Latest Technology News

Let’s be frank: most free image editors are dull. They tend to offer the same style of interface, the same basic functionality, with little to distinguish them for the competition. That may be fine for beginners, but if you’re a more experienced user then you might sometimes wish for something more.

There are more interesting alternatives around, though, and Image Analyzer is a particularly good example. It’s far from perfect, but if you’re looking for a photo editor with a little extra features and functionality then the program could keep you busy for a very long time.

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It’s no secret that a lot of the world’s governments want the internet to be regulated. Two months ago, I wrote an article on how the Saudi government, fired up by The Innocence of Muslims video that YouTube was refusing to pull, had made a submission to the World Telecommunications Policy Forum, calling for the creation of a new overseer designed to censor offensive content on the Internet.

That particular event is scheduled for May, but starting today, at a closed-door meeting of The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Dubai, world governments will be discussing, among other things, internet regulation and will be looking to revise a decades old treaty that could allow more oppressive countries to justify the censorship of free speech, and even cut off internet access if they so choose. You can see some leaked proposals on the WICITLeaks website.

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With the advent of advances in technology and the increasing power of process, we are witnessing a tremendous transition in the design of user experiences and interface design in software development. Of particular interest in this article is the culmination of natural user interface design as it relates to the current crop of touchscreen laptops made possible by Windows 8.

One of the things I have noticed as more and more tech sites review touchscreen laptops is the increasing amount of comments such as, "I would never touch a screen on a laptop" or "why would anyone ever need to touch a screen on a laptop?" The problem with the comments, the thinking is limited by mouse and keyboard. Windows 8 is the first operating system to force us to move beyond this thinking when it comes to using traditional computing devices like desktops and laptops.

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BASIC programmers who have been around awhile likely remember Borland Internationals Turbo Basic. What few may realize though is that Borland did not create Turbo Basic. Bob Zale did. They purchased the rights to his compiler, which was derived from his previous compiler, Basic/Z and named it Turbo Basic. Borland eventually left the compiler market and Turbo Basic was one of the first of their languages to go. Again most people do not realize that Turbo Basic didn't die, but Borland simply sold back the rights to its creator, Bob Zale, and he renamed it PowerBasic and it is still around today, albeit in a different form.

Sadly, Zale died on November 6 at the age of 66. He will be sorely missed, not only by his family and coworkers at PowerBasic, but by many thousands of BASIC programmers, some of whom have used programming language since the days of Turbo Basic or even the earlier Basic/Z.

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Last week, Microsoft released pricing on Surface tablets running Windows 8 Pro: $899 (64GB), $999 (128GB). Controversy followed, with the Apple Fan Club of analysts, bloggers, reporters and other writers fanning the flames of misinformation (as they so often do). These nitwits say Surface Pro is overpriced, because iPad costs so much less. But iPad is the wrong comparison to make. I say Microsoft prices Surface Pro against MacBook Air and ultrabooks, which makes loads of sense when looking at the chip architecture (x86, not ARM), configuration (similar to MBA for cost) and operating system (developed for desktop PCs not mobile devices).

I rebutted loony iPad comparisons with post "Microsoft Surface Pro is NOT overpriced". Compared to MacBook Air or ultrabooks, Surface is competitively priced, which was my point -- that and getting sensible analysis out there. But properly priced against competing devices isn't the same as being right for your budget or what you're willing to spend. Apple commands a premium brand, for which people pay more, happily. Then there is ultrabook, which didn't lift PC sales during second and third quarters as Intel and its OEM partners hoped. The costlier laptops simply aren't selling well. Ultrabooks' failure to wow foreshadows big, potential sales problems for Microsoft, which brand doesn't carry the same price premium as Apple's.

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Friday, Canadian startup BufferBox announced it had been acquired by Google. The company deals in computerized delivery lockers similar to the Amazon Lockers that have been gradually rolling out across the United States. Currently, BufferBox only has locations in the Greater Toronto Area.

Last October, BufferBox posted a blog attempting to dispel rumors that they were battling Amazon over the idea.

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Well that was fast. Little more than two months after Apple launched the iPhone 5 in nine countries, the Cupertino, Calif.-based software corporation offers its latest smartphone free of any carrier obligations. Pricing starts at $649 for the 16GB model and tops $849 for the 64GB version.

The models that Apple offers are actually unlocked GSM units, meaning that using either of the three available versions on a CDMA network such as Verizon Wireless is not possible. For the advantage of owning a carrier-free iPhone 5 prospective buyers have to shell out an additional $450 for the equivalent version available at major US carriers such as AT&T, Sprint or Verizon.

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Fifth in a series. Welcome to this week's look at some of the best apps released over the past seven days for Windows 8.  Before we start, I'd like to quickly explain how you can browse the newest applications in Windows Store as the question came up recently.

All you need to do is open Windows Store, type * to search for all apps, tap on the enter key and change the sorting for relevance to newest. This displays all apps sorted by date they have been added to the store starting with the newest entries.

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Just three days ago Google released the Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean update which now recognizes that December and Santa Claus do exist. Today the Mountain View, Calif.-based corporation updated the factory images for the Nexus 4, 7, 10 and HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus with the latest version of the green droid operating system.

Using the factory images the four Nexus devices can be directly upgraded to Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean, build number JOP40D, without waiting to receive the over-the-air update. In similar fashion, green droid modders can take advantage of the factory images to restore the devices to stock after previously using a custom distribution such as AOKP Jelly Bean Milestone 1 or CyanogenMod 10.

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Every time Microsoft launches a new operating system there’s one phrase you’re guaranteed to hear: "This version of Windows is outselling its predecessor". Microsoft claimed Windows Vista got off to a fast start, shifting more than 20 million copies in two months -- some three million more than XP sold in the same time frame. Windows 7 of course comfortably outsold Vista, and recently Tami Reller, finance and marketing head of the Windows business, announced that Microsoft sold 40 million licenses for Windows 8 to date, adding, "Windows 8 upgrade momentum is outpacing that of Windows 7". Of course, of course. The message here is clear: every version of Windows is a success. But how successful is Windows 8, really?

We don’t know. That’s the bottom line. When Apple says it’s sold X billion apps we know that’s true because sales go through the App Store and are counted. When Microsoft says it’s sold 4 million copies of Windows 8 in the first few days, or 40 million licenses to date, we have no idea what that means in terms of actual sales. Consumers activate Windows when installing it, so Microsoft will know how many activations it's had, and yet that figure, the one we know to be trustworthy, has yet to be revealed. There’s a lot of talk about how poorly Windows 8 is doing. An activations figure, if decent, would silence the critics. But there’s no sign of it.

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Yesterday Microsoft officially unveiled the price of Surface with Windows 8 Pro. Shortly after the Redmond, Wash.-based corporation revealed another bit of key information which was previously missing from the spec sheet -- battery life.

Unlike it's Windows RT sibling, which actually manages to deliver relatively decent battery life, Surface with Windows 8 Pro only lasts roughly half as much according to Microsoft. Prospective buyers can expect between four to five hours of cordless operation if the former's results are of any indication. The reason for the unimpressive performance is undoubtedly the Intel Core i5 processor and high-definition 1080p display.

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Virtual printers are a popular way to create PDFs, and with good reason. If a particular application doesn’t support exporting as PDF, that’s no longer a problem: just print it, send the job to your virtual PDF printer, and it’ll create the file for you – very convenient.

If you like this idea, though, you don’t have to limit yourself to saving PDFs. Free Image Printer also adds a virtual printer to your PC, but takes the next logical step of supporting more formats, allowing you to also save your print jobs as HTML, XLS/ XLSX, MHT, RTF, and a host of image types: JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, WMF, EMF and more.

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No sooner had Microsoft revealed the cost of self-branded tablets running Windows RT than doomsayers started crying pricing foul. The 64GB model will sell for $899, starting next month, and the 128 gigger for $999. I've seen several blog posts gleefully whack Surface Pro pricing as being way too high. They're wrong, in part by the Apple device comparison they make.

I asked Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, about Surface Pro pricing, whether it's just right, too high or too low. "Interesting question though because most of what I have seen has compared it to the high-end iPad". But Microsoft has higher competitive ambitions: MacBook Air, and even Windows ultrabooks. That's the comparison I make and told Baker so. There, the tablet sits just fine. The company priced Surface RT against iPad. Surface Pro squares against Apple's thin-and-light laptop with 11.6-inch display.

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Apple has released the long-awaited iTunes 11 and boy does it look different. The brand new, easier to navigate interface provides a simplified view of your media. The default view shows a grid of albums and you can expand each one to see the songs it contains. There’s a pop-up menu on the left to browse your libraries (Music, Films, TV Programs and Apps) and a button on the right to open the iTunes Store. The Playlists button is located in the bar at the top of the screen. The familiar sidebar on the left is no more.

When you connect an iPhone, iPod or iPad to your computer, a button for it will appear and you can add content to the device by dragging and dropping.

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Prismatic, the six-month old app that builds custom newsfeeds based upon your social network interests and behavior, released a major design update to its web-based interface on Thursday.

After Prismatic determines the information most relevant to your interests, it presents you with a feed of stories. Each entry contains three kinds of information: The actual story, the story's "meta information" (topic, publisher, author, origin of recommendation) and the related social information (shares, likes, and the ability to share the story to Twitter, Google+, and Facebook.) In today's update, Prismatic has consolidated all meta information and social information into a single, smaller bar, and devoted more time to the story itself.

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