Microsoft convinces 12-year old girl to abandon dreams of iPad Mini for Surface 2
I have no idea what 12-year old kids are interested in -- I am guessing Justin Bieber and Instagram; lord only knows. However, as a tech-guy, I always have my eye on what smartphones and tablets people are using in public. From my observations, iPhones and iPads still reign supreme for tweens. And so, it is not surprising that 12 year old Victoria asked her dad for an iPad Mini.
While many kids are whiny brats nowadays, she took a more responsible approach and created a presentation as to why buying it is a good idea. Her father, rather than simply giving in and buying it, instead tweeted Microsoft to give it a chance for rebuttal. Microsoft responded to her presentation in epic fashion.
iTranslate provides translation services for Windows 8 and RT devices
Sonico GmbH has launched a Windows App version of its translation software with the release of iTranslate 1.1 for Windows RT and 8. The app follows the recent release of iTranslate Voice 2 on the iPad and iPhone.
As the name implies, iTranslate doesn't come with any support for translating phrases spoken into the microphone; instead users, must type their word or phrase into the box, and then wait for the app to translate it.
As wearables flounder, Google struggles to dispel Glass 'myths'
I have not hidden the fact that I'm yet to be sold on the idea of wearable tech. A post about smartwatches failing to take off lead to some interesting discussions, and many people leapt to the defense of watch 2.0. Judging from the comments, it seems that there is some love for wearable devices, but it still doesn't appear to be translating into sales. It's not just wearables fans who are quick to defend the honor of their beloved devices, the manufacturers are doing so as well. Google is the latest proponent of strapped-to-the-body-tech, which is hardly surprising considering the company's vested in the market with Glass.
Google Glass has received a bad rap, or so Google seems to think. Not happy to sit back and let the rumormongering run its course, Google has instead written a blog entry aiming to dispel some of the "awesome urban myths" (their words, not mine) that have built up around the technologically advanced spectacles. Considering this is a product that is yet to receive a full public release, it is interesting to see that Google already feels the need to stick up for its baby. But that said, this is a device that has seen the term "glass-holes" coined, even before launch.
The most popular stories on BetaNews this past week March 16 -- 22
Not a good week for Microsoft this week. Things kicked off as Mozilla shunned the Windows Store by opting to stop development of a modern version of Firefox and then things got a little awkward following the investigation of an employee involved in leaking information about Windows. The company then came under fire for accessing the email account of an individual, despite its claims that "Outlook and Hotmail email are and should be private".
There was better news as an LTE version of Surface 2 went on sale opening up a new income stream for the company and new mobile computing opportunities for customers. More good news for users came when OneNote was not only released for Mac, but also made free for all platforms. Mihaita wasn't overly impressed with the Mac version, though.
Express Points: a simple free presentation tool with PPTX import
Express Points 1.04 is the latest release from Australian developer NCH Software, a lightweight free presentation tool for Windows and Mac.
We really do mean "lightweight", too. Both installers packages are around 1MB in size, and they don’t download anything else: a full installation is barely 4MB in size.
Yeah, let's 'band' Fagioli from BetaNews
Reader reaction to Brian Fagioli post "Sorry Netflix, but you should pay 'tolls' to ISPs" is quite dramatic. Three-hundred-thirty comments later, some of you demand his head. There is even petition "Band Brian Fagioli from Beta News", in response to the post. I assume the petition creator means "ban" but band is good enough for me. Brian is one of the group.
The story requires no editorial response but I give one anyway. Earlier, a reader emailed that he is done with BetaNews. I think my reply to him will benefit other readers, so I share it, slipping in some additional commentary. I hope this answer will illuminate our editorial policies.
Now is the time to get your lifetime Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO license (before it’s too late)
It’s no secret that Malwarebytes Anti-Malware -- MBAM to its friends -- is a fast, effective and very popular Windows security tool, designed to work in tandem with your existing security software to offer a second -- and often more accurate -- opinion over whether your PC has been infected or not.
The free version offers basic, on-demand scanning and removal, but upgrade to the PRO version and you can safely run it in real-time alongside your existing security tool without performance penalty or conflict, maximizing your security even further.
Microsoft wants to buy your Windows XP computer for $100, but there is a catch
It used to be that people would upgrade their computers when they wanted to. However, there also used to be more compelling reasons to upgrade. Personal computers used to see huge hardware improvements every year -- faster processor, more RAM, etc. Consumers saw hard evidence of why an upgrade was necessary.
Nowadays however, computers have become "fast enough" -- they are lasting longer and longer. More importantly, people actually saw a benefit in upgrading to Windows 95, 98 and XP. Conversely, there haven't been huge selling points to upgrade to Windows 7 or 8.x for the average casual computer user. Microsoft is ending Windows XP support on April 8th, so it wants consumers to upgrade. In a potentially desperate move, the company announces that it will buy your old, dust-filled XP machine for $100 -- a crisp Benjamin.
Best Windows 8 apps this week
Seventy-three in a series. Mozilla announced that it had made the decision to cancel the Firefox for Metro development and put the project on hold to concentrate on other more promising projects instead.
The core reason given was the low active user rate of the app which never got higher than 1,000 active users at any one time.
Scan pages directly to PDF with STP
Converting a printed document to PDF can sometimes be a complicated process, where you must import the pages into a graphics tool, clean them up, then pass the results on to something else to generate the final document.
It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Creating PDFs from scanned images can be quick and easy, and it certainly doesn’t require heavyweight applications: a tiny portable tool could provide everything you need.
Recuva adds support for non-GUID drives, Linux file systems
Piriform Software has released Recuva 1.51 and Recuva Portable 1.51, new versions of its popular Windows freeware data-recovery tool.
Version 1.51 widens its file system support to cover Linux-formatted volumes, plus makes it possible to recover data from drives with no partition table data. It also includes numerous improvements and optimizations.
Create contact sheets of your videos with Thumbnail me
Thumbnail me is an open source Windows and Linux tool which extracts frames from a video, then presents them as a single image, a quick and easy way to preview the movie’s contents.
The program imports most common video types: AVI, MP4, MPG, VOB, MOV, MKV, TS/ M2TS, FLV, 3GP, OGG, SWF and more.
Best iOS apps this week
Eleventh in a series. Apple rolled out a cheaper 8GB version of its iPhone 5c this week (in selected territories) and also replaced the aging budget iPad 2 with the newer, 4th gen iPad with Retina Display. The replacement iPad, which is available everywhere, is priced the same as the iPad mini giving potential buyers an interesting purchasing dilemma.
Featured apps this week include one of the best looking games yet released for iOS, an app which claims to boost your fitness in just four minutes a day, one which will help you avoid people you don’t want to see, and a game which could help find a cure for cancer.
Smartwatches -- the harsh truth is that no one cares
OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration. But wearable devices are really struggling to get off the ground, at least in the UK. All of the excitement that surrounds smartwatches that can be used to read email, VPN into a home computer, check vital stats, set off The Bomb, or tell the time (imagine!) -- maybe a couple of these are a little far-fetched -- seems to be little more than manufacturers' fluff and guff. The wheels of the marketing machine have been whirring away furiously, but it has had very little effect. With a population of approaching 65 million people, only a very tiny proportion of the nation has seen the need to invest in a smartwatch -- below 1 percent in fact.
Figures from Kantar World Panel show that a lowly 0.9 percent of UK consumers have put their hard-earned money towards a smartwatch. Other statistics to come from the research are of little surprise. Almost three quarters (72 percent) of smartwatch owners are male, and 56 percent are aged under 35. There are a small number of names associated with smartwatches, and the spread is fairly evenly distributed. At the top of the heap is Samsung with a 32 percent share, followed by Sony with 21 percent and Pebble with 18 percent. There is obviously a leader, but with the numbers being so low, percentages are very easily swayed.
Macrium Reflect boosts performance, gains GRUB2 support
Paramount Software has updated Macrium Reflect to 5.2.6504, and despite the very minor-sounding version number, it actually includes several important changes.
The company claims that backup performance has been improved by an impressive 30 percent or more.
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