Latest Technology News

In late August, Betanews published a series of seven stories, sharing memories using Windows XP. The majority came from readers like you. The first set of recollections commemorated the tenth anniversary of XP's release to manufacturing. Another date remains. Microsoft launched Windows XP on Oct. 25, 2001, and we'd like to celebrate the decade since with even more Windows XP memories.

Ideally, we want to publish your recollection as its own story with your name, photo and bio. You write it -- we edit and publish during the launch week anniversary. Please email your stories to joe at betanews dot com -- or, if you must, comment below. The first round, we only posted stories received for publication with author identified. During the second round, we will also post from the many memories shared in comments. The majority of these will be collections rather than stories written by you.

Continue reading →

Acer's American arm announced on Monday that the brand's first thin-and-light ultrabook, the Aspire S3, has landed in North America, and it will be available for $899.

In addition to being Acer's first ultrabook, The Aspire S3-951 is the first ultrabook that has both an HDD for storage and an SSD integrated into the main board for instant on capabilities.

Continue reading →

San Francisco-based Nitro PDF has released version 2.1 of its freeware Portable Document Format viewing and creation tool. Nitro PDF Reader 2.1, which is also available as a separate 64-bit build, is a feature-rich PDF viewer with built-in PDF creation functionality, including the ability to directly convert over 300 document formats if the document’s parent application is installed.

Version 2.1 introduces a number of notable new features, including a new 64-bit build of Thumbnail Preview, the standalone tool that generate navigable thumbnail previews of PDFs in Windows Explorer, that works in 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Vista. Previously the tool only worked in 32-bit versions of Windows.

Continue reading →

Is iPhone 4S perhaps a worthy upgrade after all? Are all the people who waited for iPhone 5 (and didn't get it) coming clamoring for 4S? Is Apple benefiting from the rock star effect following cofounder Steve Jobs's death last week. Take your pick of reasons, but one thing is certain: iPhone 4S is off to a seemingly good start. Today the Cupertino, Calif.-based company announced that preorders topped 1 million during first 24 hours of sales. AT&T didn't wait, boasting about 200,000 units on Friday, when preorders started.

That 1 million surpasses the record set by iPhone 4 -- 600,000 preorders -- in June 2010. But before you believe the Apple Fanclub of reporters and journalists claiming it's the end of Android -- "this time for sure!" -- consider this: That 1 million number, while an achievement, comes from considerably broader distribution. From that perspective, 1 million first-day sales is no guarantee that iPhone 4S will be a hit.

Continue reading →

If you’re looking for a free PC maintenance suite then there’s not exactly any shortage of options. A few moments at your favorite search engine will turn up a long list of potential candidates, each promising that they’ve the technology to best improve your PC’s performance, and for no charge at all.

All this free competition makes it difficult for the vendors of commercial PC maintenance packages to stand out from the crowd. But iolo technologies is now fighting back with the new System Mechanic Free, a cut-down version of the company’s flagship System Mechanic suite.

Continue reading →

Anyone who has tried to provide computing assistance over the phone will know just how frustrating an experience it can be. Without the ability to interact with a problematic computer, it can be hard to diagnose just what the problem is, and having to rely on someone else to explain what the issue is can be all but useless. There are a number of remote access tools that can be useful in these circumstances, but Chrome Remote Desktop Beta is an extension for the Chrome browser that brings remote access to the web browser.

The extension can be used from a Windows, OS X or Linux based machine, and the only requirement is that both computers involved need to have both Google Chrome and the extension installed. As things stand, Chrome Remote Desktop Beta is unlike many other remote access tools in that someone needs to be in front of both the host and client computers.

Continue reading →

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said on Monday morning that the movie rental company's plan to spin off its DVD-by-mail rental business into a new company called Qwikster has been promptly cancelled.

"This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster," Hastings said in the Netflix blog. "While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes."

Continue reading →

On October 6, I made a dramatic, personal computing switch. After more than two months using the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook running Google's Chrome OS, I didn't go back to the Mac but to Windows 7. Mac OS X 10.7 -- aka "Lion" -- is major, but not only, reason. Lion is the first Mac operating system that I don't like. Also, I find the hardware options, particularly the all-important display and resolution, to be much better from Windows PC manufacturers than Apple in the same price range.

Others will disagree, but I see in Lion many uncharacteristic user interface and file system changes that smack of Windows Vista. Priorities aren't all in the right place, compared to previous OS X releases, with changes made for Apple's benefit -- such as trying to unify many behaviors with iOS -- and increased complexity where simplicity should be priority.

Continue reading →

Symantec has revealed the first public beta of Norton 360 6.0, the company’s do-everything security suite.

The Norton site claim this build offers “our best protection and performance ever” and “improved local or secure online backups”. If you’re familiar with the package you’ll see it’s also had a few interface tweaks, but there are no other specifics regarding new features available just yet.

Continue reading →

While much of the IT world has been focused on news about the iPhone 4S and iOS 5, there has been a huge number of other newsworthy releases in the past week.

Related to portable devices such as a the iPhone is Freemake Video Converter 2.4.0, which makes it easy to convert videos between formats and, in particular, convert them optimized for viewing on a specific device.  The app can also be used to rip non-copy-protected DVDs and to share your videos using YouTube. From the same company is Freemake Video Downloader 2.2.0 which can be used to download videos from the likes of YouTube and Dailymotion, and Freemake Audio Converter 1.1.0 which, much like its video related sibling, can be used to convert audio tracks from one format to another.

Continue reading →

Yesterday, after having raised anticipation with event invite, video and other teasers, Google and Samsung delayed the presumed launch of Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) and Nexus Prime (or whatever the smartphone is called). The announcement is hugely important to both companies -- really more than iPhone 4S is to Apple -- because Ice Cream Sandwich closes the fork between Android 2.x for phones and 3.x for tablets. Reason for cancelling the October 11 event: "We believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs's passing". So what? Google and Samsung show respect for Jobs, but Apple doesn't?

Apple announced iPhone 4S on October 4. A day later, the company revealed that Jobs, Apple's chairman and until late-August its CEO, had died. The world is mourning the loss of one of the rarest of humans -- a true visionary who compelled loyalty among the people closest to him and those who used Apple's products, in part by aspiring for something better. How does Apple remember Jobs? By keeping business as usual.

Continue reading →

Whoa, the results from our "Will you buy iPhone 4S?" poll are in, and, damn, are they interesting. As I write, there are 3,816 respondents -- that's a helluva good sample size -- and nearly 60 percent (okay, 58.48 percent) say they will buy the new Apple smartphone. But before the Apple Fanclub blows a heart value and excitedly calls this the end of Android, the majority of respondents (35.46 percent) are upgrading from another iPhone. Only 7.31 percent plan to give up Android for iPhone 4S.

Not surprisingly, the majority of iPhone upgraders (14.7 percent) are coming from 3GS. Still, 12.47 percent are iPhone 4 users. Few are coming from Windows Mobile/Phone -- less than 1 percent, but the numbers may not be great to begin with. Among BlackBerry users, 4.93 percent plan to switch, while 9.93 percent are coming from "another phone".

Continue reading →

Friday, Samsung and Google postponed what could be one of the most significant Android device launches in awhile -- likely the Nexus Prime -- scheduled for next Tuesday, October 11. The original statement was somewhat vague, but disclosed that both parties agreed that "it was not the appropriate time" to release the device.

"Samsung and Google have decided to postpone the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event during the CTIA in San Diego, previously scheduled for Oct. 11. Under the current circumstances, both parties have agreed that this is not the appropriate time for the announcement of a new product. We would ask for the understanding of our clients and media for any inconvenience caused. We will announce a new date and venue in due course."

Continue reading →

If you were hoping that Avira’s new 2012 range would unleash some major new features and technologies then the reality may at first seem a little underwhelming. There are no game changers here, no new killer features. But if you’re happy simply to see incremental improvements, a company that’s building on what’s gone before to produce something better, then it could be a different story -- and that’s because there are plenty of small but still worthwhile enhancements and improvements dotted all around the package.

When we decided to try Avira’s Antivirus Premium 2012 (their commercial antivirus engine), for example, the first tweak was immediately obvious in the arrival of a new Express installation option. This keeps all the usual setup complexities at bay, getting you up and running with the minimum of hassle.

Continue reading →

According to a statement we received from Sprint Nextel today, the wireless carrier's nationwide network upgrade will bring instant "walkie talkie" communications to its regular Android phones as a downloadable app. Previously, this feature was exclusive to phones that had the appropriate iDEN radio installed.

Friday, national wireless network operator Sprint Nextel laid out its most current plans for transitioning its 4G network from WiMAX to LTE and rolling its multi-protocol Network Vision platform.

Continue reading →