Upgrade to Apple TV adds gestural control
Yesterday, Apple began to push out the Apple TV version 2.4 software update, which adds several usability improvements, including one tied into the iPhone 3.0 software update.
It's by no means a monumental update, and its minor improvements now allow users to view movies by genre, title, or unwatched status. TV shows and podcasts may also now be viewed according to date, show title, or unwatched status. A Flickr tag search has also been added, which allows the user to find new photos or use them as Apple TV screensavers.
Semanti Firefox plug-in ties up with Facebook
Semanti, formerly known as Semantifind, is a Firefox 3 plug-in that works with a user's chosen search engine to assign context to queries, preview results in line, save good search results, and provide suggestions derived from community use.
This week, Semanti v. 2.0 was released, with features that now include "Social Search," or search results based upon your Facebook friends' search behavior. For example, when Semanti provides an answer to your query that you find particularly effective, you can save that result so that when your Facebook friends search for the same terms, the results that you approved of appear as the top answers to their query. It's something like "starring" the highest quality answer so your friends don't waste time poking around less pertinent results.
New Vista buyers can expect to pay more for Windows 7
After considerable confusion over whether Microsoft will offer free upgrades to Windows 7 for new PC buyers who find Windows Vista pre-installed, in an announcement this morning that required clarification, some confirmations, and a bit of editing, the company stated that it is leaving it up to PC manufacturers to determine how customers will get Windows 7 upgrades, and how much they'll cost.
Customers who already have Windows Vista on their PCs, Microsoft confirmed to Betanews this morning, can order upgrades to Windows 7 through Microsoft, but will pay full price to do so. Upgrading to Win7 Home Premium will cost about $10 less than upgrading to Vista Home Premium, however -- a difference between $129.95 for Vista and $119.99 for Win7. Upgrades to the Professional and Ultimate SKUs of Win7 will cost 4¢ more than did the corresponding upgrades to the Business and Ultimate SKUs of Vista -- $199.99 and $219.99, respectively. And the full retail prices for Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate will be in alignment with the existing prices for Vista Home Basic (not Premium), Business, and Ultimate SKUs, except their MSRPs will now end in ".99" rather than ".95."
Up Front: At Hohm with Microsoft's power management, and Facebook's privacy push
Hohm, Hohm for your range (and your fridge and your laptops and all)
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 • Sometimes it's good to live in Seattle -- like when Microsoft announces its Hohm power-management beta and both your utility companies are part of the team. The announcement was accompanied by all the Web 2.0 trimmings -- the signup page, yes, and also the Twitter account and the blog and the Facebook page and -- say, a person starts to wonder how much power all this is taking to do.
Good riddance to the Clear 'frequent flyer' program
Those who subscribed to the Clear (formerly Verified Identity Pass) program, paying $199 to allegedly speed up the TSA checkpoint process, are dismayed that they're out that money now that Verified Identity Pass has abruptly folded. Amazing that they're not as concerned about all that personal data they provided the system, but were they ever?
After a considerable amount of nudging, Verified Identity Pass has confirmed that yes, they're securing the data as required by the TSA's privacy standards for Registered Traveler programs, which a security pal of mine sums up with a snort as, "We decide who gets to buy it." That's a little mean, though as you may remember it took TSA from 2005, when the Registered Traveler pilot program was launched, until July 2008 to notice that Verified Identity Pass was keeping data on thousands of passengers on unencrypted laptops. It's that laser-like focus on detail, you know, that makes TSA what it is today.
Some Web TV streams will be delayed until Comcast users get first crack
In a deal announced today that could spawn a replication of the multi-tiered pay TV network scheme (first run, second run, rerun) on the Internet, cable service provider Comcast will be partnering with cable network parent company Time Warner (no longer related to Time Warner Cable) to make replays of shows seen on TNT, TBS, and potentially other Turner networks down the road available online first to paying Comcast customers.
The deal will lead to Comcast extending its "On Demand" brand to the Web, using a platform that will not only enable advertising but also provide a ratings service to advertisers. Most likely, this will be an analytics service provided by the Nielsen Company, which Comcast endorsed in January 2008.
Is Verizon next with an Android phone? See previous remarks
A report in yesterday's Wall Street Journal cited "people familiar with the matter," who said a new Android Phone from Motorola would be coming to Verizon before the end of the year. The report gathered most of the commonly-known evidence, such as Motorola Co-CEO Sanjay Jha's statements from last year that the company would have Android devices out by the end of 2009, to portray the certainty of this new, unnamed device.
The device that everyone is expecting to hit Verizon is what is currently known as the Motorola "Morrison," a blue and white slider which was first leaked last week in unauthorized spy shots.
Analysts: iPhone 3G S materials cost only 2% more than 3G
Apple's new iPhone 3GS proved to be a hit last weekend, according to Apple, selling over a million units in its first weekend; and if hardware analysis firm iSuppli's latest analysis is accurate, the 3G S costs 28% less to make than the first generation iPhone did two years ago, and only about 2% more than the iPhone 3G last year.
ISuppli delivers reliable bill of materials reports for consumer electronics products, in which it tears down a device, adds up the cost of each of its components and then estimates the manufacturer's total expense in making the device.
Microsoft calls omission of IE8 CSS rendering in Office 2010 a 'powerful' feature
4:00 pm EDT June 24, 2009 · In a marketing driven response that looks a lot more like the old Microsoft than the new Microsoft in terms of explaining away its design decisions, a Microsoft corporate vice president characterized Outlook 2010's reliance upon Word instead of Internet Explorer 8 for rendering HTML text symbolic of what he called "The Power of Word."
Corporate Vice President William Kennedy confirmed that the component of the company's new Office 2010 software -- whose technical preview is currently next month will be limited to select testers -- will rely upon Word rather than IE for reasons that include system security. "For e-mail viewing, Word also provides security benefits that are not available in a browser: Word cannot run web script or other active content that may threaten the security and safety of our customers," he wrote.
HTC Hero is the biggest Android news since 'Cupcake'
Today, Taiwanese mobile phone maker and principal hardware supporter of the Android platform, HTC unveiled its third Android handset, Hero, which is the first to make a departure from the familiar Android UI.
The first Android handset, released in the United States as the T-Mobile G1, received a great deal of derision for its chassis design, which has been called everything from "annoying," to "an ugly brick." But HTC is sticking with the "chin" design until naysayers get used to it. The Hero looks very similar to the G1, but with a greatly streamlined profile and no physical keyboard.
Boxee adds Windows support, Ubuntu users get 1080p
Sign up for the Boxee for Windows Alpha from Fileforum now.
Popular and sometimes controversial, media center software Boxee was, until recently, only available for OS X and Ubuntu users. Now the majority of the computing world will be able to get its hands on the freeware social media center as the alpha version for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 has been added (build number 0.9.12.6570). This alpha period will last until later this year, when the first working beta is expected to be released.
Kodachrome, the wicked world, and the sunny day
I have a copy of Portraits, a book of Steve McCurry's photographs, on my bookshelf. The Afghan girl is on the cover -- you know the photo, yes you do, and those eyes have never left you. McCurry photographed Sharbat Gula in 1985 when she was a 13-year-old refugee, and about seven years ago he found her again, living in a remote region of Afghanistan.
I was thinking of Sharbat Gula over the weekend as we watched the story of Neda Agha-Soltan unfold -- another young woman in a terrible, riven place. There's another image you won't be forgetting soon. I wish I could, but if I could choose to forget I guess I wouldn't; it would be wrong to deny witness to what we saw in those grainy images.
Up Front: NSA would have central role in military cyber command
Defense secretary creates cyberspace military command
Morning of Tuesday, June 23, 2009 • As expected, DoD secretary Robert Gates has announced the creation of a new military command dedicated to cybersecurity and focusing on the .mil domain. The Washington Post reports that Gates will recommend that President Obama designate that the post be held by the director of the NSA; that would currently be Lt. Gen. Keith Anderson, who would likely be awarded a fourth star to do the job. Gates wishes the command to be launched by October and under full steam within one year.
Wired editor accused of plagiarizing Web sources for 'free' book
Waldo Jaquith, writing for the Virginia Quarterly Review, was reading through a preview copy of Chris Anderson's upcoming Free: The Future of a Radical Price when he noticed that a passage sounded familiar, and then another, and then another. He eventually located several dozen passages in the 274-page book that appear to have been lifted directly and without attribution from Web sources -- Wikipedia mostly, but there were others.
Mr. Jaquith reached out to Mr. Anderson (pictured right) -- who is currently the editor-in-chief of Wired -- and his publishers at Hyperion before going public with the saga on Tuesday in the company blog. Mr. Anderson said he'd correct his "screwups" online by the time the book is released (in July) and in future editions; Hyperion said that was good enough for them.
Verizon fiddles with FiOS tiers, brings Compaq netbook to US
The United States' largest fiber-to-the-home deployment, Verizon's FiOS Network will be receiving a speed boost and a bump up in price.
The entry-level FiOS tier formerly offered 10 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream for $34.95 with a one-year contract, and $39.95 for month-to-month. Now it has been bumped up to 15/5 Mbps down/up for $44.99 with the annual contract and $54.99 monthly.
Most Commented Stories
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.