the common tools among graphic designers, artists, music producers and composers, and yes, even journalists. (Especially journalists, don't even get me started.)
At CES 2012 this week, Samsung made a major appeal to "creatives" with the new Galaxy Note mini-tablet. In a large booth in a hallway outside of the show floor, Samsung set up caricature artists with Galaxy Notes, who were drawing passers by as musicians played in the background, using the Galaxy Note and the apps touchOSC and TouchDAW as a part of their performance gear.
Hands-on: Huawei Ascend P1 S, super slim Android phone [video]
Notebook PCs aren't the only thing getting slimmed down to razor-thin profiles in 2012. This year, there will be at least three Android-powered smartphones vying for consumer interest by being as thin as possible. So thin, in fact, that each calls itself the thinnest.
This trend started with the Motorola Droid RAZR in the fourth quarter of 2011, which Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said was the thinnest smartphone on the market.
Hands-on: Nokia Lumia 900, THE Windows Phone [video]
At the International Consumer Electronics Show 2012 in Las Vegas this week, Finnish mobile phone leader Nokia debuted the Lumia 900, its first smartphone designed specifically for the United States market. We got to play with it quite a bit, and here's a runthrough of the device's strong points.
The Lumia 900 follows the same design ethic as the N9 and Lumia 800, with a single piece polycarbonate body, gently rounded sides and blunted top and bottom edges. Nokia has equipped the device with all the features that U.S. media and consumers complained were missing in the N9 and 800: 4G LTE connectivity, larger screen size, and a forward-facing camera.
Up Close: Samsung's new Chromebook and Chromebox [video]
While Samsung cut an imposing figure at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2012 with its huge flashy booth, the Korean electronics company managed to quietly display its upcoming second-generation Chrome OS devices without attracting tons of attention.
These new Chrome OS products include an updated Series 5 Chromebook which has 2GB of RAM, a 16GB SSD and a moderately faster CPU. It retains the smooth and ergonomic feel of the first generation Chromebook, but unfortunately also retains that device's somewhat cheap and plasticky feel. Samsung said the price will also remain the same.
Hands-on: LG Viper 4G, Sprint's second LTE smartphone [video]
Sprint's Network Vision upgrade to LTE won't be a top-down change, where only flagship devices will be able to hook up to the high speed network, among the carrier's first LTE devices will be the slightly cheaper, slightly less flashy LG Viper 4G.
The device is light and smallish (at least when compared to Sprint's flagship LTE phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus,) and its primary selling points are its high recyclability and low energy footprint. While these qualities rarely prove to be majorly attractive to consumers, it's still nice to have them checked off when looking at new devices.
Up Close: Solowheel, the 'E-Unicycle?' the 'Pocket Segway?' [video]
Transportation is not something we generally cover here on BetaNews, but sometimes a product will slip through our defenses and end up on the front page because it is interesting, novel, broadly applicable, or simply charming.
Now, Inventec deals in some hokey re-inventions of user-propelled transportation devices: scooters, skates, hydrofoils, and such. Solowheel is a re-invention of the Segway, which is itself a very hokey vehicle, but built on compelling gyroscopic balancing technology and eco-friendly energy consumption.
Hands-on: Android-powered Smart Camera from Polaroid [video]
Like Kodak, film company Polaroid was wrecked by the gradual takeover of digital cameras and demolished by the smartphone taking over the role of the casual/disposable point and shoot.
So Polaroid has embraced Android, and released what is effectively a super high megapixel smartphone without all that pesky communications gear.
Call me when Nokia Windows Phones connect
I'm a fan of Windows Phone and its glance-and-go concept, and Microsoft has made lots of noise at Consumer Electronics Show 2012 about the future. Say, how's that "Get smoked by Windows Phone" competition going, anyway?
But somebody is blowing smoke about how grand will be Nokia Windows Phone sales this year. Thirty-seven million? Cough. Cough. iPhone may have reached that number during holiday quarter 2011. Besides, it's pitiful compared to the Nokia we all used to know.
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