Hulu Plus launches on just six Android smartphones, no tablets
Hulu Plus, the portable subscription-based streaming TV service from NBC Universal, Fox, and Disney-ABC has finally begun to roll out to Android-powered devices, starting with just a small fragment of the available devices, and adding more throughout the year.
Support is limited to only six phones: Nexus One, Nexus S, HTC Inspire 4G, Motorola Droid II, Motorola Droid X and Motorola Atrix. The joint venture did not say why these phones were chosen or why the launch group was so small.
Opera Next clears clutter from the browser UI
The pace of browser development is quickening, with Firefox now being on a quarterly schedule. Software companies are now also much willing to release beta projects on an eager public, and we have become used to seeing endless Firefox updates pushed out. Opera is just as keen to give its users a preview of what to expect in future versions of the software and this is something that is highlighted by Opera 'Next' v11.50, also known as project Featherweight.
We've already seen a few previews of Opera's upcoming releases, but project Featherweight brings a fresh new look to the browser interface. The rather minimalist interface features a completely redesigned set of icons for the toolbar, which are more muted in style that in previous released. The result is a sophisticated look and feel that already feels polished.
You can text the globe with DeLorme inReach
I'm baffled why DeLorme sent me a press release, dated today, for a product announced weeks ago -- and after business hours on the East Coast, when there presumably is no one left in the office to talk about it. Buy, hey, I'm from Maine, and so is DeLorme. That's good enough for a quickie post.
If you're an athlegeek -- climber, hiker, sailer, snowboarder, surfer or any other wayfarer -- inReach could be for you. DeLorme describes the Satellite and GPS device as a "personal communicator" that delivers "truly global two-way satellite text messaging." DeLorme partnered with Iridium for satellite capabilities, providing communications to the many places where there is no cellular coverage and where satellite telephony is too costly, or simply unnecessary. So when you reach the summit, pull that core sample from Antarctic ice or rescue that child from the earthquake's ruble, you can text mom and tell her -- or anyone else.
Should I renew my Skype number?
While I was busy working and not paying attention to nag mail, my Skype number expired this week. I could reactivate and get another three months service for about 12 bucks after a 33-percent discount. But it's Whopper Wednesday. That $12 would feed the family, with enough change left over for some cool vanilla cones at the Rite Aid.
I've had a Skype number since April 2006 -- back when it cost just $38 a year. There's sentimental value having the number for so long, and it's the having not the number itself. The Skype # is not so memorable or well-known to be worth porting anywhere. My Skype is mostly used for calls I need to record, for reporting purposes. Oh, yeah, it buzzes the front gate to our apartment complex, too.
Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 Keyboard Dock is great (when it works)
On Tuesday, Samsung announced its accessory suite for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet, which includes a desktop dock, a keyboard dock, USB adaptors, and cases available immediately, and an SD Card and USB adaptor and bluetooth keyboard later this summer.
Our traffic numbers tell us that you guys are very interested in Android tablets, so I try to keep an eye out for as much tablet-related information as possible, and ran out to go pick up Samsung's $79 keyboard dock for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 so I could do a quick hands-on review of it.
Google becomes first site with a billion uniques
According to the monthly Media Metrix report from Internet market research firm comScore, Google in May became the first web property to pass one billion unique visitors worldwide.
Even as the most popular web property in the world, Google still managed to grow its audience by 8% between May 2010 and May 2011. According to comScore, this increase was common among all of the top web destinations, with Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Wikimedia sites all trending upward over the year.
My town government is kept offline and my taxes are kept up thanks to the dead tree lobby
I'm involved in local government in my town (Maplewood, NJ) and I'm always looking for ways for the town to save money in order to keep our outrageous property taxes under control. So I was heartened by a proposal for a state law permitting municipalities and individuals to publish legal notices on the town web site instead of in a local newspaper.
Legal notices are one of the main things keeping small, local newspapers in business. They're big, easy money. My dinky town has budgeted $20,000 for legal notices this year. The paper just has to reproduce the exact text provided to them; no sales, no editing, pretty much pure profit.
Will Kinect finally make us respond to interactive advertisements?
Microsoft's Kinect 3D motion controller has hit a harmonious chord among both game consumers and interface developers, selling over 10 million units since it launched last November, and inspiring a whole movement of amateur developers to devise innovative new uses for the peripheral. Though Kinect is being applied to everything from Augmented Reality to education, one of the main areas where Microsoft is hoping to inspire developers, consumers and investors is interactive television.
Yesterday at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, Microsoft unveiled Kinect NUads, an advertising platform that adds voice and gesture control to advertisements.
Is your website safe from hackers? Websecurify can tell you
Protecting a website from hackers is no easy task, as even big names like Sony and Sega will confirm. But making use of a vulnerability scanner like Websecurify may be able to help.
The idea is a simple one. Just point the program at your website, it'll scan it and then report on any security holes, so hopefully you can fix them before they're noticed by someone else.
The real reason Nokia can't beat Apple
Finnish-phone maker Nokia could learn something from director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg. They deliberately released only a teaser trailer, short on information and long on suspense, for movie "Super 8". The cryptic title evoked mystery, too. Had the trailer told the story, the movie might not be as successful.
Nokia marketing is good to a fault. Product advertising and marketing is among the best in techdom. The adverts and promo videos are often clever, funny, provocative and moving. Nokia knows how to motivate people to buy its products, in part because the marketing is memorable or truly aspirational -- that buyers lives will be better for being this Nokia phone or that one.
Sony Ericsson's beach-friendly Android smartphone won't make it this summer
Sony Erricsson debuted two new mid-range Android smartphones at CommunicAsia 2011 in Singapore on Wednesday, the Xperia Ray and Xperia Active. Both devices feature touchscreens in the 3" range, utilize a 1GHz processor and run Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).
While Xperia Ray is designed for more typical smartphone use, Xperia Active takes a very different approach and targets the more athletic user. It includes a handful of unique features that make it stand out in the ever-growing Android crowd, especially as we enter the summer months.
LulzSec attacks Brazilian government sites
Brasil.gov.br and Presidencia.gov.br, two sites belonging to the government of Brazil, were the latest victims of anti-security hacker group LulzSec on Tuesday.
The now-familiar cry of "Tango Down!" came across Twitter from LulzSec and another account named LulzSecBrazil on Tuesday evening, signaling that the hacker group had successfully brought down another website. The group initiated a DDoS attack against the U.K.'s Serious Organized Crime Agency this week, and called for a rally to pillage government data stockpiles for secret information.
Final Cut Pro X is Mac App Store's top seller, but buyer reviews are scathing
Apple only released the software today, but Final Cut Pro X already is a hit. Perhaps that big price reduction -- to $299.99 -- has something to do with buyers' enthusiasm. Motion 5 and Compressor 4, which also released today for $49.99 a piece, rank second and fourth, respectively. Too bad so many of buyers' give the software a 1-star rating.
But there's more, and it's a wonder anyone else other than Apple is profiting from Mac App Store. Today's introductions put Apple products as the top-7 paid apps. There's an eighth, with iPhoto as No. 9. T-boneapps.com's iSplash, which is on sale today for 80-percent off -- that's 99 cents -- is No. 8, while Angry Birds is tenth.
76% percent of you use Windows 7
Two-thousand votes and 93 comments later, we have an answer to the question I posed late last month: "Could 70 percent of you be running Windows 7?" The answer is no. Three quarters of respondents are running Microsoft's flagship operating system. Well, so much for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion coming out next month.
That 76 percent of Betanews readers -- well those of you responding to the poll -- run Windows isn't surprising. Most people do. But the number of Windows 7 users is simply astounding, which says much about Microsoft's success courting developers, IT folks and techies -- among other Betanews readers.
Look to the heavens and fight malware with Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.5
It seems as though every type of software imaginable now exists in the cloud, and this is even extending to security software. Panda Cloud Antivirus has just been updated to version 1.5, offering a number of important improvements over previous releases of the program. Most of the improvements are to be found in the area of performance but there are also a few new features to look out for.
The first thing that you will notice about the updated software is that scanning times have been reduced. The fact that a great deal of processing is done on remote computers helps to take the strain off your own, and the new Background Scan helps to further reduce CPU usage.
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