Xbox Live premieres its first movie
In tough economic times, raising the money and getting a movie made without any major stars in it can be more than a little challenging for independent film makers. Getting it distributed is even harder.
So instead of trying to get their movie into cinemas, releasing it straight to DVD, or even putting it out on YouTube, the makers of Pulp are distributing their low-budget British comedy via an alternative method -- Xbox Live.
Zombies, Run! 2 coming to iOS and Android next month
I’m a huge fan of Zombies, Run! The original immersive app, which basically turns a real-world run into a journey through the zombie apocalypse, and helped me get fit and lose weight when it first came out last year.
I’ve been really looking forward to Zombies, Run! 2 since it was announced, and the great news is it’s nearly here. The updated version, which comes as a free upgrade for current players of the game, will arrive on both iOS and Android on 16 April.
U.S. smartphone adoption is lowest in developed world, South Korea highest
Today at Mobile World Congress, Nielsen offered a snapshot of the global mobile consumer based on a report released this month. Some of the findings are quite startling. For example, mobile phone usage is highest in South Korea -- get this, 99 percent among consumers older than 16. Same goes for smartphones (67 percent). By comparison, the United States has the lowest smartphone adoption among developed markets (53 percent). Now contrast that to China, where two-thirds of handset owners have smartphones, while in India 80 percent have feature phones. In Brazil, feature phones and multimedia handsets combined: 65 percent.
Mobile phone usage is high in many countries, but infrastructure is not. For example, 98 percent of Russians have mobiles, as do 84 percent in Brazil and 81 percent in India. Problem, according to Nielsen: "The network infrastructure required for smartphones and next generation mobile devices has yet to appear outside of large, urban centers". Lacking infrastructure explains some of this week's MWC announcements, such as Firefox OS phones or new Nokia Lumias with fewer smartphone features for lower selling prices going to emerging markets first.
Chromebook Pixel is a status symbol
Google's first computer isn't about sales but status. Critics who lambast Chromebook Pixel as an over-priced web browser wrapped in pretty hardware miss the point. Badly. The laptop will sell, but not in mass-volume because it's not meant to. Is Lamborghini about sales or style? I ask not seeing much commentary about how the Italian sports car is a failure because Ford sells millions more Explorers.
Chromebook Pixel is the luxury car of computers running Chrome OS and perpetually connected to the cloud. Google's beauty is a status symbol for people willing to plunk down $1,299 or $1,449 and makes, along with newer Nexus devices, a bold brand statement: Google is a premium brand and the company a real innovator. For the people who love the brand and want to identify with it, like all those fanboys adoring Apple with their cash, Chromebook Pixel is an easy sell.
Overhauling a home network, Part 2 -- back to FreeNAS afterall
Let us get a bit geeky. This was not my original intention, but it is how things turned out in the end. First, I believe I misspoke twice in part one of this series -- one time was unintentional, the other was apparently my wishful thinking. The first was when I called my recent used server purchase a Dell Optiplex. It is actually a Dell Poweredge. The second involved my new operating system and I'll get to that in a second.
To begin with, the server was running Windows Server 2003 and the small business I purchased it from had failed to wipe the data, but did leave it password protected -- something a tool like Ophcrack may have been able to breach, though I had no desire to try. The server also contained a CD-ROM drive which I needed to replace with a DVD drive in order to install Windows Server 2012 Essentials. Fortunately I had one laying around -- yes, I know that is not normal. You should see our storage room. There are boxes of computer parts and a stack of old towers filling a corner. At least this time the "it will be useful someday" statement worked out for me.
However, the 32-bit server architecture did not support 2012, meaning I moved on to Home Server -- that required 512 MB of RAM, and the server, woefully older than I had thought, only had 256 -- an easy upgrade, but expenses and wife-acceptance-factor for this project were mounting up.
Can it possibly be true? Microsoft is cool again?
Could it be possible that Microsoft has become cool again? A BetaNews poll seemed to indicate Windows 8 was popular and there have been recent reports that the Surface tablet is "cool" to teens. Now there is this -- a poll conducted by Reuters indicates that young people may actually think the computer company from Redmond, Wash. is cool again.
Reuters reports that "just under half of 853 respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 thought Microsoft is cooler now than it was a year or two ago". If this this is representative of the larger sentiment then it ties in very neatly with recent Apple problems.
iTunes update adds new Composer view, boosts sync performance
Apple has released iTunes 11.0.2 for Mac and Windows. The new build, also available for Windows 64-bit machines as iTunes 11.0.2 64-bit, adds a Composer viewing option to the Music section, plus promises greater responsiveness when syncing large playlists.
The update, which also includes performance and stability improvements, plus one notable bug fix, comes hot on the heels of a Java update released by Apple to prevent hackers accessing the computers of its employees.
BBC Sport launches a dedicated Android app
When the BBC launched a dedicated sports app for iOS devices a month ago, it said it was working on an Android version and expected to release it in a matter of weeks. Well the good news for sport-loving Android owners is that day has finally arrived.
The new BBC Sport app is compatible with devices running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and above, and has been optimized for screens up to 7-inches so should display perfectly on devices such as Google’s Nexus 7.
Winners of the UK's 4G auction announced
UK Telecoms regulator Ofcom has announced the winners of the auctions for 4G spectrum on the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands, and it’s a list with no surprises. After more than 50 rounds of bidding the winners are EE, Hutchison 3G UK, Niche Spectrum Ventures (a subsidiary of BT), Telefónica, and Vodafone.
The Office for Budget Responsibility had expected the auction to raise £3.5bn but in the end it actually raised considerably less -- £2.34bn. A fraction of the £22bn the 3G spectrum auction brought in for the Treasury in 2000.
Overhauling a home network, Part 1 -- Making decisions
Over the years the little network within my humble abode has grown. It started as a way to connect a laptop and a desktop, but has since become a conglomeration of multiple devices -- a desktop, three laptops, an HTPC, a home server and even three smartphones. Not to mention that the Blu-ray player, DirecTV DVR and Netgear NeoTV are networked. It all comes together in a combination of ethernet and WiFi connections that are controlled through a router in the home office on the third floor of our old restored Victorian, an extender which resides in the entertainment cabinet in the living room -- sorry, "parlor" since it is a Victorian -- on the first floor and a network switch in the basement.
Parts are getting old however -- in the past year I had to buy a new router and replace my daughter's laptop. Recently, more things have become unreliable. My home server, which ran FreeNAS died recently. It was housed in an old tower PC that had once been our desktop. Our HTPC has grown old, despite having been upgraded with new video and audio cards and additional RAM. The Netgear NeoTV is not as reliable as it once was.
Valve launches Steam for Linux and announces a celebration sale
After two months of public beta testing, the Linux version of Valve’s popular multiplayer gaming ecosystem has been officially released and is available to download for free from the Ubuntu Software Center.
To celebrate the release, Valve is cutting the price of 50 Linux titles by between 50-80 percent in a week long sale that will end on Thursday, 21 February at 10 AM PST. Games currently on sale include Bastion, Trine 2, Counter Strike Source, Serious Sam 3, and Darwinia.
Why I love Kindle
Second in a series. I had a nice surprise Valentine’s Day gift delivered to my door this morning -- a box of ten copies of my new novel (I Know What You Did Last Supper) courtesy of my publisher and fresh off the press. It seemed weird holding the book. Not just because it’s my first novel (co-authored with a friend), but because I haven’t held an actual book for maybe two years now.
When the Kindle first came out, I resisted it. I’ve loved books since I was child, and couldn’t ever imagine switching to an ebook reader. But then I was given the device as a Christmas present in 2009 and despite all my reservations fell in love with it almost immediately.
Get your phones ready -- The Brit Awards to be Shazam-enabled
British broadcaster ITV has agreed to a deal with Shazam -- the popular music identification service -- allowing viewers of this year’s The Brits music awards to access exclusive content during the live broadcast -- a UK first.
By using Shazam to tag the show between 8pm and 10:15pm on February 20, viewers will get access to exclusive behind-the-scenes content from performers and guest presenters.
eMusic cuts out subscriptions, opens store to everyone
eMusic, the audio download and streaming service founded in 1998, gets less attention than it deserves. But that may now be about to change with the announcement of a major move last night. The site, which is home to countless independent artists, has tried to become more mainstream, but has suffered due to its subscription model which places an enormous constraint on sales.
In the past, customers would need to purchase a subscription in order to simply access the store and buy a song -- a major deterrent for many would-be buyers. But now the company has lifted the restriction and opened up the store for everyone.
Vertu launches its first Android smartphone. Anyone got a spare $21,700?
Luxury British smartphone manufacturer Vertu used to be owned by Nokia and made its name producing incredibly expensive Symbian handsets. But times move on, and the company is now focusing on producing incredibly expensive Android handsets.
The first new product of this endeavor is the Vertu Ti. The 3.7-inch device sports a brushed titanium frame (making it up to five times stronger, and at 180g (6oz) quite a bit heavier than most other phones), with real leather trim and a sapphire-screen.
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