Amazon Kindle gets first downloadable apps that aren't e-books
The first two "active content" apps for the Amazon Kindle e-reader have been released for download, consisting of the word games "Every Word," and "Shuffled Row."
In the first weeks of 2010, Web retailer Amazon released the Kindle Development Kit to partners to begin work on interactive applications for the popular e-reader. Formerly, the Kindle platform supported only a very limited amount of interactivity, which included note-taking, highlighting, and later, the ability to send clips and quotations to social networks Twitter and Facebook. Early attempts at games for the platform had to be corralled into the device's experimental browser, which made for a poor overall experience.
Google disputes it has deal to pay Verizon for Internet priority
Several news services including Bloomberg and Reuters are reporting that Google and Verizon have reached a deal which would regulate how Internet traffic would be handled. While generally upholding net neutrality principles, it does seem to offer Verizon considerable leeway.
Google defended itself on Thursday, claiming reports that it had paid Verizon for Internet priority were false, specifically the account provided by the New York Times was wrong. It did not refute reports that a deal had been reached, which was reported by other outlets.
Clear's way forward may be with LTE, not WiMAX
Wireless ISP Clear is the nation's biggest proponent of WiMAX. Along with majority shareholder Sprint, the two companies have repeatedly talked up the wireless technology as a solid option in the path to 4G.
That may now be in question. Clear said late Wednesday that it will be testing LTE in two different variations this fall in Phoenix, Arizona, with a decision to move forward coming by the end of the year. Given the company's massive spectrum holdings, it would be able to offer real world speeds far above any other LTE deployment.
Microsoft's last preview of IE9 before beta improves speed, standards compatibility
Just shy of one month before Internet Explorer 9 is expected to launch in beta, Microsoft Wednesday released the fourth and final IE9 platform preview. The release is meant to give developers and designers an opportunity to observe the enhancements to the Internet Explorer platform so they can adjust their sites to take advantage of the new technologies it uses.
Microsoft's strategy for IE9 has been to make it synonymous with the HTML5 standard, and to give the development community something new to work with about every eight weeks.
Microsoft and Salesforce settle their patent infringement scuffle
The patent infringement cases between Microsoft and Salesforce in both the U.S. District Courts of the Western District of Washington and in Delaware have been settled, Microsoft announced today.
Last May, Microsoft sued CRM software company Salesforce for nine counts of patent infringement, and Salesforce followed with its own countersuit a month later, saying Microsoft's .NET platform and SharePoint products violated five Salesforce patents.
Google calls it quits with Wave
Google has officially announced that it will no longer be developing Wave as a standalone product, citing a lack of user adoption.
Google's real-time collaboration platform nearly drowned in hype even before it was opened up to beta testing. Once users got their hands on the platform, countless software products were declared to be dead by Google's hand.
Apple quietly adds cloud-based streaming to iDisk iPhone app
Rumors in recent months have pointed to Apple's next big music innovation being some cloud-based service. While nothing has appeared as of yet, its move to support streaming of music stored on a customers iDisk could be the beginning.
Users of Apple's iDisk app for iPhone can stream audio from their iDisk thanks to the latest update to the app shipped earlier last month. The functionality went all but unnoticed because Apple has done little if anything to promote its existence.
Intel, FTC settle on charges of anticompetitive behavior
Intel and the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement on Wednesday on charges that the chipmaker used its dominant market position to stifle competition. The case had originally been brought against Intel in December of last year.
As a result of the settlement, Intel will be barred from offering payments to customers that choose to buy its chips exclusively. It would also not be permitted to take negative action against those who may purchase chips from competitors, nor to modify their own chips to harm competitors.
Jive Software takes the first step towards a social enterprise app market
Jive Software, a leader in enterprise social software which recently closed a new $30 million in investment, has unveiled a new capability for its customers. With the Jive Widget Studio, users of the company's latest software release will be able to create customer OpenSocial widgets inside their enterprise collaboration space.
Similar to the Google Gadgets, Jive users will now be able to choose or create their custom widgets displaying virtually any information delivered via RSS. Jive also is providing pre-made widgets for sources such as Twitter, YouTube, and Vimeo. Users will also be able to create other simple widgets such as survey forms or slideshows.
Clearwire baits bandwidth-hungry iOS users with cheap 4G hotspot
4G network operator Clearwire Wednesday launched a WiMAX hotspot especially designed for Apple's iOS-powered mobile devices called the Clear iSpot.
The iSpot connects to WiMAX signals and provides a WEP/WPA/WPA2-protected hotspot with up to a 150 foot range. It weighs 4.5 ounces, offers about 4 hours of battery life, can connect with up to eight iOS devices simultaneously, and is available until August 5th for a promotional charge of only $29.99 with no contract. The MSRP is $99.99.
Vonage mobile app makes free VoIP calls to your Facebook friends over 3G, Wi-Fi
Long-running Voice over IP company Vonage released a mobile app for iOS and Android Wednesday called "Vonage Talk Free" that lets users call each other for free over 3G or Wi-Fi. Calls placed over 3G will incur the usual carrier data charges.
Vonage has taken a new and brilliant approach to getting customers hooked into its VoIP architecture. Instead of requiring a Vonage account to make calls, Vonage Talk Free requires only a user's Facebook account, and calls can only be made to other Facebook users with the mobile app installed on their phone. Phone numbers are not assigned, so the spread of the app will be largely done by Facebook's half billion users sharing it amongst themselves.
Microsoft's Bing Maps ties into the open source OpenStreetMap community
Microsoft's Bing Maps unveiled a host of new features and functions this week, including the public beta of a revamped user experience with new visuals and dynamic map labels, and a handful of new Bing Map Apps submitted for the King of the Maps competition. One of the newest apps now ties Bing Maps into the OpenStreetMap community, the online map comprised entirely of free and open geographic data, edited by users in the fashion of Wikipedia.
"We've taken the OSM data as is, created tiles to fit our tile schema and are hosting it on our Windows Azure [Content Delivery Network]," Chris Pendleton said in the Bing Maps community blog. "This means, pure OSM data coming down at screaming fast speeds from the massive Windows Azure infrastructure built out to support globally distributed applications…like Bing Maps."
RIM: No back door into encrypted BlackBerry messages for any government
Tuesday, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion confirmed that it will not provide a backdoor into its encrypted messages for the purposes of local government surveillance, despite the demands of certain countries.
Since 2007, Research in Motion has had difficulties building a BlackBerry service in India, due to the Indian Ministry of Telecommunications' demands for an unencrypted e-mail messaging system. The Ministry expressed concern that the BlackBerry messaging system could serve as a method of communication for dissidents who want to be untraceable.
Skype founders launch mobile subscription music service
Skype, Kazaa, and Joost creators Janus Friis with Niklas Zennström launched Rdio on Tuesday, aiming to offer an inexpensive way to provide unlimited streaming music from mobile phones. In addition, the service would allow users to save music to their device for offline listening.
The service costs $4.95 per month for desktop-only access, and $9.95 monthly for both desktop and mobile use. The company has about seven million songs in its database, and unlimited streaming. Users can select songs to be synced to their devices for online listening, or download copies of the song to keep at a cost of 99 cents per track.
RIM debuts its first slider, BlackBerry 6 device: Torch 9800
AT&T and Research in Motion Tuesday morning officially debuted the new BlackBerry Torch, the first BlackBerry to use the portrait slider form factor and the first device to launch with BlackBerry 6 OS.
After many months of unofficial reports and spy camera shots of the device, today the Torch officially went live. It features the standard BlackBerry keyboard hidden under a 3.2" capacitive touchscreen similar to the Palm Pre. It has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of built-in memory expandable via microSD, a 5 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, and 802.11 b/g/n. The wireless radios inside include UMTS: 2100/1900/850/800 MHz, and GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900MHz.
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