Today the Apple Watch begins its highly anticipated rollout. The tech world is watching, while fans are eagerly expecting the device. Of course any product today requires a healthy ecosystem of apps to survive, and Apple is doing its best to make that happen. Others are trying to do the same, also from an economical standpoint.
Amazon plans to allow customers to shop from their wrist -- why you'd want to is anyone's guess. The retailer is announcing a shopping app for the new accoutrement. The company claims it will be useful in certain situations, such as heading out somewhere and suddenly remembering something you need. Granted that's a good scenario, as you may forget by the time you return home. However, isn't that what the smartphone in your purse or pocket is for?
One-hundred and twenty seven in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows in the past seven days.
Microsoft pushed out another Windows 10 build to Fast ring users bringing improvements but also new bugs along with it. The build ships with a new version of the Start menu that is resizable and customizable now.
Google hides lots of Easter eggs in its products and services. Usually fun little extras designed to amuse. However, the latest one discovered in Google Maps is of questionable taste.
Tucked away in Pakistan, close to the New Islamabad International Airport, is a cartoon image of Google’s Android urinating on an Apple logo. Nice.
I, like many others, was glued to my favorite tech site on 1 March, awaiting news on the new Samsung flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S6. But when the stream I was watching came to a close, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit disappointed.
The expandable memory and removable battery was always a major selling point to me over an iPhone. However with the new S6 removing expandable memory and having a non-removable battery, I was torn. Unfortunately, my trusty S4 bit the dust and I knew I’d have to try the S6 first-hand to see if the features I had used for so long would be missed. I don’t know what I was worried about…
Microsoft has released its Q3 FY2015 (corresponding to Q1 CY2015) financial report, revealing revenue of $21.72 billion, gross margin of $14.56 billion, operating income of $6.59 billion, and diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.61. The software giant has beaten analyst expectations, which had placed revenue and the diluted EPS at $21.06 billion and $0.51, respectively. In after-hours trading, shares have risen from $43.34, at closing time, to $44.59.
A strong US dollar had influenced Microsoft's earnings, with the software giant estimating that "on a constant currency basis" it could have revealed stronger results across the board. For reference, in Q3 FY2014, Microsoft posted revenue, gross margin, operating income and diluted EPS of $20.40 billion, $14.42 billion, $6.97 billion and $0.68. As you can see, revenue and gross margin are higher, by 6 percent and 1 percent respectively, while operating income and diluted EPS are down by 5 percent and 10 percent, respectively. Let's take a look at the highlights of the quarter.
Microsoft is continuing its crusade to wean customers off earlier versions of Internet Explorer before the Support Lifecycle changes kick in in January 2016.
The company has announced changes in its April update to Enterprise Mode and Enterprise Site Discovery in IE11 to provide enhanced backwards compatibility for sites designed to run in earlier versions of the browser.
I’m usually not the paranoid one in a relationship, but the fingerprint scanner on smartphones always used to freak me out.
And now, a pair of researchers from security firm FireEye breathes new life into my paranoia, as they claim hackers can steal your fingerprint data before it gets encrypted in the device. One of the potentially dangerous devices, ‘leaking’ fingerprints is the Samsung Galaxy S5.
Pingendo is a free cross-platform WYSIWYG application for prototyping web pages. It uses Twitter’s Bootstrap as a base, and responsive web design support ensures your sites will adapt to fit phones, tablets, laptops and desktops.
Getting started is as easy as dragging and dropping. Organize your layout; add lists, tables or forms; add some text, maybe a few images (single pictures, thumbnails, a carousel), and insert media objects including YouTube videos and Google Maps.
Ah, Solitaire. It’s the card game that has killed many hours of productivity in offices across the world -- and caused many employees to be very quick on the minimize button -- and it’s coming back with Windows 10.
As you’re doubtless aware if you upgraded to Windows 8, with its latest desktop OS, Microsoft decided to ditch a lot of things, including all those dinky little games which came pre-installed in the Start menu -- Solitaire, Minesweeper and Hearts. (The latter was always our favorite -- despite the fact that the computer players clearly, and we mean blatantly, cheated and played using knowledge of the cards you held rather than any true AI skill as such).
Dedicated satnav units are less popular than they used to be, and this can be attributed in part to the rise of direction-providing smartphone apps like Google Maps and Waze. If you are invested in Google Maps, you may well check out directions on your desktop computer and then have to get them set up on your phone as well.
Today that changes. Google has unveiled a feature that makes it possible to push directions from your desktop computer or laptop to your phone. This eliminates a step and makes the whole process of getting from A to B much easier.
Acer held a massive press conference today in Manhattan to unveil its new product lineup. BetaNews was there, live, at 4 World Trade Center. The views from the 60-something-th floor were magnificent, but even more awe-inspiring to a tech nerd like me, were the Acer products.
Acer is one of my favorite manufacturers because it focuses on value. Not only are the company's computers beautiful and powerful, but affordable too. While the company kept its focus on the affordable segment with Windows, Chromebooks and Android products, it also introduced its new Predator gaming computers. The star of the show? A small gaming-tablet running Google's mobile OS.
Google’s video service celebrates a very special milestone today -- it’s ten years to the day since the first video was uploaded to the site. "Me at the Zoo", in all its 240p glory, has racked up close to 20 million views, which isn’t bad (especially as it wasn’t made public initially), although it pales into insignificance when compared with the likes of "Charlie Bit My Finger -- Again", with its 817 million views.
A lot has happened to YouTube in that time. It officially launched in May 2005 (so expect another birthday post next month) and was acquired by Google in 2006. It has spread across a wide range of platforms, batted off numerous legal challenges, and become a massive part of our lives.
The rise of mobile device use and of BYOD policies in the workplace is bringing about a major shift in the way people communicate at work.
Email solutions provider Newsweaver has produced an infographic looking at the rise of mobile devices for business use. It also looks at how bring your own app (BYOA) and enterprise app use have different effects.
The virtual reality hype is real. In years past, promised virtual reality systems were expensive and did not meet expectations. Ultimately, it never really took off in the mainstream. Low-cost electronics have birthed a renewed interest, however, as seen from Facebook's Ocluus Rift and Samsung's Gear VR.
Samsung's solution is rather genius, as it utilizes a users exiting smartphone to cut costs and reduce redundancy. Unfortunately, creating a one-size-fits-all mask for smartphones can be problematic, as the sizes and dimensions can change with every upgrade cycle. If you are the owner of a Galaxy S6 or S6 edge, however, you are in luck; Samsung today announces a refreshed Gear VR for you, with the "Innovator Edition" moniker.
A new study by website security specialist Incapsula and community site DevOps.com shows that DevOps is rapidly becoming one of the hottest technology career paths.
DevOps -- a hybrid of development and operations -- is a recent field, recognizing that software development, quality assurance, and IT operations all depend on each other. It aims to help organizations rapidly produce software products and services and to improve operational performance.