The 2013 Apple MacBook Air from a Windows PC user's perspective
For an exclusive Windows user, the prospect of owning a Mac has been an exciting to-do to cross off my enthusiast bucket list. I have owned two iPhones and one iPad, and have enjoyed all three, but I have never bought a Mac nor have I used one extensively. I have always been curious to see what's on the other side, but some constraints, one of which was Windows-only engineering software, prevented me from looking at any Mac with serious consideration. Luckily, or not, things have changed, and at the beginning of September I bought a new 13.3-inch MacBook Air, hoping to see what all the fuss is about.
I'll admit to being quite passionate about new devices, and always looking to get to know the basics before they arrive at my doorstep. Yes, I too scour the InterWebs searching for the tiniest of details. I just can't help it (and no, I do not believe that I am a control freak). But this time around I decided that the MacBook Air (I'm going to call it MBA from now on) needs a fresh take. Before it arrived, my impressions were that the hardware will not be a surprise (why would it be?) and that the software will take some getting used to. I thought everything was going to be smooth sailing once I settled in... and I was wrong.
The most popular stories on BetaNews this past week: September 29 -- October 5
This has been a week with a lot of news about operating systems. As we near the official release OS X Mavericks went GM and was made available to developers, while in the world of Linux Red Hat Enterprise 5.10 was also unveiled. Windows 8.1 was made available for pre-order, but a study of sales figures revealed that Windows 7 continues to grow faster than Windows 8. Ahead of his retirement sometime in the next twelve months, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer was punished for poor performance with a bonus reduction, with first generation Surface sales partly to blame.
Things look better for Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2, with reports of the tablets selling out -- this is perhaps not surprising when Delta Airlines has bought 11,000 of the devices for its pilots. As well as looking forward, Microsoft also came over a little nostalgic, choosing to show off the capabilities of Internet Explorer 11 with a revived version of the classic Windows 95 game Hover.
CBS releases streaming app for Android and Windows 8
When the CBS app was launched for iOS in March, Android users felt slighted. After all, Android leads in market-share -- why shouldn't it get the app first? Not to mention, many Android users are very nerdy so Big Bang Theory is a natural fit. Today, CBS announces that not only is it finally releasing it for Android, but for Windows 8 too.
Jim Lanzone, President of CBS Interactive says, "when we launched on iOS in March, we promised fans we would bring the CBS App to all major platforms by fall premieres. Today we are doing exactly that".
Skype promises better message syncing and continued mobile improvements
In a blog post that looks forwards as well as backwards, Skype lays out details of planned improvements for the desktop and mobile versions of the app. Mark Gillett applauds the technological improvements that have been made over the past year and also gives a glimpse of the changes we can expect to see in the year to come. The post acknowledges that a large proportion of Skype usage is on mobile devices, and a number of mobile-friendly changes are revealed.
One particularly noteworthy feature specific to mobile users is the promise that chat synchronization across devices will be improved. This is something that anyone who used Skype on multiple devices will have noticed can be a problem. Send a large number of text based messages from the desktop version of Skype and when you launch Skype on another computer or a phone, you'll currently find that there can be quite a delay as message history is downloaded. While no details are provided, Gillet says:
Evernote offers two-step authentication to 'everyone'
Over the course of 2013 we have seen many services adding a two-step authentication to their sign-in options, though most leave the decision of enabling it up to the individual customer. Now, the popular note-taking service Evernote, which works across both mobile and web platforms, has joined in the movement.
This is not entirely new -- the company first announced the availability back in May, but only gave the option to Premium and Business level customers, leaving the rest of the user-base without the extra security.
Facebook 5.1 for Windows Phone 8 supports more languages, adds anti-social features
My first contact with Microsoft's homebrew Facebook app for Windows Phone 8 revealed one of the least desirable social experiences that a smartphone user can have on any modern mobile platform. The first iterations of the company's offering were terrible, but luckily things started to pick up after the beta version that arrived in late-April.
Microsoft released a couple of major updates since then, bringing the Facebook experience on Windows Phone 8 to a decent level of usability. Some oversights can still be pointed out, such as the lack of a built-in security code generator but, generally speaking, all the important bits are there. And, today, Microsoft issued another update which brings the version number to 5.1. Let's take a look at what's new.
Microsoft punishes Steve Ballmer with pay reduction
When Steve Ballmer announced his planned retirement, many in the tech-industry suspected that he was being forcibly removed. After all, under his reign at Microsoft, the company released the much maligned Windows Vista and 8. Plus, most recently, the company had to write-off close to $1 billion over the unsuccessful Surface RT.
Today, Microsoft reveals in an SEC filing that the retiring Mr. Ballmer will not be earning the maximum of his bonus reward; a symbolic punishment.
Best Windows 8 apps this week
Forty-ninth in a series. A total of 890 apps were published this week in the US Windows 8 app store, about 70 less than last week but still a lot better than the performance in previous weeks.
The total application count in the US Windows 8 app store reached 84,495 apps at the time of writing. 64,140 of those were free to download and install, an increase by 395 apps this week.
Panabee sets sights on Go Daddy
As the Internet gets bigger and more crowded it can be increasingly difficult to find a catchy domain name. Startup company Panabee aims to provide a simple tool for individuals and businesses to find great domain names and it has just reached the milestone of 10 million monthly searches -- up 50 percent from 2012.
Given the scarcity of available names, Panabee offers a new interface for brainstorming alternatives besides dot-coms. As consumers become more Internet savvy, it allows businesses to embrace different domain endings like .co.uk, .biz, .net and more.
Android and Windows Phone on one HTC handset? Who would want that?
According to a new report by Bloomberg, Microsoft last month reached out to HTC to see if the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer would be interested in adding Windows Phone as a second OS to its Android handsets.
The story claims Terry Myerson, head of Microsoft’s operating systems unit, suggested "cutting or eliminating the [Windows Phone] license fee to make the idea more attractive" to HTC. The Taiwanese firm makes the Windows Phone 8X and 8S, but reportedly has no plans for further devices running the tiled OS.
Windows Phone app 6tag gets regramming, nearby posts and other features
Developer Rudy Huyn has steadily improved his popular 6tag Windows Phone 8 app up to the point where an official Instagram client would struggle to compete with the former's feature set. The app has received frequent updates since its release, the latest of which just arrived sporting a couple of major new features.
Using geolocation, 6tag, which reached version 1.5, can now display a list of posts created in nearby locations. Users can select the covered distance (presumably the radius) through a slider -- the default value is two kilometers -- and see a map with the places where fellow Instagrammers have created the nearby posts.
More enterprise technology projects funded by business rather than IT
Research group IDC has announced the results of a survey of 1,200 business executives which reveals that 61 percent of technology projects are now funded by the business rather than the IT department. It also shows that IT spending driven by functional business areas will continue to outpace IT spending by the IT organization in the future.
"Technology has long been central to improving business processes, enabling greater speed, efficiency, and reliability," says Meredith Whalen, IDC's Senior Vice President. "As businesses embrace the 3rd Platform, built on cloud services, big data analytics, mobile computing, and social networking technologies, they are taking the critical first steps toward business process transformation and, in some cases, business model transformation. With such high stakes, the business is increasingly taking a front seat in technology initiatives."
Apple releases OS X Mavericks GM to developers
Just two weeks after the release of iOS 7 Apple takes the wraps off the OS X 10.9 Mavericks GM. The latest version of the operating system, which is now only available to developers, is likely due for general release later in the month and it is extremely unlikely there will be any further changes -- barring the discovery of any serious problems, what we see now is what we'll get on release day.
The same build was released earlier to Apple employees and members of AppleSeed, and there are also updates to iPhoto and Xcode to enjoy. Within Mavericks, there are a number of changes from Mountain Lion. First off, iBooks is familiar to iPad and iPhone owners and now the ebook management system is brought to Macs -- of course, everything is kept in sync between devices.
Dundas Dashboard combines big data and mobile access
Canadian company Dundas Data Visualization has released a new version of its data dashboard software. Designed to enable rapid deployment of custom, interactive displays, Dundas Dashboard helps businesses to analyze and visualize data from across the enterprise in order to maximize the return on their data investment.
Dundas Dashboard 5.0 adds several improvements including advanced usage tracking so that you can measure the effectiveness of your investment, added support for big data tools like Amazon Redshift, Apache Hive and Microsoft PDW, along with a new HTML5 mobile interface.
Downloadcrew Giveaway: free keys from the big brands for a limited time
As a company which specialises in reviewing the latest software, we occasionally have access to serial codes which we are offered to allocate to our web users. Problem is, how do we allocate these codes, fairly? This resulted in Downloadcrew Giveaway, which was a site created to serve three purposes: allocate serial codes as part of a full software giveaway, enable users to enter a ballot to win a serial code and to present discounted offers for the latest software.
We're bringing back Downloadcrew Giveaway for a limited period, running from now until the end of 2013, giving you serial codes for the very latest software, from some of the biggest brands. Expect to find codes from Kaspersky, Bitdefender, AVG, CyberLink, O&O Software, Auslogics and many other brands, to be confirmed.
Most Commented Stories
BetaNews, your source for breaking tech news, reviews, and in-depth reporting since 1998.
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. About Us - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy - Sitemap.