Bing makes it easier, perhaps scarier, to discover photos
Bing's "Friends Photos" is not new, but today Microsoft's search engine rolled out a major update to the service that MK Li, program manager of Bing Social, termed as an "experience which makes it easier to scan, discover and explore your friends’ photos".
So what has Microsoft added? For one, a new look and interface. The service now displays in the "Modern UI" type of format, much the same way as Windows 8 and Windows Phone. The search results in a tiled interface that, according to Li, "marries design and performance, making it faster and more seamless to browse your friends’ photos".
Burger King sold to McDonald’s -- according to the company’s hacked Twitter feed
Burger King’s Twitter account was just hacked and has been turned into an amusing (and rather crude) advert for fast food rival McDonald’s, complete with the Chicken McNuggets header and golden arches logo as the avatar.
No one is entirely sure who is behind the action at the moment, although there’s a shout out to DFNCTSC, the Defonic Team Screen Name Club, a loosely organized collective responsible for hacking Paris Hilton’s mobile phone and posting her address book a while back.
Vic Gundotra hints at better camera for future Nexus smartphones
Google Nexus smartphones are known for a few good things -- they tout the latest unadulterated version of Android, the hardware inside is decently fast, the build quality is surprisingly good, and the price doesn't burn a hole in the pocket. But if there's one area where no Nexus smartphone shines, it's definitely in the camera department.
As a Galaxy Nexus owner I have often faced a camera dilemma -- do I shoot bad pics just to have them, or stick with taking a mental snapshot. More often than not the latter seems to be the way to go. It's not that the cameras are overly bad, it's just that in order to take a remotely-decent picture I'd have to fiddle around with the software and by the time I found the good setup the perfect moment will have already passed. And don't get me started on noise or clarity. But it appears that will soon change as Google is finally making the camera a priority.
Piriform updates Defraggler, adds Quick Defrag scheduling
Piriform Software has released Defraggler 2.13 and Defraggler Portable 2.13, brand new builds of its freeware Windows defragmentation tool. Version 2.13 adds support for Quick Defrag scheduling, Fragmentation Threshold options when scheduling and support for external 3TB drives.
The update comes four days after Piriform updated its free data-recovery tool, Recuva 1.45 and Recuva Portable 1.45, with the promise of better reliability when deep-scanning NTFS drives as well as improved performance when securely overwriting data.
LG finally details the 'second and different' Optimus G Pro
Unveiling a smartphone without specs is like announcing a movie without releasing a trailer and only showing the poster to get everyone excited. That's exactly what LG did, little less than a week ago, with the 'second and different' Optimus G Pro. It got us confused, and worked up, and took the South Korean manufacturer until Monday to finally give in and spill the beans.
Last week LG revealed very little about the Optimus G Pro, only focusing on two major areas -- the display and the processor. The former is known to feature a "2.5D" effect, similar to the faux-3D virtual geometric model used in games, for instance. The panel is a 5.5-inch unit backed by a resolution of 1920 by 1080. LG gave even less away when it came to the processor, only mentioning that it is of quad-core origin. But let's stop looking at the poster and watch the trailer instead.
MemTest86 now maintained by PassMark Software
The classic free memory diagnostic tool MemTest86 has been maintained by author Chris Brady since 1994, but this has finally changed, with Australian company PassMark Software taking over the program this month.
It doesn’t seem like there’s any need for MemTest86 fans to be concerned, though. The program code remains open source, and so of course it’s still available to download for free.
Developer preview for Ubuntu Phone due this week
Canonical says it will be publishing images and open source code for the Touch Developer Preview of Ubuntu for Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 on Thursday 21 February. So if you have a spare compatible handset -- or you don’t mind converting your existing phone -- you can try out the fledgling mobile OS in time for the weekend.
The aim is to encourage developers to create apps for the new operating system, but enthusiasts are welcome to take it for a spin too. According to Canonical, tools that manage the flashing of the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 will be available on the same day as the images, along with detailed installation instructions.
Microsoft bundles tempt Surface Pro buyers
Yesterday, I spent about 45 minutes at Microsoft Store San Diego, which was busy -- sight not seen since Kinect's November 2010 launch. Shoppers came to see Surface, and there were lots of questions and explorations of both tablets, although clearly Pro was the draw. Unfortunately, only the 64GB model is in stock, which somewhat muted sales, or so I observed.
If Surface is a failure, as so many bigmouths on the InterWebs claim, what company wouldn't want one like this? There are many measures of success in retail, and just getting people in the door is one of them. Once inside, shoppers may buy something, or walk out feeling better about the brand, leading to sales of something else later on. "Jesus! Can you believe that Microsoft? Baby, you shop here for my birthday!"
Of course Microsoft limits Office 2013 rights
I'm not surprised about the weekend furor over changes to Office 2013 retail licensing terms. Gregg Keizer, writing for Computerworld, has done some of the best reporting on this topic. He deserves your pageviews, starting with this story. I can confirm what he writes, that the new End User License Agreement restricts usage to one PC and isn't transferrable. Whether or not Microsoft actually enforces the provision, or changes it, is another matter. We'll see.
What does perplex me: Why there is no backlash about other licensing term changes that are considerably more onerous and costly. Like I explained last month, "Microsoft really doesn't want you to buy Office 2013". That is the reason for all these licensing changes. The company wants consumers to purchase Office 365 instead.
Yes! Google should open retail stores
I can't say if rumors flashing across the InterWebs yesterday are true about Google opening retail shops this year. Not that it matters. The search giant should open stores -- and lots of them. Timing is right, too, and who could have imagined two or even three years ago.
Make. No. Mistake. In the 22 months since returning as CEO (following a 10-year hiatus), Larry Page has injected new vim, vigor and vibrancy into the Google empire. The company is now one of the most disruptive forces across techdom. Android Market branding to Google Play, Google+, Google Now, Nexus tablets, low-cost Chromebooks and stores selling them inside major retailers all debuted during his watch. Then there is ever-tightening cross-integration of products and services creating one of the most formidable cloud applications stacks available anywhere. Google Now, Google Play and Android and Chrome OS devices are reasons enough for retail stores, because the company has a digital lifestyle to sell.
Is nowhere safe from Google Maps? See Colts stadium
I swear I fully expect to awaken one morning to find someone with a large camera strapped to his or her back standing at the foot of my bed. At this point my home may be the only place the Google Maps team has not gone. Give credit where it is due -- the Google Maps team is nothing if not intrepid and has gone down the trails of national parks and under the waves in places like the Great Barrier Reef, as well as covering the standard road-fare.
Now the team has ventured into the NFL arena, starting with Lucas Oil Stadium, home of number-one overall draft pick Andrew Luck and his Indianapolis Colts team.
Manage your money with HomeBank 4.5
Worried about your finances? Struggling to work out where your money goes each month? In these austere times, one of the most effective ways in which you can save money and give yourself a little more peace at night is to track your spending. Noting every incoming and outgoing allows you to know exactly where you stand at any given moment, and you’d be surprised at how quickly the money you save starts to pile up.
Doing this by hand can be a chore, but thankfully there are tools out there that can automate and simplify the process. And if finances are tight, the first smart decision is to choose a program that’s completely free. Enter, stage left, HomeBank 4.5.
Microsoft to unveil new Office 365 for Business features
The big day continues for Microsoft's Office 365 division. Earlier we learned that the service will be deployed in the state of Texas, adding 100,000 new government employees to the list of users. Now, Microsoft informs about an upcoming launch event, although few details are available.
In a very brief post, Kirk Gregersen, Office 365 general manager explains: "Virtual Launch Event on Wednesday, Feb. 27" to "celebrate the availability of a major new release coming to Office 365 for businesses".
Accidental Empires, Part 8 -- The Tyranny of the Normal Distribution (Chapter 2)
Eighth in a series. I don’t think posting pieces of chapters is working for any of us, so I’m changing the plan. We have 16 chapters to go in the book so I’ll be posting in their entirety two chapters per week for the next eight weeks.
Down at the Specks Howard School of Blogging Technique they teach that this is blogging suicide because these chapters are up to 7000 words long! Blog readers are supposed to have short attention spans so I’ll supposedly lose readers by doing it this way. But I think Specks is wrong and smart readers want more to read, not less -- if the material is good. You decide.
BitTorrent launches SoShare for sharing large files
BitTorrent has launched an app for sharing large files, but this time it is not the latest Hollywood release. Yes, I know the service is famous for being a source of piracy, but the peer-to-peer service is also a good way to share and distribute legitimate files -- Linux distros, for instance. Now the distribution service wants to add a bit more legitimacy to the resume by adding a way for users to share large files in the course of everyday work life.
Today BitTorrent announced the beta release of SoShare, a service that users can access to share files with one another that are larger than those that the typical email service would permit. Quite a bit larger as a matter of fact. Catherince Meek says users can "send up to a terabyte of data in one transfer".
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