Sony takes a swing at Kindle with free books
Sony today announced that its eBook store now carries over 500,000 free public domain titles, thanks to a partnership with Google.
The company's eBook Library desktop software is designed like a stripped down version of iTunes, organizing the user's content library, and serving as a portal to the eBook Store from Sony. Today, the software features a link called Unearth a Classic which goes to Google's Book Search database of public domain content optimized for the Sony Reader.
Sun: Open source frees CIOs (and others) from 'slavery'
Vendors can build revenues from services and subscriptions, while CIOs, CEOs and the businesses they lead are freed from the "slavery" of traditional software procurement processes, said Sun's Simon Phipps, speaking at a Sun developers conference in New York City.
In the midst of industry speculation that IBM might buy Sun for some $6.5 billion, Sun also used the event this week to announce the Sun Open Cloud Platform, a.k.a., "Sun Cloud," along with the first two services from Sun to be based on the new private and public cloud environment.
New Internet Explorer 8 secures, slices, smokes
Download Internet Explorer 8.0 for Windows Vista from Fileforum now.
As suspected, Microsoft used this week's MIX09 conference to unleash Internet Explorer 8, downloadable as of noon today (EDT). Our initial tests on the final release indicate that Microsoft's promises of better performance and security are realized, and that the team goal of creating "a better way to waste time on the Internet" has been realized too -- in the good sense.
Nokia won't be caught in a MOSH
When Nokia announced last month that it will be opening The Ovi Store for mobile apps, the company noted that the content in the store would be of the same nature as the content previously available on Download, WidSets, and MOSH.
Previously is the operative word in that statement, according to a report from Reuters today. According to the report, MOSH will be closing down.
Oracle brings in Q3 results, delivers first-ever cash dividend
As the company did last quarter, Oracle during their Q3 earnings call on Wednesday blamed currency exchange rates for hamstringing their earnings. As it was, the company reported revenues precisely meeting expectations for the third quarter, and announced its first-ever cash dividend of five cents per share.
GAAP earnings per share were 26 cents, up 3% year-over-year and up one penny since last quarter, which is exactly what the company predicted last quarter -- though that number was ironically predicated on a weaker dollar. Had exchange rates remained as they were in Q3 '08, the company says, earnings would have been up 18% to 31 cents per share. (Non-GAAP earnings per share were up 16% to 35 cents; with last year's exchange rates in effect, that would have been 40¢/share.)
Sun sees its new cloud as both 'infrastructure' and 'platform'
In a session this evening at the developers conference where the cloud initiative was unveiled, Sun's CTO for cloud computing said that Sun is likely to offer the Sun Open Cloud Platform as both an "infrastructure" and a "platform."
Known for short as "Sun Cloud," the new offering "is a way for us to give every developer on the planet their own virtual data center in the cloud," said the cloud executive, Lew Tucker, during a panel presentation at the CommunityOne East Developers Conference in New York City.
Lenovo Pocket Yoga: a new form factor in the making
After a photo leaked that appeared to show an unspecified Lenovo netbook last week, Lenovo gladly came forward to discuss just what the photograph depicted.
Johnson Li, director of Lenovo's Beijing Innovation Center, said the leather-bound, dual-folding netbook was an experiment that is now "finished." It is a 2007 concept that Lenovo created, called the "Pocket Yoga" notebook. The device's shape is based around a 360 degree hinge conceived by one of the company's New Zealand-based designers.
Inside EPIC's privacy claim against Google: What's the evidence?
By now, the matter of Google's multiple small disasters with its early round of cloud-based applications -- troubles which led to the unauthorized sharing ability of some files -- is one of public record, and certainly the company has made plenty of public apologies. But was it criminally deceptive in promising to users a safe system, only to then be hit with safety issues? The Electronic Privacy Information Center advocacy group says yes, and it has taken its case to the US Federal Trade Commission.
In a formal complaint issued this morning (PDF available here), EPIC uses citations from Google's online marketing promotions for its cloud-based applications, along with links to news articles about the company's recent headaches, to build the case that the company makes promises to users that it can't keep.
Microsoft pulls the curtain on Silverlight 3
Developers are getting a lot of love this week. Access to iPhone 3.0 has come to iPhone devs, and Nvidia PhysX has come to PlayStation 3 game makers. Now, Microsoft has unveiled developer beta 3 of its Silverlight runtime.
Offering a host of audio and video improvements, Silverlight now supports 720p full screen HD playback and MPEG 4-based H.264/AAC audio. 3D graphics rendering and animation has been improved, and more than 60 controls with source code have been added.
HP debuts green batteries
Boston Power debuted its Sonata battery technology in 2007, as a safer, more efficient alternative to standard lithium ion batteries. Boston Power promises Sonata batteries can charge 80% in 30 minutes, and have an average lifespan of three years.
Hewlett Packard took an early interest in the startup, and late last year officially announced that it had adopted Boston Power's technology for its own line of notebook batteries.
Nvidia gives PhysX to PlayStation 3 devs
Nvidia yesterday announced that it will be offering its PhysX SDK for free to registered PS3 developers. The technology generates real-time physics in games by calculating the trajectory of objects, their angles of collision, and their impact force. By using it, developers can make sure that in-game object interactions are unique every time, instead of re-using a standard animation each time.
The technology has been used in more than 150 games on PC/Mac, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii, including the Gears of War series, Mirror's Edge, and Unreal Tournament 3.
Mozilla's mobile browser experiment finally enters beta
Download Mozilla Fennec Beta 1 for Windows from Fileforum now.
It's looking more and more like Mozilla is ready to really do this: Late last night, the organization posted the first public beta of the browser that could end up being "Firefox Mobile." It still goes by the code name Fennec, and the first beta is testing whether touchscreen mobile users will be willing to have literally all their browser functions be placed off-screen, if it makes room for more elements of the Web page.
From MIX '09: Microsoft embraces PHP, debuts Silverlight 3
If there really is any release news regarding Internet Explorer 8 from Microsoft this morning in Las Vegas -- and we expect there will be -- it will probably come during the opening minutes of Corporate Vice President Scott Guthrie's keynote this morning. He'll need IE8 to demonstrate everything else on his plate today, and if IE8's not ready for RTM, that fact may as well be stamped on everything he shows. "5-D" wouldn't save Silverlight 3 if that's the case.
Stay in touch with Betanews for live commentary in sync with Scott Guthrie's two-hour keynote session this morning.
Big Microsoft announcements due today from MIX 09: Silverlight 3, maybe IE8
At a two-hour keynote address to the MIX 09 conference in Las Vegas scheduled for noon EDT / 9:00 PDT today, engineers from Microsoft are expected to make this a very busy day for Web application developers. Attendees have been told to expect the first betas of Silverlight 3, the company's Web video and functionality platform, which in this edition may include support for three-dimensional controls and graphics.
There does appear to be a prominently veiled curtain in front of what will likely be the big news of the day, even if there's nothing behind it. If there is something behind it, it will very likely be the public release of Internet Explorer 8, which will introduce greater standards compliance, a private browsing mode, and a somewhat faster execution engine -- more than doubling the speed of IE7.
As the Kundra turns: Old theft plea surfaces
They call our president No-Drama Obama, but that's certainly not the case with his pick for federal CIO, Vivek Kundra. Last week's FBI search of his former DC office and arrest of the fellow serving as acting city CTO doesn't appear to have anything to do with Kundra, but a 1996 criminal case certainly appears to.
The case, which resulted in probation before judgment (a Maryland construct allowing defendants to plead guilty but perhaps avoid problems associated with having a conviction on their records), involves a theft of something of less than $300 value. According to the court record, the citation for stealing whatever-it-was was issued on June 25, 1996. Kundra was levied fines and fees totaling $555, $400 of which was suspended. And what was it, exactly? Multiple press outlets are angling for that detail, though neither Kundra's reps nor representatives of Kundra's then-lawyer have yet commented. The best unfounded speculation in the blogosphere is "a garden gnome," though considering the records show Kundra to have been 6'1" and 140lbs at the time, I personally hope it was an emergency cheeseburger.
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