Eric Schmidt talks "gang of four" platform companies at D9
Google's Eric Schmidt dodged questions about U.S. antitrust investigations tonight during one of the country's major tech conferences and answered tough questions about privacy. He went on to talk about "the gang of four" companies that are dominating consumer technologies.
New Platform Economics
This time Apple public relations has gone too far
Earlier today, Apple debuted iWork for iPhone and iPod touch. The iPad version has been available since the tablet launched 13 months ago. I was going to skip this one, since it's such a busy news day because of Computex and D9. But something in the press release is so outrageous, I had to write something. Do the mouthes of public relations people drip honey when they write these things?
"Pages is the most beautiful word processor ever designed for a mobile device and has everything you need to create amazing documents," the PR reads. Cough. Cough. What an audacious claim to make. Most beautiful word processor ever designed for a mobile device? By what measure, bud? Beauty is subjective, right?
Opera Next is now -- download the 11.50 beta
We love to report about betas here at Betanews. Opera has released Opera Next 11.50, codenamed "Swordfish." Opera Next, which is the beta version of the renowned Opera browser, installs alongside Opera, allowing users to road test new features without affecting their main Opera installation.
Opera Next 11.50 introduces two major new features: support for (secure) password synchronization through Opera Link, and support for Speed Dial extensions. These changes are accompanied by numerous minor feature updates and standards improvements, such as enhanced support for HTML5 and CSS.
Maybe Steve Jobs should reconsider the iPhone radiation app after all
Now that the World Health Organization and The International Agency for Research on Cancer have classified mobile RF radiation a Class 2B carcinogen, it might be time for Steve Jobs to reconsider his interest in tawkon, the cell phone radiation gauge he personally rejected from the iTunes App store.
Israel-based Tawkon Ltd. has devised an application that turns a smartphone's RF baseband processor data into an an easy-to-read graph that tells you roughly how much radiation your mobile phone is emitting. Though the developers had several "encouraging" meetings with Apple executives, and the app was already available both for BlackBerry and Android, the app was ultimately rejected by Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Mobile phones are as cancerous as HPV, engine exhaust, says WHO
The World Health Organization on Tuesday reclassified radio frequency electromagnetic fields generated by radio, television and wireless telecommunications as being possibly carcinogenic to humans.
A working group for The International Agency for Research on Cancer met over the last four days in May to assess and classify RF electromagnetic fields as a potential carcinogen, and the group found there to be positive, but limited causality between exposure to RF electromagnetism and glioma (glial cell tumors) and acoustic neuroma (intracranial tumor).
It's tablet overload at Computex
At Computex in Taiwan this week, it seems like every manufacturer is set to jump on the tablet train. By some counts, as many as 50 new tablet devices have already been announced at the show -- and many more previously announced entrants are on display.
We'll attempt to work through the clutter here and show you what's caught Betanews' eye -- trust us, it's difficult. We're noticing Honeycomb is playing a big part in these tablet announcements, and many seem to be trying gimmicks in order to grab consumer's attention. After all, Apple's leaving little of the current tablet market to fight over. Being different is certainly a positive.
Perhaps Microsoft didn't overpay for Skype after all
According to Pew Internet, nearly one quarter of American adult Internet users have placed phone calls online. That works out to 19 percent of U.S. adults. Hell, this is but one country -- with huge built-up telephony infrastructure. What about the world?
"On any given day 5 percent of internet users are going online to place phone calls," according to Pew. That may seem like a small number, but it's part of a big trend. The chart above -- and the steep climb in number of people who call online -- is graphic enough. The number of Internet users making online calls since April 2007 climbed from 8 percent to 24 percent three years later.
Test CyberLink PhotoDirector 2011 beta, get final code for free
There are few news stories I get to write that are more appropriate for Betanews readers than this one. Today CyberLink released PhotoDirector 2011 beta with a simple promise: Any tester offering "valid feedback" before June 20 will receive the software for free. Doh. Why aren't more software developers making such offers?
It's a no-brainer for you geeks and digital media enthusiasts living on the bleeding edge -- download the software, test it and offer CyberLink feedback. It's also no-brainer that more developers should look to so enticingly engage the beta software/service elite. As I've expressed for years, enthusiasts are any company's best marketers. But in the 2000s, unlike the 1990s, they haven't received much reward for their loyalty.
SanDisk unveils 128GB mobile tablet module
Currently, a mobile tablet is likely to offer on-board storage in one of three sizes: 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. At Computex in Taipei today, SanDisk revealed a new SATA III SSD for mobile tablets and ultraportables that bumps storage up to the 128GB generation.
Sandisk's i100 drive is part of the company's integrated storage device series (iSSD) especially designed for tablets and ultrathin notebooks, which debuted last year. Claiming to be the world's smallest, fastest 128 GB SATA III BGA SSD, SanDisk says these units require as little as 10mW of power when their parent device is in sleep mode.
You hack us, we bomb you -- what's the right way to respond to cyberattacks?
Today's Wall Street Journal discusses the Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy. The interesting part is that it takes the position that some acts of computer sabotage ("cyberattacks") --shudder! I hate that term -- are "acts of war" and may be dealt with through conventional military force.
This is both obvious and frightening at the same time. The idea that you respond with literally lethal bombs in an attempt to shut down civilian or military infrastructure facilities is going to strike many as "disproportionate." There's something to proportionality, but you can take it too far. Recently, Palestinians in Gaza fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli school bus. Would the proportional Israeli response have been to fire an anti-tank missile at a Palestinian school bus? If you feel you've been attacked wrongly you have every right to hit back hard, is there no good reason to limit yourself to the weapons of the enemy?
Nokia gives 3 reasons 2011 won't go as well as hoped
Finnish mobile telecommunications giant Nokia on Tuesday said it has lowered sales projections for its Devices and Services division, and because of this it has dropped its prior full-year projections altogether.
Nokia gave three clear reasons for dropping its net sales outlook to a figure "significantly lower" than its original EUR 6.1 billion to EUR 6.6 billion projection for the second quarter 2011.
Apple looks to steal Computex and D9 thunder with iCloud
In a simply unprecedented announcement -- well, since founder Steve Jobs' return as chief executive 15 years ago -- Apple tipped off a new product coming next week. Before Wall Street's opening bell this morning, the company dropped a press release explaining that Jobs would present next week's Worldwide Developer Conference keynote and that the new iCloud service would be announced. Jobs and team also will unveil Mac OS X "Lion," which was expected, and the next version version of iOS.
From a competitive buzz perspective, surely Apple is looking to steal some thunder coming from Computex, which opened earlier today in Taipei, and the D9 conference, which starts tonight here in California. Both venues will produce major news ahead of WWDC. Intel kicked off Computex by announcing new chips, a new tablet platform and Ultrabook, a portable category competitively aimed at Apple's MacBook Air and iPad. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt will be D9's first-day headliner. Apple has little to no direct presence at either event.
Get hands on with Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 7
Equipping yourself to deal with all your graphics needs typically requires an entire library of programs: a drawing tool, photo editor, desktop publishing application, web graphics package, Flash animation tool, and so on. Or alternatively you could just install Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 7, which crams all this functionality -- and more -- into a single, easy-to-use package.
Would you like to correct a few photos, for instance? Open the Photos toolbar and you can crop, rotate or resize an image; tweak brightness, contrast, saturation, temperature, blur or sharpness; fix red-eye; adjust levels; apply perspective correction; and more.
What's the big deal about Intel Ultrabook?
With the new Ultrabook, Intel seeks to bring together the best qualities of laptops with those of tablets. It's an evolution long-time coming. Finally, near Instant-On and all-day battery life capabilities may reach the masses.
Wake on Resume?
Intel tries to redefine mobile computing (again) with Ultrabook
Computex kicked off today in Taipei, with Intel looking to open a new mobile computing category. Now that iPad and other tablets are killing off the netbook category, Intel is looking to start another -- Ultrabook. Intel is pitching Ultrabook as a laptop with tablet-like features, which based on size, features and performance looks lots like Apple's MacBook Air.
Ultrabooks will be thin and light, measuring less than 20 mm (0.8 inches) thick and selling for less than $1,000. By thickness (16.3mm), the Samsung Series 9 fits the category definition but costs considerably more, starting at about $1,300. The laptop is available now.
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.