Microsoft, ditch OEM knuckleheads and make more hardware like Surface
Dell earnings announcement set off some concerns that the PC industry may not recover and as a result some are predicting Windows 8 sales may not be quite satisfying to Microsoft. Could the software giant have seen this coming a mile away?
A mobile future means that traditional PC hardware like laptops and ultrabooks will yield sales to a new generation of PC form factors like hybrids and tablets that are highly mobile, yet just as capable as laptops and ultrabooks, tablets like the Surface. Microsoft knew mobile was the future and prepped for it, here’s why.
Your mobile is no 'match' for Windows Phone
Microsoft's Ben Rudolph caused a stir during the Consumer Electronics Show back in January. He showed up with his Windows Phone and challenged speed tests -- to show people with other devices how fast the Microsoft mobile OS was. With that humble beginning the "Smoked by Windows Phone" phenomena was born.
That whole concept certainly paid off in media attention with Rudolph going on mini tours of Microsoft stores, exportation to Nokia stores in other parts of the world and a whole advertising campaign launch. In fact, Rudolph states that the company, along with Nokia, ran "over 250,000 challenges in 54 countries".
What the world's poorer nations can teach YOU about technology
In the last few weeks we’ve been bombarded with a series of really important new hardware or software announcements. Take your pick: iPad mini, Nexus 4 and Surface among many, many, many more. Commentary is relentless from so-called official pundits and overly excited users --what in the days of paper would have deforested an area of the planet the size of Brazil.
You know what? None of it really matters. For all the noise about what these multi-billion dollar companies make, none of them has produced anything really new. We’ve seen no paradigm shifts. No Big Ideas. Nothing that will really change our lives in any way at all. It’s all been like putting racing wheels on the family car. Looks great, but doesn’t actually achieve anything real. Absolutely, our daily lives in the West have changed in extraordinary ways by this technology as compared to, say, 1990. But not 2012. Has the tide reached its high point? Does IT innovation really matter any more?
Passwords Plus cross-platform password manager finally comes to Android
DataViz Inc. on Monday launched Passwords Plus on the Android Platform, making Android the fourth platform for the password management software behind Windows, Mac OS, and iOS.
The functionality of this app should be quite clear from its name. Over in our Fileforum, we have literally hundreds of this type of application for Windows, Mac, and Linux-based platforms, and they all conveniently have "Password" in the name. There should be no surprises.
Passwords Plus is available for smartphones running Android 2.1 and up, and it stores PINs, passwords and "other sensitive information" in 256-bit AES encryption, syncing between multiple devices and platforms. Data is synced via DataViz's secure cloud storage and SamePage technology.
Cisco buys 'Networking-as-a-Service' pioneer Meraki for mid-market growth
Networking leader Cisco announced on Sunday evening its intent to acquire San Francisco-based cloud networking company Meraki Inc. Cisco will pay approximately $1.2 billion in cash and incentives to acquire Meraki, and the deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.
Meraki's portfolio of technologies includes a broad range of networking solutions, including mesh Wi-Fi, switching, security, and cloud-based mobile device management which currently target midmarket companies. In other words, companies with annual revenues between $100 million and $1 billion. In the United States, this market segment is made up of approximately 200,000 companies, and it is looked at as a growth market for tech infrastructure providers.
Intel CEO Paul Otellini will retire in May
Paul Otellini joined Intel way back in 1974 when he was fresh out of University of California, Berkeley. He eventually rose to the position of president and CEO in 2005, but now plans to step down after seven years leading the company.
His May 2013 may seem a long ways off, certainly this is a bit more than a standard two-weeks notice, but Otellini picked the date for a very specific reason. May is when Intel holds its annual stockholders' meeting.
The world’s first digital bottle top
There have been some great technical innovations in recent years. The iPod, the iPhone, Wi-Fi, TiVo, Kinect… the list goes on and on. But surely they all pale into insignificance compared to the mighty, life-changing invention that is the digital bottle top.
Yes, it’s a real thing. Created by British cider brand Strongbow and marketing agency Work Club, the StartCap is a bottle top with built-in RFID. When you pop the top, exposing the tag, a signal is sent to a reader somewhere in the room (at a bar or club) causing some kind of action to occur.
Turn Windows 8 into a powerful tool
Windows 8 is the least intuitive and the most controversial operating system released by Microsoft in years. In my review I said that Windows 8 is "more suited for early adopters rather than everyone" because of usability issues encountered during my time with it. However as with most problems there is a convenient solution and it involves the classic keyboard and mouse.
Windows 8 is still designed to be operated the old fashioned way, even though the focus is now on touch devices. Microsoft tried to please both desktop and tablet users, but the former are actually disadvantaged because of it. Instead of using a crippled operating system by always going to the desktop tile or shutting down via the power plug, I will present how to use some of the newly introduced features using the keyboard and mouse.
JOBS Act leaves most startups out in the cold
Earlier this year I wrote a series of columns about crowdfunding and the JOBS Act, which was signed into law last April with several goals, one of which is to help startups raise money from ordinary investors. Those columns were about the promise of crowdfunding and the JOBS Act while this one is about what progress has been made so far toward that end. For startups, alas, the news is not entirely good. Crowdfunding looks like it may not be available at all for the smaller, needier companies the law is supposedly designed to serve.
It’s one thing to pass a law and quite another to write rules to carry out that law. Title 3 of the JOBS Act required the US Securities & Exchange Commission to write rules for the so-called crowdfunding intermediariesor portals specified by the Act, to choose or create a regulator to monitor those new entities, and to write rules clarifying how deals could be advertised to non-accredited middle-class investors.
Less is more: PDF Compressor
Saving a document as a PDF generally produces a very small file, which is one reason the format is such a popular way to share information.
There may still be room for improvement, though. So if it’s important your PDF’s are as lightweight as they can possibly be, it might be a good idea to check your current compression rates by passing them through the free PDF Compressor.
Need better desktop search? Try DocFetcher
Windows Search has improved a lot in recent years: it’s faster, uses less resources, has more query options. If the technology still doesn’t deliver the searching power you need, though, it might be worth considering the open source, Java-based DocFetcher as an alternative.
The program’s advantages start with its indexing controls. Rather than crawling an entire drive without asking, DocFetcher allows you to choose what you’d like to search: a folder, an archive, even an Outlook PST file. And limiting scope this way helps to cut indexing time and improve the relevance of search results.
First look: Spybot - Search & Destroy 2.0
The other day we talked about the plan to release a new Spybot - Search & Destroy app today. Well, version 2.0 is now officially available and packs a host of new features, most of which we already knew about thanks to beta versions and a company announcement.
Before you try to explain that you have Windows Defender, McAfee, Norton or whatever else, let me explain something. No security program is perfect. They all miss the occasional spyware, rootkit, or virus. Having more than one antivirus running on your computer is a very bad idea, but having a second program such as malware catching app is not.
Google is red face ahead of Black Friday
Some advice to Google: If you launch exciting new products right before the holidays, it's a good idea to have them to sell. Not only are new Nexus devices sold out, so are new Chromebooks. Worse, they're not available in stores that stock them. Ah, yeah, what a brilliant way to push a new product category to the masses: Look, but you can't buy.
The new $199 Acer and $249 Samsung Chromebooks are on display in 500 Best Buys, and Google staffs sales specialists, who are there during store hours and are contracted through the end of the year. But the search and information giant can't stock Chromebooks. Like Amazon and Google Play, the Samsung Chromebook is sold out (the new Acer model is still available from Google today but not yet stocked by Amazon). Units coming into Best Buy are generally already claimed from online orders. Even the few returns, available as open-box purchases, sell within a couple hours. Google pays sales staff to educate potential buyers, who leave stores empty-handed.
Windows 8 is not a failure
Three weeks have passed since Microsoft released Windows 8 to the public and there already is chatter on the Internet that the operating system is a failure. There are rumors that sales are not as good as Microsoft hoped they would be, and the leaving of Steven Sinofsky certainly adds fuel to the Internet rumor mill.
I do not want to write about sales and projections because frankly, we do not have any data from Microsoft or other sources that can be used for an analysis of the system's financial success or failure. What we know is that Microsoft sold 4 million upgrades of the operating system in the first three days after release. It is not surprising that updates sell like hot cake, considering that they are heavily discounted until January 31, 2013 and that Microsoft charges the same upgrade price regardless of the previously used operating system. What we can do however is to look at the operating system from a user's point of view.
How does the Nexus device shortage affect you?
Yesterday I received Google Nexus 10, which Samsung manufactures. Like many of you, I stood in the virtual line to get the tablet and also the LG-made Nexus 4. Early after sales started November 13, I had both devices in my shopping cart. Google accepted my credit card and billing information. Only needed: to confirm the purchase, which I did giddily. Then Google rejected and cancelled the order. I never saw the smartphone for sale again. Today the status remains: "sold out". I feel lucky, but deeply dissatisfied, to get Nexus 10.
Blog and social network posts reveal that at least on these shores, many of you who successfully ordered received your devices yesterday. UPS tracking indicates my tablet arrived early, one-day shipping instead of two; that puts it in my grubby hands for the weekend instead of afterwards.
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