Google unveils Nexus Q, the 'Tiny Android computer'
If Boxee shook up the design world by turning the standard set-top box form factor into an odd geometric shape, Google has completely eliminated the "box" from the equation, and unveiled the Nexus Q, a streaming home entertainment hub for connecting your TV to your Android devices and to Google Play for content distribution.
It features:
Google's Nexus 7 tablet goes up for sale at $199, ships in July
At Google's I/O 2012 developer convention on Wednesday, the long-rumored Asus tablet sporting the Google Nexus brand was finally revealed. Confirming the rumor from Gizmodo Australia earlier this week, the tablet is known as Nexus 7.
As the rumors had suggested, the $199 device is going to be the first to run Android 4.1 (aka Jellybean), sport a 7-inch, 1280 x 800 display, run on a quad-core 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 processor with 1GB of RAM and a "12 core" GeForce GPU, be Wi-Fi only, and offer a 1.3 megapixel forward-facing camera, accelerometer, and NFC chip for device-to-device communication. The total weight of the device is just 340 grams.
Liveblog from Google I/O -- it's insanity
I'm here in San Francisco, undeterred by cancelled and delayed flights, and it's madness. At 7 am PDT, when the doors were supposed to open, the line wrapped around and down the block and around the next one. Man, you should have come. I/O closes an exciting month of developer events -- Apple's WWDC, Microsoft's TechEd, Windows Phone and surprise Surface announcement. But the last word goes to Google, which is expected today to debut the Nexus tablet, expand cloud services and delight with lots more. I'm too rushed to go through them all.
The keynote commences at 9:30 am PDT -- that's 12:30 pm Eastern Time, and all updates here will be in chronological order reversed -- meaning newest first. You'll want to refresh often.
I once was blind but now I see -- or, why I’ll never give up my PC for a tablet and smartphone
Oh man, what a hellish 10 days this has been.
Before we get too far, let me just warn you that when the doorbell rings, this little chat will be over. I don’t care if I’m in mid-sentence. That’s it. Period. End of story.
Secure your PC with Bitdefender 2013
Bitdefender has released its 2013 range: Antivirus Plus 2013 ($49.95), Internet Security 2013 ($69.95), and the high-end Total Security 2013 ($79.95).
And the headline addition this time is Safepay, a secure virtual browser which aims to protect your online banking and shopping details (although the technology will help to shield any confidential online activity). It’s a useful feature and is available on all three products.
Chrome 20 released -- get it now!
Google has released Chrome 20 to the Stable Channel for Windows, Linux, the Mac and Chrome Frame. And while it’s a less-than-exciting maintenance build with no major visible changes, there are more than enough patches included to justify updating.
The official Chrome Releases blog details its usual top 20 security fixes, for instance. SVG and PDF-related code in particular sees some useful updates this time, although there are other important tweaks as well, including one to “prevent sandboxed processes interfering with each other” (the fact that this was possible before is a significant issue).
I do not care about Facebook's email service, nor will I use it
Facebook has really made waves among its users by changing the contact email address information in personal profiles.
In a move meant to popularize Facebook's own email service, users have been given an @facebook.com email address with the same address as the one in their personal URL. For instance, now you have [email protected] if you had the URL www.facebook.com/idontcareaboutfacebook. I believe that is the best news Facebook could have given to those 800 million users, and I think it’s the best thing they’ve done so far.
Cisco launches its first 802.11ac gigabit wireless router
Cisco has taken the plate and swung hard for the fences with their new draft 802.11ac gigabit wireless router product, the Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Router EA6500.
Scheduled for release in August, the EA6500 is available as a $219.99 pre-order in Cisco's Web store. Besides the feature set of the latest draft 802.11ac for speeds of up to 1300 Mbps, it also includes a fancy new NFC (near field communication) capability for smart device admin access, and the new "Cisco Connect Cloud" which will allow remote monitoring and administration from a native mobile device app. The Cisco Connect Cloud will be free and also have support to control other home automation devices such as smart appliances, smart security systems, and smart TVs.
Why is Motorola first and last to market?
In light of the recent news that Google finished the acquisition of Motorola Mobility, one has to wonder which direction Motorola is heading.
Google claims it has not acquired Motorola just for the patents (though that is a great bonus if I’m being honest), but rather that Motorola's technical know-how and experience will be a great card up Google’s sleeve.
Google-backed CliQr may have the solution to end cloud vendor lock-in
Google-backed startup CliQr launched its cloud management platform on Tuesday. CliQr's offering is aimed at making it easier for enterprise IT to migrate legacy apps to the cloud, as well as between different cloud platforms with little additional work.
Lock-in has become an increasing concern among cloud computing industry watchers, as Amazon Web Services takes an ever more dominant role. Rackspace president Lew Moorman slammed AWS last week, saying its proprietary cloud tools make it difficult for Amazon customers to migrate elsewhere.
NOW would you buy a Google Nexus tablet?
Google I/O starts tomorrow, and if rumors are right -- and I believe them -- developers get a big peak at the 7-inch Nexus tablet. About a month ago, I asked how much would you pay for one. Now with more details available, I ask if you will buy the Google device.
The Nexus tablet, manufactured by Asus, features a 7-inch IPS LCD display with 1280 x 800 resolution; 1.3 GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor, 1GB RAM; 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera; near field communications; and Android 4.1 "Jellybean". There are two capacities, 8GB and 16GB, selling for $199 and $249, respectively. This information comes from a leaked training manual that Gizmodo Australia obtained. The big differentiator is price. As I explained in April, "Google isn't trying to save Android tablets but kill Kindle Fire".
Google Apps vs Office 365: Which wins over users?
Unlike most tech industry analysts that pit Google versus Microsoft in a paper-specs war each time they opine about these cloud email platforms, I’ve got two cents to offer on the subject from a slightly different -- and perhaps more down-to-earth -- perspective. I’m an IT consultant by day who is responsible for implementing, supporting, and training on each company’s product.
It allows me to have better perspective about how end-users feel about these major cloud suites when “non techies” are at the wheel. And the things they tell me are often no-holds-barred as they rarely hold back. The bigger question most analysts fail to answer still stands: who’s winning the “hearts and minds” of those using these suites?
Firefox for Android gets a new UI, Flash support
Mozilla on Tuesday announced the latest update (v.14.0) to Firefox for Android is now available in Google Play for devices running Android 2.2 and up. The famous browser, now in its second year on Android, has received a significant feature upgrade this time around, and includes an all new UI and start screen, a sped up experience, and support for Adobe Flash.
Even though Mozilla's mobile Firefox has been in development for more than four years, it is still something of a baby in the Android world. Firefox 4 for Android turned out to be kind of a resource hog, kind of slow, and not entirely stable. The beta of Firefox 5 improved on some of the shortcomings of its predecessor, but clearly needed some work.
Vizio drops $99 Google TV
Vizio just dropped what I must say is the first killer Google TV set-top box today. The 4-inch by 1.6-inch high Vizio Co-Star with Google TV will be available for pre-orders in July on vizio.com for $99.99.
The new small form factor Google TV powered device is partners with streaming game service Onlive to promote. The device comes with support for 1080p Full HD and 3D programs. It also has built-in 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth support. There are also integrated USB 2.0 ports to connect external hard drives, keyboards and other peripherals including the recently released Universal OnLive Wireless Controller.
Recycle empties the trash from the command line
The Recycle Bin is fine for catching files you accidentally erase on your desktop, or while playing around in Explorer. But the command line, unfortunately, is a different story. Enter a “del *.*” in the wrong place and the files really are gone.
A good undelete tool will probably be able to recover them, of course (especially if you’re quick). But Recycle could help you avoid the problem in the first place, by providing a simple command line tool which that files by sending them to the Recycle Bin.
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