HP open sources WebOS, challenges Android's fragmentation issues
Hewlett-Packard announced on Friday that it is turning webOS software over to the open source community while still remaining a participant and investor in the project.
The future of WebOS has been uncertain since HP announced it was considering spinning off its consumer PC division to concentrate more on comprehensive cloud offerings for enterprise. Now that the company has decided to keep its PC systems division, WebOS looks like it will be going the way of the Android, except that it will be purely open source.
Twitter releases TweeDeck 1.0 -- get it now!
Twitter has released the first stable release of TweetDeck 1.0, its recently acquired, multi-columned Twitter client. TweetDeck 1.0, which runs on both Mac and Windows, is the first release to be written in native code as opposed to as an Adobe AIR application.
The release has proved controversial -- many users feel let down by the loss of a number of features that were present in earlier, beta releases of the software. Users must also register separately with TweetDeck before being able to use the new app -- in previous releases, registration was optional.
Make Windows System Restore work better for you
System Restore is an excellent Windows technology, one that’s saved our PCs many times -- but it’s not exactly flexible. You can restore an entire system point, or maybe a shadow copy or two (right-click a folder, select Properties > Previous Versions), but that’s about it.
So it’s good to see System Restore Explorer offering an alternative approach. Launch the program and it’ll display a list of restore points, but when you choose one of these it’ll be mounted and displayed in an Explorer window. So you can now manually browse through the restore point, and if you locate a file which you need, then retrieval is as easy as a drag and drop.
BitTorrent releases 'Plus' version with annual fee
BitTorrent has released the first premium version of its compact file sharing client, uTorrent. And so, if you’re happy to accept the $24.95 annual subscription, then you, too, can unlock a pile of high-end additional features.
Integrated BitDefender-based antivirus will scan your downloads for threats. An integrated HD media player displays videos in their full high-definition glory. If the file you’ve found isn’t in a convenient format, then uTorrent Plus will quickly transcode it to something else. Initial support for the MPEG-4, H.264, Theora, and VP8 video codecs, and MP3, AAC and AC-3 audio codecs should make it easy to convert the file to something Apple, Android or just generally mobile device-friendly.
Google Picasa 3.9 adds 27 photo effects, side-by-side editing
Google has updated its popular cross-platform image-viewing, editing and sharing tool, Picasa to version 3.9. Despite the minor version number, there are a significant number of new features and improvements.
Google is keen to showcase Picasa’s new Google+ sharing capabilities, but of more interest to most will be the smorgasbord selection of new photo editing effects and the ability to compare “before” and “after” images side-by-side.
Build a portable toolkit with Platform 10
PortableApps.com has announced the first public release of Platform 10, a powerful framework for building a customised portable toolkit that you can carry around on a USB drive with you.
And if you’ve always liked the idea of doing something along those lines, but never quite managed to make it happen, then Platform 10 could be very useful way to make it happen.
Microsoft chucks our reviewer from Xbox Live Update Preview program
Steve Ballmer won't get a Christmas card from me this year. Or next.
Microsoft's assault on BetaNews' Xbox 360 dashboard review continues. I awoke to find a take-down notice waiting in Gmail, for photos posted with the review. A few hours ago, our reviewer, a BetaNews reader, informed me that Microsoft had kicked him out of the Preview program for violating the NDA. But did he?
Amazon will pay you $15 to shop the mall, then buy online
Amazon wants you to shop on its website this Saturday. How much so? It is enticing users of Amazon Price Check with up to $15 savings on items they scan in stores and end up buying through the retailer. Users can earn up to a $5 discount per purchase (five percent) on electronics, toys, sports, music and DVDs.
The company is using those scanning to effectively spy on brick-and-mortar retailers for them by enabling a share price function in the app. Amazon says it will use this data to keep its prices competitive. To earn the discount, customers would need to use the checkout function within Price Check.
Google unveils mobile-formatted news magazine Currents
Google on Thursday officially launched Google Currents, a news reading application for Android and iOS-based smartphones and tablets, and publishing backend for content producers.
Similar in concept to Flipboard, Zite or any of the dozens of "iPad magazines," Google Currents lets readers subscribe to different news sites and view their Google Reader RSS feeds paginated like a magazine, instead of infinitely vertical like a website. A user's Gmail account is tied with their Currents reading list, so sharing on Google+ has been built into the service.
Chinese artist embeds microchips in 'smart fireworks' for explosive art exhibit in Doha [Video]
At the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar this week, Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang put on his largest "explosion event" of the last three years, utilizing microchip-controlled explosives to form incredible designs and patterns. The video we've embedded of the event is an impressive testament to how a volatile black powder explosion can be controlled and shaped by computer.
Each set of explosions was calculated to paint a different picture. One series of explosions created black smoke clouds that looked like "drops of ink splattered across the sky."
What the hell is SOPA? [infographic]
All kinds of unsolicited mail pours into my inbox, and I ignore about half the stuff that probably matters -- that's if the Junk Mail filter doesn't grab it first. I'm particularly leery of messages promoting an infographic made by some organization that might have vested interest in the topic. But this one, from BusinessInsuranceQuotes, depicts such an emotionally-heated topic, I figured: "Oh, what the hell, just post the damn thing".
Feast your eyes on this little ditty about SOPA -- the Stop Online Piracy Act -- that I repeatedly mistype as "privacy", subconscious response meaning to invade it, perhaps. The infographic really lacks the drama SOPA would create if enacted as law. Little things like empowering the government to take down your site or seize your domain based on the presumption of guilt. That's the painless part. You go to jail if convicted. Perhaps Federal prisons aren't as overcrowded as California jails.
Mendeley: where academic research meets the cloud
The world of academia and research thrives on organization and collaboration. And when it comes to keeping your research, notes, journals and other documents in order, Mendeley is just the service you need.
It’s cloud-based, allowing you to not just back up and sync your research library online and across multiple computers via the cross-platform Mendeley Desktop tool and Mendeley (Lite) for iPhone and iPad, but you can also collaborate with others, too, thanks to the tools it provides in conjunction with its group sharing capabilities.
Nokia Lumia 710 Windows Phone comes to T-Mobile USA
T-Mobile is the first stop in the United States for Nokia's Windows Phone line, as a Federal Communications Commission filing and an invite sent to the media confirm the nation's fourth largest carrier plans to bring the Lumia 710 to its network. The FCC filing can be seen here.
The 710 sports a 3.7-inch screen and 1.4 GHz Qualcomm processor with 512MB of RAM. It has 8GB of on-board storage and integrated 5-megapixel digital camera. Nokia produces GSM and WCDMA models, running Windows Phone 7.5.
Can Ultrabooks halt Acer's continuing decline?
Acer Inc, the world's fourth-largest personal computer maker, is shifting gears slightly after nearly a full year of unprofitability.
In an interview with Dow Jones yesterday, Acer CEO J.T. Wang said the company is moving away from the low-cost strategy to one more focused on profit margins.
Put TouchWiz Care inside your PC toolkit
Does the world really need another PC maintenance suite? Probably not, but they keep coming anyway. And at first glance, the latest, Toolwiz Care, didn’t look like it would exactly break new ground. The program includes a Registry cleaner, for instance. A module to free up a little hard drive space (though not as much as if we’d just installed CCleaner). And another to help control our Windows startup programs: it all seemed very ordinary.
When we took a closer look, though, some interesting differences emerged. So the Startup Programs module didn’t simply provide a list of applications and leave us to make the difficult decisions. It actually makes sensible recommendations about what you should disable or remove to accelerate your boot time. And provides figures to help put your boot time in context in the first place: our boot time is apparently 30-percent faster than the average of other Toolwiz Care users, which tells us it’s probably not worth expending a great deal of effort in trying to improve it further.
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