Sarkozy: An unregulated Internet is not democracy, but populism
Just two days ahead of the 37th G8 Summit, world leaders met in Paris on Tuesday with private sector technology leaders for the first ever E>G8 Forum. The "explicit goal" of the forum is to gather the leading players of the digital ecosystem for plenary sessions, town hall meetings, and workshops to inform the heads of the G8 nations, and enrich their discussions at the Summit.
The overall theme of the Forum is "The Internet: Accelerating Growth," and included sessions today about the Internet's effect on economic growth, society, education, intellectual property, and culture.
How would you like to party with Betanews and Samsung, and win Galaxy Tab 10.1?
Quick update to this one: The Samsung Tab pre-release party will be taking place at 620 Jones (at...620 Jones Street, San Francisco). We've also got the full list of prizes to be raffled off:
o 5 Galaxy Tab 10.1 Voucher (products will be sent June 8th)
Apple bolsters patent portfolio with 200 patents from Freescale
Apple has beefed up its patent portfolio, apparently obtaining the rights to about 200 patents formerly held by Freescale Semiconductor. The patents cover a range of technologies, from Wi-Fi to cellular data and data encoding, some filed as late as 2010.
It is not clear how Apple may have obtained the patents, although patent law blog PatentlyO -- which first reported the news earlier this week -- believed it involved a cash transaction.
Got iPad? Get Opera Mini 6 now!
The release of Opera Mini 6 for iOS has seen the app transformed into a universal app that has been optimized to take advantage of the iPad's larger screen. iPhone 4 users can also benefit from the fact that the app has been redesigned to add support for retina display. The overall look and feel of the app has also been updated and performance has been improved.
Opera Mini is well known for its web page compression that helps to reduce the size of the sites you visit and enable them to load faster. When navigating a website, you will find that the pinch-to-zoom gesture works very smoothly and when opening new pages you now have the option to use background tabs.
In the battle of mobile apps, it's Apple's 500,000 to Microsoft's 18,000
Today, Andy Lees, president of Microsoft's Windows Phone division, boasted about 18,000 applications in 7 months. He can only wish for this kind of future: 500,000 applications approved to Apple's iOS app store in about three years. This isn't even a fair fight. The elephant in the room could squash the mouse just too easily.
But there is hope for Microsoft. Apple crossed the 10,000 apps threshold four months after App Store launched. The number of Windows Phone apps is about the same as iOS apps during similar timeframe from store launch. So maybe there's more to Lees' boasting, if Microsoft is using Apple's success as measure of one possible Windows Phone future.
Catching up to Kindle and iPad, Barnes & Noble introduces new touchscreen Nook
Barnes and Noble on Tuesday unveiled its new touchscreen Nook Simple Touch e-reader, the company's first Nook to lack a color screen and Android branding.
Yesterday, e-reader company Kobo introduced the Kobo eReader Touch Edition which is bound for Borders in the U.S. and Indigo in Canada later this month for $129.99. Today, Barnes and Noble revealed its answer to that device, with very similar specs and a price only $10 higher.
See Windows Phone 7.5 'Mango' in action (video)
Did you miss today's Windows Phone VIP event, where Microsoft showcased upcoming features for "Mango," codename for the next version? We've got you covered -- as does Microsoft. In the video, Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Windows Phone, highlights some of the exciting new features coming in Windows 7.5.
The strong undercurrent of Belfiore's Mango introduction is Microsoft's "glance and go" philosophy -- the idea being: The smartphone shouldn't be the center of your life, but instead enable you to live better. Related:
Nokia will ship Windows Phone 'Mango' but not this year
During today's Windows Phone 7.5 'Mango' live preview event, Microsoft Windows Phone division president Andy Lees reveals that the first handsets from the Nokia partnership will run the operating system. That might suggest to some people that the first Nokia Windows Phone handsets will ship this year, since the operating system is scheduled to. That's not what he says.
Nokia timing is something Microsoft developers, OEM partners, customers, investors and watchers are looking for. Previously, the company indicated that the first Nokia Windows Phone handsets wouldn't release until 2012. There is nothing in today's announcement to suggest that anything has changed.
Windows Phone Mango: a luxury smartphone brand?
At an event in New York City on Tuesday, Microsoft announced the first new version of Windows Phone, version 7.5 (also known as "Mango") will be released on new devices this fall, and it will be available as a free update to all Windows Phone 7 devices at that time as well.
Even though Windows Phone Mango includes "more than 500 new features", some of which were shown off today, a major factor contributing to Mango's importance is the scale of this release.
Windows Phone 7.5 'Mango': Big on promises, not on apps
Microsoft is hosting a live media right now for the next version of Windows Phone, codename "Mango." Yesterday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer leaked name Windows Phone 7.5 during a speech in Japan. The update will be free when available later this year.
Today, Microsoft revealed 18,000 apps are available for Windows Phone 7, which launched in autumn 2010. The number pales in comparison to either the Android or Apple iOS app stores. No doubt, many Android and Mac sites will laugh off the paltry showing by comparison. But Microsoft is focused more on quality than quantity of apps with a specific design goal -- "glance and go." Let people get the information needed to live rather than be consumed by their smartphones.
LessChrome HD: Less Firefox UI clutter for more web browsing
It used to be the case that bigger was regarded as better, but in recent years there has been a downward trend when it comes to the size of laptop screens. The popularity of netbooks and the like means that there are a huge number of computer owners working with relatively small screens, and this can make browsing the Internet something of a chore. It is something that LessChrome HD 2 can help with.
LessChrome HD is a free extension that is available for Firefox, and once installed it does everything it can to maximize the amount of screen space that is given over to displaying websites. You wonder how this is different from working in fullscreen mode, but after spending a few minutes using the extension, it quickly becomes clear.
Apple Store app gets mini-makeover, too
Heading to an Apple store is an experience like no other, but for those times when you are just not able to make it to a physical store, there is an iOS app to tide you over. If you want to check out the latest iOS devices and Macs, the Apple Store app is on hand to enable you to browse through a range of Apple products so you can conduct a little research before making a purchase.
Apple's retail stores have just undergone something of a mini-makeover, and the same is true of the iPhone app -- oddly there is no native iPad version available. As well as the familiar features such as the Apple product catalog, the app can also be used to make online purchases and reservations. While the previous verison of the app allowed for standard products to be bought, the updated 1.3 edition allows for system customization, so if you want to add a little extra RAM to your next Mac, you can easily do so.
Like browser tabs? Now you can have them in Microsoft Office
If you're the kind of person who finds themselves moving backwards and forwards between multiple documents in Word, Excel or PowerPoint, you'll know how frustrating and fiddly it can be. Office opens each document in a separate window, which can prove bothersome if you're constantly copying and pasting from one document to another, or need to reference two or three while editing a fourth.
The logical approach is to allow users to open multiple documents in the same window using a series of tabs: it revolutionized the way we use our web browsers, and it's something already pioneered in the free Office alternative, Lotus Symphony. But if you don't want to switch office packages simply to access all your open documents from a single program window, check out Office Tab Free Edition instead.
California State University opts for $49 e-book over expensive biology textbook
Nature Publishing Group and California State University (CSU) on Tuesday announced a three-year partnership that will eliminate paper textbooks from certain classes, and replace them with interactive e-books instead.
College textbooks are some of the most expensive pieces of disposable literature around. A book that a student uses for approximately four and a half months can cost as much as $200, and every semester, students spend upwards of $1000 just on the textbooks for their classes.
Yahoo Mail puts final touches on the big makeover
Yahoo Mail is coming out of beta over the next couple of weeks, Yahoo announced today at the Witching Hour. I'm scratching my head asking "Why tell us today, if it's rolling out in weeks?" The whiles of public relations timing stymies me.
The new service, which started beta testing in October, will be available to 284 million users in 43 markets and 26 languages. "This is the largest redesign of Yahoo Mail in six years, and we rebuilt it with a focus on performance to make it at least 2x faster than previous versions," according to a post on the company's Yodel Anecdotal blog. "In addition, we upgraded our spam technology to ensure that you aren't receiving unwanted messages. Did you know that Yahoo! Mail already blocks more than 550 billion spam messages per month?"
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