Latest Technology News

Fifth in a series. Using Software Assurance, Microsoft has crafted a program that promises savings, while often costing businesses even more for software. Sometimes the higher prices are obvious, and that can hurt Microsoft's sales. Other times, it's not so obvious, such as the way Microsoft uses crazy math and a concealed license switch to raise the price on Software Assurance license renewals for larger customers.

What Assurance of Savings?

A group representing over 5,000 users of vector drawing software FreeHand has filed a class action lawsuit against Adobe Inc. in the California District Court for antitrust violations.

Adobe almost acquired FreeHand in 1994 when it acquired Aldus, but the Federal Trade Commission put a decade-long moratorium on the acquisition. Like clockwork, when Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005, it acquired FreeHand, because Macromedia had absorbed FreeHand's then-owner Altsys.

A crucial piece of Sony's online infrastructure is slated to return on May 24, according to a memo sent to developers and publishers this week. Gaming news site Gamasutra obtained the note on the PlayStation Store, Sony's repository for gaming content and downloadable games.

The store is also a major source of additional revenue for developers, thus its return is highly anticipated. Backlogged content that was supposed to be released during the store's downtime will be made available on a rolling basis over the next few weeks, the note details.

Last month Symantec gave us a first look at their Internet Security 2012 technologies, and now it's BitDefender's turn, as today it has released the first public beta of the company's extremely comprehensive Total Security 2012.

We do mean comprehensive. So the lengthy feature list doesn't only include the standard modules: antivirus, antiphishing, antispam, a firewall, and so on. You also get file encryption, a secure file shredder, chat encryption, parental controls, an online backup tool, file syncing, vulnerability detection, privacy options, a tune-up tool to clean up redundant files and Registry keys and a remote management tool that will help you manage these features across your entire network.

Apple's AirPlay feature makes it easy to share and stream your iTunes library to iOS devices, but it lacks the option to stream media in the opposite direction. Shairport4w is a free application that makes it possible to transform your Windows based computer into an AirPort receiver so you can stream media from one machine to another.

The application can be used in conjunction with any computer or device that includes a version of iTunes or iOS that supports AirPlay, and the process of configuring your computer to be a media access point can be completed in just a moment.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Google is setting aside $500 million to potentially resolve a case with the Justice Department. The DOJ is investigating whether Google knowingly took ads from online pharmacies that break U.S. laws.

When you run as much advertising as Google does it's hard to police everything. But Google has a history of problems in this regard. In 2006 researcher Ben Edelman examined some of these and concluded that "Google ought to do more to make ads safe."

You simply can't trust analyst predictions. Today, Gartner reported that Android passed Symbian for first-quarter in smartphone shipments and market share. That's sooner than some analyst forecasts, while later than others.

More than 36 million Android handsets sold during the quarter compared to 27.6 million Symbian phones, for 36 percent and 27.4 percent market share, respectively. Apple's iOS ranked third, with 16.9 million sales and 16.8 percent market share. Unlike most other analyst firms, like IDC, Gartner measures actual handset sales rather than shipments to carriers and dealers.

Canadian mobile gaming company Fuse Powered Inc., who has released such iOS-based games as Dawn of the Dead, Jaws, and Swarm Killer, announced on Thursday that it had received $2 million in seed funding from the BlackBerry Partners Fund and NFQ Ventures.

The BlackBerry Partners Fund was created three years ago to address the rapid growth of mobile computing, and to invest capital, resources and expertise in "exceptional entrepreneurs around the world who are shaping the future of the mobile eco-system."

In three and a half years, Amazon's Kindle has grown from a single dedicated e-reader to a full-blown e-book platform available on nearly every popular operating system. Today, Amazon announced that Kindle-format e-books have finally begun to outsell traditional paper-bound books.

Since April 1, 2011, Amazon has been selling 105 Kindle books for every 100 print books it sells. It's only a small lead, but just one year ago, Amazon was only selling 60 Kindle books to every 100 paper books, so sales growth has been extremely rapid.

Today, Microsoft announced that the latest Xbox 360 system "Spring" update is immediately available, on a rolling out basis. So some lucky gamers will get the update today, while others will have to wait. They're lucky as long as the update doesn't, ah, brick their consoles.

Microsoft's Major Nelson (aka Larry Hryb) formally announced the update, which will allow "U.S. and international Xbox Live users to make purchases on their Xbox 360 consoles with their PayPal accounts." Well, almost internationally. PayPal won't be available in more than a dozen countries: Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan. That includes most of the BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia and India. In other words, if you live in three of the four largest emerging markets, Xbox Live and PayPal aren't for you.

If you don't read Betanews often, or don't really get a feel for my personality through my writing, allow me to give you a brief introduction that is also something of a disclosure of bias.

My name is Tim Conneally, I happen to own a television, computer monitor, and Android smartphone made by Samsung, and like 5,000 other lucky slobs, I got a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 simply by being present at Google I/O 2011.

Corporate-minded social network LinkedIn announced it had sold more 7.84 million shares in an initial public offering at $45 each, raising $352.8 million for the company. The high demand for stock in LinkedIn also caused it to raise its IPO price to $42 to $45 from an initial range of $32 to $35.

The windfall certainly benefits co-founders Reid Hoffman and Jean-Luc Vaillant, who founded the company in Reid's living room in 2002 with three others. It also may signal the beginning of another spurt of tech IPOs -- a rare commodity since the dot-com bust.

Fourth in a series. What constitues savings when buying software upgrades? For Microsoft customers there are but two choices: Buy extra-cost Software Assurance when purchasing a new license or pay full price later on. 

It's a gamble that Microsoft will release something new during the three-year SA contract period or that the licensee will even want the product. Savings can be 13 percent over three years, but the costs are sometimes substantially higher.

Brisbane-based software developer r2 Studios has released a major update to its pioneering startup management application. As the name implies, Startup Delayer 3.0 allows users to delay startup applications to free up system resources and optimize the startup routine. It's also a fully featured startup manager by allowing users to disable and delete unwanted startup applications too.

Version 3.0 is virtually unrecognizable from its predecessors, sporting numerous new features, a recoded startup delay engine and a brand new user interface with drag-and-drop support. It's also now fully compatible with 64-bit versions of Windows (including Windows 7) and User Account Control.

Microsoft recently revealed that 1 in every 14 downloads on the Windows platform contains malicious software. That's a scary thought, and means your security software could be working overtime in trying to prevent your PC from becoming infected.

Thankfully there are plenty of free (and safe, obviously) tools out there that can help reduce the risk of being infected by malicious software to practically zero. Read on, for our essential guide to the best free tools for helping steer you away from dangerous downloads and websites with malicious intent.