Nokia Lumia 925 arrives at T-Mobile next week
US mobile operator T-Mobile just announced that the Nokia Lumia 925 will officially join its Windows Phone 8 portfolio starting July 17. The handset goes for $49.99 down coupled with $20 monthly payments over the course of two years.
US is the third major market where the Lumia 925 will be available, following its introduction in Germany and UK. The Nokia-branded Windows Phone will run on T-Mobile 4G LTE network and is among the least expensive high-end devices in the mobile operator's portfolio.
Opera lets you create a Smart TV app from your web videos
Norwegian browser developer Opera has teamed up with video sharing site Dailymotion to create a new service that can transform any Dailymotion video channel into a Smart TV application in less than a minute.
Opera TV Snap lets you convert an existing online video channel into a ready-to-run HTML5 app for inclusion in the Opera TV Store, a Smart TV app storefront supported by major television and set-top-box manufacturers.
Georgia Tech’s $7,000 polyester masters in computer science
In case you missed it, the Rambling Wrecks of Georgia Tech will next year begin offering an online masters degree in computer science for a total price of just under $7,000 -- about 80 percent less than the current in-state tuition for an equivalent campus-based program. The degree program, offered in cooperation with AT&T and courseware company Udacity, will cost the same no matter where the students live, though two thirds are expected to live and work outside the USA. Time to complete the degree will vary but Georgia Tech thinks most students will require about three years to finish. The program is inspired, we’re told, by the current hiring crisis for computer science grads -- a crisis that anyone who reads this column knows does not exist.
Programmers in Bangalore will soon boast Georgia Tech degrees without even having a passport.
Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse for Windows 8 [Review]
Windows 8.1 has been designed to fix some of the apparent shortcomings of its predecessor, but unless you're using the Preview version you'll have to wait until August to get your hands on it. In the meantime the software giant has released a new peripheral which aims to provide a more immediate fix to the problem of using Windows 8 with a mouse.
The concept of the Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse is simple -- you rub your thumb up and down on a touch sensitive, blue-colored button located on the left side of the mouse (sorry lefties!) to navigate apps. Clicking that blue button brings up the Start screen. This should make navigating Windows 8 much easier, and sounds great, but how does it perform in actual use? I purchased the mouse to find out.
Microsoft extends Windows Phone 8 support lifecycle, will add enterprise features to grab business users
On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that it will extend the Windows Phone 8 support lifecycle to three years, effectively doubling the previous 18 month time-frame, which was revealed in mid-March.
"Beginning with Windows Phone 8 we'll make updates, including security updates, available for 36 months", says Microsoft's Tony Mestres. "These updates will be incremental, with each update built on the update that preceded it". So far so good. But now here comes the kicker -- your device may or may not receive the future software upgrades.
Chrome 28 adds richer notifications, implements new Blink rendering engine
Google has released Google Chrome 28 for Windows, Mac and Linux. The latest version of its open-source, cross-platform web browser sees Google implement the latest revision of its web rendering engine -- Blink -- and also give apps and extensions a better platform for interacting with users outside of the main browser window.
As part of the switch to a "richer" notification system, Chrome introduces a new Notification Center, which works independently of the browser via the taskbar or menubar. Already present in Chrome OS, the center currently only appears on Windows builds with this stable release, but will be extended to Mac and Linux shortly.
Apple App Store turns 5, celebrates with free apps
In the real world, when you have a birthday people give you gifts. But when these celebrations happen for software and services, the roles are frequently reversed. That is the case today as Apple celebrates the fifth birthday of its iTunes App Store by giving gifts to its customers.
Apple launched its iOS store on July 10, 2008 and the number of apps has grown exponentially since then -- from 500 apps at launch to 900,000-plus available today.
BullGuard launches free online virus scan
One man's virus is often another's legitimate program or cookie, so whatever antivirus software you have installed it's always useful to be able to get a second opinion from time to time. There are already a number of online scans you can use for this and BullGuard is the latest to join the party with today's launch of its own free scanner.
Unlike some of the alternative offerings, BullGuard works by adding a plug-in to your browser. This lets you run the scan at any time with just a single click on a toolbar button so you don't have to remember the website address or where you filed the bookmark. It supports all of the popular browsers too. The scan, which took just a couple of minutes using the Chrome plug-in on my -- not quite as fast as it used to be -- Windows 7 laptop, looks for viruses and checks that your current security is up to date.
Facebook Beta for Windows Phone 8 now has anti-social features
In an effort to improve the Facebook experience on the tiled smartphone operating system, Microsoft just released a new update for its homebrew beta app which now finally allows Windows Phone 8 users to unfriend and unlike added folks and pages, respectively.
The latest Facebook Beta version (5.0.2.1) also fixes an issue which prevented the notification counts from updating and comes with the common "stability and performance" enhancements. The latest features will likely make their way to the stable Facebook app in a future update, after the obligatory testing is conducted.
New Trojan targets Linux servers
Antivirus company Doctor Web has released its review of virus activity for June. Trojans remain the main threat but the big news is a new version of the Linux.Sshdkit virus designed to steal passwords from Linux servers. It has undergone a number of changes to make it harder for antivirus analysts to intercept stolen passwords.
This follows the trend that we reported last month of attackers becoming more businesslike in their attacks. Although the number of infected Linux servers is small as yet it's a worrying development.
AT&T announces BB 10.1 update for branded BlackBerry Z10
US mobile operator AT&T just announced that BB 10.1 will finally be available for its branded BlackBerry Z10 handsets, nearly two months after the Canadian maker unveiled the latest operating system iteration.
Folks who have purchased the aforementioned variant of the smartphone can install the latest software version by heading to BlackBerry's "Software Download for AT&T" page and following the provided instructions. At the time of writing this article, however, the required BB 10.1 file is not yet available (AT&T says that it should be listed "starting today" -- Tuesday).
Microsoft compares iPad to Windows RT tablet in new multitasking duel
Microsoft just released a new Windows tablet video ad, which pits Dell's XPS 10 against Apple's popular iPad. This time around the action takes place at a baseball field, with the software giant emphasizing the multitasking benefits available to the users of its tiled operating system.
The video ad shows two agents trying to sign a new baseball player, with one using the iPad and the other the XPS 10 to video chat with the boss and obtain relevant stats. Needless to say, the Apple slate user struggles to multitask, having to switch between apps to communicate and find the needed information, while his rival takes advantage of Windows RT's built-in snap feature to run two pieces of software at the same time.
Google introduces a 'new mapping experience' for smartphones and tablets
Google has started rolling out a new version of Google Maps for Android devices, with plans to update the iOS edition "soon".
According to Daniel Graf, Director, Google Maps, the updated app builds on the version Google released for the iPhone last December, but improves on it by adding additional search and navigation features, as well as a dedicated design for iPads and Android tablets.
Curious what the NSA gleans from your Gmail? Now you can see for yourself
Ever since Edward Snowden leaked what seems to be the mother lode of the decade, the internet has been fervently abuzz with speculation about Prism. The (aptly named) program was setup by the United States NSA (National Security Agency) to work hand in hand with internet giants to cull over mountains of data related to users of numerous services from Facebook to Gmail to Hotmail. Whether or not this information is accurately being used for its intended purpose -- thwarting terror attacks -- is still up for debate. But one thing we do know for sure is not only the type of data being plucked, but more importantly the overarching power this data yields.
It seems the crafty folks at MIT haven't been sitting back and watching this drama unfold. They've gone ahead and launched a representative cloud tool called Immersion that is very accurate in its portrayal of the inner workings of your entire digital life (or at least, the one contained to your Gmail account). National Journal's Brian Fung first covered this astonishing project, and it was since picked up similarly by eWeek.
Acer unveils Aspire M5 with Haswell, makes it Best Buy exclusive
Haswell is the latest catch-phrase in Intel processor architecture, designed as a successor to Ivy Bridge. A low power processor that is made with today's Ultrabooks in mind, the chip debuted early last month and is finding its way into today's hardware. Now Acer announces it will be powering the latest Aspire notebook.
The Aspire M5 (technically the Aspire M5-583P-6428) will be a Best Buy exclusive and packs a Core i5 processor, Intel Wireless Display technology (WiDi), four speakers, 15.6-inch display and multi-touch.
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