Philadelphia lights up 'the other kind' of LTE network
At the Philadelphia Police Academy on Tuesday, Motorola Solutions demonstrated the public safety LTE network technology it hopes to use to link up many of the cities that have already committed to constructing networks this year.
Philadelphia is part of the United States' East Coast megalopolis that is treated to the best in new communications technologies and infrastructure. Just about four months ago in December 2010, Verizon Wireless launched Philadelphia's 4G LTE network along with 38 other major metropolitan areas.
iTunes 10.2.2 nips security holes, tucks away bugs
Apple has released a minor update for its iTunes software application for Windows and Mac users. iTunes 10.2.2 features a number of minor bug fixes, plus closes several security holes in the Windows client (these holes were closed on the Mac platform in a recent update to the Safari browser).
The bug fixes resolve a problem whereby iTunes becomes unresponsive when syncing to an iPad. It also resolves a problem whereby syncing photos to iOS devices took longer than necessary, plus prevents video previews from skipping during playback on the iTunes store. The update also addresses other non-specified issues with stability and performance.
i4i chairman speaks candidly about Microsoft patent infringement case
There's a strange irony about i4i's patent case against Microsoft. Yesterday, lawyers representing both companies pled their different positions before the U.S. Supreme Court -- in one of the most important, and potentially precedent-setting, patent cases in recent memory. Microsoft' defense is essentially an indictment of the patent system, including operations of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Strangest coincidence: The agency was one of i4i's earliest and largest customers for the patented technology in dispute.
"The USPTO itself was the organization that realized the potential of the innovation of what we were doing," says i4i Chairman Loudon Owen. "They were our biggest customer, and the biggest rollout in history. It's a pretty cruel joke to turn around now and say that the patent office didn't understand the industry, considering they were investing an enormous amount trying to manage the whole patent process through our technology."
TweetDeck may lead to showdown between Twitter, UberMedia
Not more than a week after reports indicated developer UberMedia may be making moves to create its own Twitter-like short message service, Twitter may be preparing to play defense. The company is said to be in "advanced talks" to acquire UK-based TweetDeck for $50 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
UberMedia was said to be close to purchasing TweetDeck's assets. This was likely in an effort to either solidify its position as the largest third-party Twitter developer, or possibly to quickly bolster whatever competitor to the microblogging service it has been said to be working on.
Europe outspends U.S. and Japan on consumer electronics
ALICANTE, Spain -- For as long as I've been a tech journalist -- and it's been a long time -- I always thought of the United States as the single biggest market for consumer electronics, followed by Japan with China rapidly rising in the ranks.
My oh my, have I been wrong. In fact, the biggest market is Europe. Last year, it accounted for 29 percent of the $913 billion worldwide market for "technical consumer products," a designation that also allows for counting appliances that are becoming smart and connected, too. Turns out we Yanks finished second, accounting for 21 percent of all goods sold. Third place went to China, with 12 percent share.
First community-run Sirius XM stations announced
One of the conditions put into the 2008 merger of satellite radio companies Sirius and XM by the Federal Communications Commission was that the merged company had to allow unaffiliated third parties to lease channels on a long-term basis (.PDF here). On Monday, nearly four years after the merger was first announced, the FCC announced the condition has been implemented at Sirius XM, and listed the first third-party lessees.
The first stations involved in the program are by no means commercial in nature and instead are geared toward providing programming for a very specific audience:
Samsung: We'll hook Europeans on our TVs by giving them a 3D channel
ALICANTE, Spain -- 3D TVs aren't ready for prime time, so to speak. They'll let you watch Avatar at home in all its epic Cameron-esque glory. But you gotta wear glasses, and there isn't much programming. As a result, TV makers have found themselves ahead -- way ahead -- of market demand. It's that old chicken and egg conundrum: Which comes first, the applications or devices/platform?
The 3D device/platform is there, from the likes of Samsung or Sony but where's the content where you really need it -- in the living room during prime time? Then there are those godawful glasses. Thankfully, no one needs see them in the comfort of your cozy chair, unlike the crowded theater.
Yahoo Buzz's closure on April 21 almost goes unnoticed
Yahoo's experiment with social news will end this week, but almost nobody noticed its demise. A message was posted to the Yahoo Buzz website back on April 4 stating the company's plans to close the site, but it wasn't until Monday morning that news sites picked up on the news.
"As of [April 21], you will be unable to access the Yahoo! Buzz site. This was a hard decision," the company wrote. "However this will help us focus on our core strengths and new innovations. We appreciate your patronage." The shift seems to further suggest that Internet users are increasingly moving away from the fad that was social news.
Tip: Organize your ebooks with Calibre 0.7.56
The digital revolution continues apace, and if you fancy the idea of reading books on your computer or other digital device (such as your iPad or dedicated ebook reader), then Calibre is a must-have tool. It exists to organize, convert and even transfer your ebook collection to and from your ebook reader.
That's not all it does: you can use it to download RSS feeds and convert them into a format for reading on your eBook reader. You can even configure it as a web server, allowing you to access your books from any Internet-connected browser.
Patent that took down Barnes and Noble's Nook revealed
Monday, California-based technology company Spring Design announced that it had been granted the patent for multiple-screen technology that resulted in a lawsuit with Barnes and Noble over the Nook e-reader last year.
Spring Design debuted its Alex dual-screen e-reader literally one day before Barnes and Noble announced its Nook e-reader in 2009. Both devices utilized a similar LCD and E-Paper design and had similar Android-based architectures. Naturally, a lawsuit was not far behind.
Dual Monitor Tools 1.8 -- for when one screen isn't enough
The open-source Dual Monitor Tools collection, designed to help those with multiple monitor setups, has been updated to version 1.8. As the name implies, it's a collection of five separate tools, each of which runs independently to provide additional functionality for multiple monitor setups. No installation is required, each tool runs directly from its program executable. All five tools have been updated for this new release, with additional functionality, performance enhancements and bug fixes the order of the day.
The Swap Screen tool, which is designed to simplify the task of moving windows and applications between monitor displays, has a couple of feature enhancements. You can now move the active window to any of 10 user-defined areas on another display, plus there's an option to allow sticky or locked cursors to return freely to the primary display. The program has also been tweaked to reduce memory allocations.
Google Video to shut down, search will stay
Google over the weekend shut down its Google Video service, sending an e-mail to all users that had uploaded content to the service stating playback of hosted content will end on April 29. The move will affect only videos hosted by Google, not the popular video search engine.
The company launched the effort in 2005, aiming to make it similar in concept to YouTube. However, its value to Google came into question the following year when it acquired the company it aimed to compete with for $1.6 billion. Google Video has not accepted new uploads since 2009, when it decided to focus on the search side of things.
Oracle hands OpenOffice to open-source community, gives up commercial sales
On Friday, Oracle announced that it will discontinue commercial development of the OpenOffice suite, handing it back to the open-source community for future development. The news has been anticipated for some time, ever since The Document Foundation was set up to try and prevent a single company dominating the development of OpenOffice, a response to Oracle's purchase of Sun Microsystems, which previously owned the open-source project.
The news coincides with the announcement that rival office package, LibreOffice, which branched off from OpenOffice six months ago, has announced the launch of a beta version 3.4.
Steve Ballmer has restored my confidence in his leadership
Surprisingly, it only took 10 months. I just figured we were done.
As a long-time supporter of Microsoft's CEO, my June 2010 commentary "I have lost confidence in Steve Ballmer's leadership" came as a surprise. At the time, Windows Mobile was a train wreck; iPad launched to huge success, leaving Microsoft clueless; and Apple's market capitalization exceeded Microsoft's.
Microsoft launches Office 365 public beta
Early on Monday, Microsoft announced the availability of the full public beta of Office 365, Redmond's cloud-based enterprise productivity suite that puts Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online into a single subscription package.
It's been just about six months since Microsoft rolled out the first limited beta of Office 365, and now the company is releasing the public beta just about six months before the product's anticipated final launch.
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