Lenovo Ultrabook moves in on MacBook Air's turf
Aiming to fight Apple's MacBook Air on one of its primary advantages -- its size -- Lenovo on Thursday introduced its Ultrabook, claiming it is thinner than Apple's signature ultra-thin laptop.
Indeed, at .6-inches thick, the Lenovo Ultrabook U300S comes in slightly thinner than the Air's .68 inches. The laptop is part of a broader effort introduced by Intel in May to revive interest in laptops overall. The chipmaker is rightly worried about tablets, a device category Intel does not have a strong foothold in. Thus pushing these ultra-thin laptops has become a major part of its current business strategy.
HTC unveils Mango phones: Titan and Radar
Taiwanese smartphone veterans HTC today unveiled their new Windows Phones, Titan and Radar, which are powered by Mango, the latest version of Windows Phone. They both come in familiar HTC shapes, but offer some improvements in performance and design.
Titan, as the name suggests, is rather big. With a 4.7" screen, it's actually HTC's largest smartphone to use the company's 9.9mm aluminum casing. HTC drew inspiration from Apple's Macbook laptops, and originally debuted these aluminum shells on the Legend early last year, but that was a single machined piece, and the phone was considerably smaller.
Samsung sweetens Galaxy Tab 7.7 with Honeycomb
In an age where our phones seem to be getting bigger and our tablets smaller, Samsung's latest addition to its Tab family is no exception. The Korean company introduced a 7.7-inch version of its popular tablet, complete with Android 3.2 and Super AMOLED Plus display.
The device is a followup to last year's original 7-inch Tab, but is the first tablet from the company to use Samsung's better display technology. It also features 1280 x 800 resolution, one of the best in its size class. Super AMOLED means the display will be viewable in sunlight.
Trash that rooted Nook Color, Lenovo A1 is cheapest brand name Android tablet
Barnes and Noble's Android-powered e-reader, Nook Color, gained considerable popularity in the Android community for being a relatively cheap device ($249) that could be rooted to become a full-fledged Android tablet that runs surprisingly well, considering the device's somewhat limited 800MHz processor.
But today, Lenovo just completely smashed the Nook Color by revealing to the media at IFA Berlin the price for its baseline model IdeaPad A1 Android tablet will be just $199.
CyberLink bulks up PowerDVD 11, releases Android tablet app
CyberLink has released a new major update to its PowerDVD 11 Standard and PowerDVD 11 Ultra software, build 2024. PowerDVD is billed as the “world’s leading universal media player”, supporting all major media formats. In addition, the Ultra version supports both 3D and Blu-ray playback in addition to DVD, most video formats and social media video.
The latest release adds a new Digital Media Server, which supports wireless transfer and playback of media between computers, tablets and DLNA devices. To complement this, a new app for Android 3.0 tablets, PowerDVD Mobile, has also been released.
Windows 8 has a split personality
The new operating system, which is expected in developer beta in about two weeks, will take not one but two approaches to main user interface. Windows 8 will come with the streamlined, touch-friendly Metro and quasi-traditional file system. It's quasi because Microsoft is replacing major elements of Windows Explorer with the Office Ribbon.
Earlier this week I expressed my horror learning of the Ribbon's role in Windows 8, which quelled my excitement about the Metro user interface. But Microsoft has set the record straight, and I'm feeling good about Windows 8 again. You should too.
'Patent Pledge' companies promise not to sue startups into oblivion
In response to the current state of the United States' patent system (and its parasitic twin, the industry of patent litigation), Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham has launched what he calls "The Patent Pledge," a brief, thirteen word long statement for technology companies to sign to affirm that they have no interest in suing startups over software.
The Pledge itself is quick, and to the point:
AVG 2012 security software cuts the bloat, runs faster
If you’ve felt that AVG’s security tools have become a little bloated in the last few years, then we’ve some good news: the 2012 range, released today, focuses strongly on improving performance and reducing their impact on your PC’s speed. And their efforts do seem to have produced some worthwhile results.
Grab a copy of the new AVG Internet Security 2012, for instance, and you’ll find the download is half the size, installation is faster, and the suite’s footprint on your hard drive is cut by an average of 45 percent when compared to the previous edition.
Monitor Windows activity with DiskLED
At first glance, DiskLED doesn’t exactly appear to be the most interesting of programs. Flashing a system tray icon to indicate hard drive activity can be useful, but it’s nothing new and there are plenty of other tools that do the same thing.
What makes DiskLED a little different, though, is that it’s not tied to highlighting hard drive accesses alone. The program can also monitor any Windows performance counter in the current PC, enabling you to keep a close eye on whatever activity you like.
Document Foundation declares LibreOffice 3.4.3 enterprise ready
The Document Foundation has announced that LibreOffice 3.4.3 has been released, signalling the latest version of its open-source office application is now suitable for wide deployment on an enterprise scale.
LibreOffice is based on the better known, but now practically defunct OpenOffice suite. It features a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, database, equation editor and drawing tool, and is completely open source, making it an attractive alternative to expensive products such as Microsoft Office.
Will you buy Samsung Galaxy S II?
Perhaps if you live outside the United States or are a US-based hard-core phone geek, you already bought Galaxy S II. But for the majority of us, the big chance to score one of these big-screen beauts will be September 16 or 18, when they go on sale at Sprint and AT&T, respectively.
The United States is one of the last countries where the Galaxy S II launched -- Tuesday night. Heck, even China got the smartphone before us. But it's coming. Are you itching to get your grubby hands on one?
Parallels 7 knits Windows 7 more tightly into OS X Lion
OS X virtualization software company Parallels on Wednesday released the latest version of its eponymous desktop virtualization suite for Mac, Parallels 7, which adds support for new Lion-specific features and improves overall performance from the previous generation.
Apple began including iSight webcams in all its laptops in 2006, and since that time, Parallels support for them has been less than perfect. In fact, in some cases it's been downright terrible, requiring the camera to be dismounted from OS X before starting the Windows virtual machine, and remounting it once Windows had booted.
Is that the Samsung Galaxy S II in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
I had the pleasure of seeing the Galaxy S II up close last night at Samsung’s big reveal at their retail location in the Upper West Side of New York. Samsung has done good with this phone: bright beautiful screen, camera that actually takes worthwhile (and clear) pics, speedy interface, and very, very light and thin.
One thing stood out at me, and that was the size. It must be because I’m a long time iPhone user who is accustomed to the smaller-sized smartphone. This thing is big. Let’s be clear, though: AT&T’s version of the device has a 4.3-inch display, already making it quite a bit larger than the iPhone that measures just 3.5 inches. But then you come to the Sprint variant -- Epic 4G Touch -- and T-Mobile version, which is a damned monstrosity. With its screen coming in at about 4.52 inches, this thing just feels strange to hold. You might as well put a tablet up to your face.
Microsoft patch management got you down? Secunia CSI 5 has your back
If only there were a way to keep up to date automatically on vulnerabilities and have Windows apply patches to the important ones. Secunia's Corporate Software Inspector (CSI) 5.0 lets you do that, applying even your 3rd party software updates through Microsoft's WSUS (Windows Software Update Services) and SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager).
I've been complaining for years that Microsoft should open up the Windows Update process to third parties. Secunia has filled in most of this gap with their Personal Software Inspector (PSI) for individuals and CSI for managed networks.
Social CRM is a sure way to lose money, for now
That's the takeaway from Gartner, which has released a forecast for Social CRM. While the market is expected to generate $1 billion in revenue next year, there are more than 100 vendors competing, the majority of which are unprofitable or take in less than $1 million. The market is growing, but it's too small for the number of participants. Social CRM accounts for just 5 percent of the total client-relationship management market.
The problem is customer adoption. "Until recently, many companies have treated social CRM as a series of experiments and tactical purchases", Adam Sarner, Gartner research director, says in a statement. "Few have a social CRM strategy or established metrics to measure its effect on hard business results. Different departments, employees and managers implement different types of applications for different purposes.
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