Microsoft is right to expand Surface RT availability -- too bad about timing
Microsoft's plans to greatly expand Surface RT sales to third-party retailers accomplishes two things. One: Rebuts unfounded rumors that the tablet sells poorly or that the company has cut fab orders by half. Two: Makes the tablet available in enough places to be truly successful. Honestly, I am so fraking sick of so-called professional blogs (and some news sites) writing rumor stories based on a single source -- or worse using another site's report based on unnamed source(s).
Just a week ago, I explained why "Surface RT sales are probably quite good, you just don't know it". In a number-crunching analysis you shouldn't have missed, I refuted pundit claims sales are weak by looking from the perspective of actual distribution, which isn't much through 66 North American company shops or Microsoft Store online in seven countries. If Surface has any problem, it's limited distribution. Too bad the company waited so late in the holiday season to expand Surface RT availability.
Intel will go from being Microsoft’s bitch to being Apple’s?
Just weeks after I wrote a column saying Apple will dump Intel and make Macintosh computers with its own ARM-based processors, along comes a Wall Street analyst saying no, Intel will take over from Samsung making the Apple-designed iPhone and iPod chips and Apple will even switch to x86 silicon for future iPads. Well, who is correct?
Maybe both, maybe neither, but here’s what I think is happening.
Facebook releases its 2012 hot topics list
The trend for tech companies in the past few days has been to, well, release lists of trends for the past year. Today Facebook joins Google, Twitter, Yahoo and others in releasing its list of the most talked about stories of 2012. Let's face it though, these lists rarely vary no matter if it's a search engine or a social media website. What people search for most tends to also be what they are talking about the most.
Still, Facebook is one of the biggest influencers on the web right now. Consequently the data the company releases carries some weight.
Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 available for pre-order in China
A week after Nokia announced the Lumia 920T, the first TD-SCDMA variant of the Lumia 920 for China Mobile, the Finnish manufacturer has introduced its entire Windows Phone 8 line-up to the Chinese market.
Nokia's Windows Phone 8 flagship, the Lumia 920, is available for pre-order in China for ¥4,599 (roughly $735). The handset sells for the same price as the Lumia 920T, but is designed to operate on other networks. The company's mid-range Windows Phone 8 device, the Lumia 820, can be pre-ordered with a less intimidating price-tag. The smartphone is available for ¥3,499 (roughly $560).
WordPress 3.5 provides revamped media manager, promises smoother experience for bloggers
Popular open-source blogging CMS system WordPress 3.5 has launched. The system, pre-installed with many hosting packages but also available for direct download, shows off a brand new media manager and simplified default theme as its most noticeable improvements.
The update also becomes Retina-friendly for the first time, debuts a number of accessibility and interface tweaks, and provides a number of under-the-hood tweaks aimed at blog developers.
Oppo announces Find 5 with quad-core processor and 1080p display
If you haven't heard of Oppo before, I don't blame you. Awareness of the company's existence in mature Western mobile markets is practically nonexistent. However, that hasn’t stopped the Chinese manufacturer from announcing the Find 5, a surprising smartphone coming to the US market shortly.
Oppo's handset features specs that rival those of HTC's Butterfly (or DROID DNA as it is known in the United States), which is rather impressive. The Find 5 sports a 5-inch display with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 and a 441 ppi density. Power comes from a quad-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (codename "APQ8064") processor backed by 2GB of RAM and an Adreno 320 graphics card. The smartphone's 2500mAh battery though is larger than the one found in the Butterfly/DROID DNA, which comes in at only 2020mAh.
Pope Benedict XVI sends his first tweets, three in an hour
It’s hard to imagine a more keenly anticipated tweet than the first one scheduled to be sent today -- 12/12/12 -- by his holiness Pope Benedict XVI. Shortly after news broke that the Pope had signed up to the micro-blogging site, Twitter users flocked to follow his account, @pontifex and speculation began to grow about what he might say.
Since the Vatican asked for questions of faith to be sent to #askpontifex it was generally assumed his first tweet might address a particular weighty matter of faith. But showing that the 85-year totally gets Twitter, the first message he sent was anything but momentous: "Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart."
Microsoft pushes Surface RT to more retailers
The first tablet produced by Microsoft, Surface RT, has the public's attention for a number of reasons. While some customers have found it to be a winner, there has been quite a debate over actual sales figures. Much of that controversy has swirled around the company's decision to limit availability to Microsoft’s Web store and the few Microsoft brick and mortar stores across the U.S.
But Microsoft is no longer going to have limited availability as an excuse for limited sales. In an announcement earlier today, the company said it plans to open the flood gates to get its product into the market, selling it in more than just its own retail stores.
RealPlayer 16 adds video bookmarking, Toolbar mode
Real Networks Inc has released RealPlayer 16, the latest edition of its one-stop media player.
And the big addition this time is the redesigned RealDownloader, and in particular the new video bookmarking system.
Google cuts out the middleman, releases 'Save to Drive' feature for Chrome
The Google Drive team on Tuesday announced a new Chrome extension called "Save to Drive," which ties browser activity directly into the user's Google Drive cloud storage account and eliminates the need for third-party extensions to provide the functionality.
Prior to today's release, an extension from the prestigious MIT going by the name "save to drive" was available. Now, Google has borrowed the name and made it available in the Chrome Web Store. The search giant takes the concept a lot further though.
2012's Year on Twitter - the essence of what mattered most to users
On Tuesday, Twitter released a recap of the most important moments shared by users in less than 140 characters throughout the year. Titled "2012 Year On Twitter", it provides an insight into what matters most to users of the social network: from top tweets filled with meaning, to trends and new significant members, such as the Pope.
"Four more years" is what United States President Barack Obama tweeted after he was recently reelected. The three famous words received almost 300,000 favorites and more than 816,000 retweets since November 7, claiming the top spot in the 2012 Golden Tweets. It should be noted, however, that the social network exaggerated slightly when it comes to the number of favorites, which is less than the 300,000+ it claimed. Sure, the president will get there shortly, but why rush it?
Lenovo equips ThinkPad X1 Carbon ultrabook with touchscreen for Windows 8
Lenovo on Tuesday announced the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch, the Windows 8-optimized version of the X1 Carbon Ultrabook it debuted in August for the 20th anniversary of the ThinkPad.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch has a 14-inch touch display, weighs 3.4 pounds, and has a thickness of 20.8mm. Like the non-touch version, it includes a Lync-optimized 720p face-tracking camera, fingerprint scanner, an eight-hour battery, and optional 3G mobile broadband.
Microsoft muscles further into your living room with new Xbox apps
It's no secret that Microsoft sees its Xbox platform as much more than just a gaming console. It wants the device to act as the digital hub of our living rooms, and today the company took another step in that direction, announcing more than 40 new entertainment apps.
Xbox Live's Larry Hryb, AKA Major Nelson, posted the news this morning that "more than 40 new global entertainment partners [are] coming to Xbox LIVE, including new apps launching this week."
One German city drops OpenOffice for MS Office: Why 'open source' still fails to impress
The original story was not very newsworthy at face value. An obscure, hard-to-pronounce city in Germany announced that its experiments with one time open source wonder OpenOffice had gone sour and they wanted their Microsoft Office back. Freiburg's city council released a draft resolution recently that covered numerous IT problems, but the one which raised more than a few eyebrows happened to be their frank disappointment with OpenOffice.
Among other things, the resolution had some pointed words about their OpenOffice experiences since 2007:
Maxthon 4 released and renamed: now 'Maxthon Cloud Browser'
It's tough to make an impact in the Windows browser market. And no-one knows that better than Maxthon; after almost ten years, the program is still struggling to reach one percent market share.
The developers are nothing if not persistent, though, and Maxthon’s latest incarnation, now renamed Maxthon Cloud Browser, has just been released. Will this deliver the long-awaited breakthrough? We’re not sure, but it’s definitely an interesting attempt.
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