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Software RSS FeedsAmazon debuts 3rd generation Kindle e-reader: smaller, lighter, cheaper, better - By Tim Conneally, Betanews Amazon, online retailer and e-book pioneer announced Thursday the latest generation of its popular 6" Kindle e-book reader.The Kindle received an overhaul similar to the one its big brother Kindle DX got on the first of July, with a new graphite chassis, improved screen resolution, and lower price. Today's upgrade, however, goes a little further to improve the Kindle product line.In addition to the 20% smaller, 15% lighter enclosure and 50% higher-contrast E ink screen, the third generation Kindle has double the...Feed Source: feeds.betanews.com 'Facebook Questions' launches, lets you poll Facebook's 500 million users - By Tim Conneally, Betanews
Facebook today officially introduced a new feature called Facebook Questions, the social network's take on crowdsourced question and answer sites like Yahoo Answers, Quora, and Hunch.The new feature, still classified as a beta, lets users ask questions of the vast Facebook community of more than 500 million simply by typing them into a new field labeled "What do you want to know?"While it ha... Steve Ballmer has one more chance to save his job - By Joe Wilcox, Betanews
July 29, 2010 may be remembered as the most important day in Steve Ballmer's career at Microsoft. Tomorrow, the company hosts its annual Financial Analyst Meeting, or FAM. How much Ballmer and his core leadership team spend concretely talking about the future, rather than the past, will foreshadow how long the chief executive can remain the big boss. Nearly as important: Which executives will make presentations.Microsoft closed fiscal 2010 on June 30 and last week announced record fourth quarter and yearly results. (I skipped covering Microsoft earnings for the first time in nearly a decade, to attend ... Apple patches Safari AutoFill security flaw, adds extension support - By Ed Oswald, Betanews
Delivering on a promise the company made back in June, Apple on Wednesday released an update to Safari 5 which turns on extensions support akin to what browsers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer have been offering for years.In addition to the debut of these plugins, Apple also plugged several security issues, including a widely publicized flaw in the AutoFill feature that could open up users to information disclosure.To centralize the process, Apple has created the Safari Extensions Gallery, which currently includes about 100 extensions. Web sites and services such as Twitter, Bing, MLB, and eBay are ... Japanese Fair Trade Commission sees Yahoo-Google deal as acceptable...for now - By Tim Conneally, Betanews
This week, Yahoo Japan announced it reached a deal with competitor Google to utilize its search engine technology and advertising and distribution platform while retaining its current appearance. Despite protests from Microsoft, Japanese fair trade organizations today said the deal does not appear to create monopolistic conditions.Historically, Yahoo and Google have dominated the Japanese search market, and Tuesday, Microsoft Vi... Panasonic completes '3D trifecta,' launches consumer camcorder with 3D lens attachment - By Tim Conneally, Betanews
Today, Panasonic announced its first consumer camcorder capable of capturing both 2D HD and 3D video, the $1,399 SDT750.
Panasonic was one of the most vocal early supporters of 1080p 3D. The Japanese consumer electronics company threw its weight behind James Cameron's Avatar, and commenced work on its 3D Blu-ray authoring center at Panasonic Hollywood Labs in 2008. This year, Panasonic has completed the veritable trifecta of 3D content. It ... Amazon, Facebook partner to make recommendations social - By Ed Oswald, Betanews
Online retail giant Amazon on Tuesday launched a beta of new functionality intended to use data from Facebook to make recommendations. Once connected, the retailer would comb through the data in both your own profile and that of your friends.Amazon said it would share no personal data with Facebook. The social networking site would be sending data over to Amazon, however: this would include the user's likes and favorites on Facebook as well as his or her friends, and their birthdays. In addition, Amazon would make it easier for a user to find a friend's wish list once the services are connected, but this would be a guess based on given information.The attempt here is to make the online shopping experience more social. Given that we often ask our ... Wacom's Bamboo Touch offers its own brand of trackpad magic - By Tim Conneally, Betanews
On Tuesday, Apple launched its second multi-touch peripheral, the Magic Trackpad, which elicited an immediate reaction from tech spectators. TechCrunch's MG Siegler declared it to be the harbinger of the end of the mouse era, and 90% of the more than 700 readers who answered Macworld's informal poll "would you buy this input device?" said they would. A spark in multi-touch trackpad interest could prove to be a great boon for Wacom, the company synonymous with pen and touch tablet interfaces. For nearly a year, Wacom has had its own multi-touch trackpad called Bamboo Tou... Ask.com returns to its roots with beta of new search technology - By Ed Oswald, Betanews
Most Internet veterans would associate the Ask brand with the familiar face of Jeeves, who you could ask a question and usually get the answer that you'd be looking for. However, as the Internet became more sophisticated, that method of search became dated.The change in our search habits forced Jeeves into retirement in February 2006, and the company moved to a standard based-query system. But it now appears as if question-based queries -- maybe not Jeeves himself though -- may be about to make a comeback.Ask.com said Monday that it was launching a public beta of its new search technology, which would bring back the question-based system to the forefront. It said that its standard search would now be combined with huma... Epic 1.0 beta, new browser for Windows gives feel of browser-based OS - By Tim Conneally, Betanews
Bangalore, India-based software startup Hidden Reflex has launched the beta of a new Web browser for Windows called Epic. The new browser is heavily focused on three areas: In-browser user multitasking, customization through plug-ins, and mashing up mobile Web content with full Web content. Epic has a relatively predictable design across the top, with tabbed browsing, a standard address bar and neighboring search bar; but the real difference with Epic is the long list of standard tools shown as icons in a sidebar on the left hand side of the browser window. Here, some truly unique features have been incorporated as gadgets that give the distinct feeling of a browser-based OS.... Qualcomm remains committed to FLO TV and MediaFLO in light of possible sale - By Tim Conneally, Betanews
Last Week, the future of Qualcomm's FLO TV mobile TV business came into question after CEO Paul Jacobs said the chipmaker was "engaged in discussions with a number of partners," about what to do with the asset-rich service. The company recently gave Betanews some further information on what to expect from MediaFLO and FLO TV moving forward.In talking with GigaOM, Jacobs said "We want to see FLO continue so it's not like we'd want to sell the spectrum, but there are certainly people who would buy it for the spectrum. The spectrum is extremely valuable. So what that means is there's a high bar. The business that's generated through that spectrum, by the broadcast system needs to be valuable too?whether it's an operator, a content player, a web company -there's... Mobile app CardStar smartly ties in with location-based services - By Tim Conneally, Betanews
Brick and Mortar retailers haven't quite figured out the perfect way to utilize location-based "check in" services like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Latitude, but mobile rewards app CardStar today presented a new option for retailers.Retailers like Starbucks, Domino's Pizza, Chili's, Ann Taylor, and Sephora have all tried promotions where the people who check in most at their stores (the "mayors") get special coupons or prizes. But so far, retailers have taken a rather erratic approach to utilizing location-based promotions, leaving it a market with still a lot of potential, but not a lot to show yet.... Apple debuts multi-touch Magic Trackpad, battery charger - By Ed Oswald, Betanews
Aiming to bring its multi-touch technology to its desktop systems, Apple on Tuesday introduced the "Magic Trackpad," a navigation device that looks much like the trackpads on its current MacBook Pro line of laptops.The device, which retails for $69, would allow the user to employ the same gestures available to those using its laptops. The device would run on two AA batteries and connect wirelessly to the computer via Bluetooth.Some of the gestures available include pinch and spread to adjust size, rotating, and swiping -- all of which are natively supported in the most current versions of Mac OS X. They are also quite similar to the gestures used on Apple's popular iPhone devices, so those familiar with the popular device would already understand the Magic Trackpad's concept.Like the MacBook P... Apple refreshes iMac, Mac Pro lines, introduces new Cinema Display - By Tim Conneally, Betanews
After Apple temporarily closed down its Web-based store on Tuesday, the company announced its annual desktop product line refresh, which included new Mac Pro, iMac, and Cinema Display products.Apple's new iMacs are equipped with Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 processors offering speeds between 2.93 GHz and 3.6 GHz, have up to 16GB of faster 1333 MHz memory, discrete ATI Radeon HD craphics cards, (including the HD 5750 with 1GB GDDR5 on the top end,) and configure-to-order storage solutions with up to 2TB hard drives or 256GB solid state drives.Apple announced four pre-configured options in 21.5" and 27" sizes today:21.5" 3.06 GHz Intel Core i3 iMac ($1,199) - 4GB DDR3 SDRAM, A... 5 things I learned during San Diego Comic-Con - By Joe Wilcox, Betanews
I spent Thursday through Sunday (July 22-25) covering one of the best geek events anywhere -- best because the appeal is so broad. At Comic-Con, everyone is a geek, or someone else if they cosplay (costume play). The event has changed as big Hollywood media exercises greater influence. Comic-Con is no longer just about comics, anime or manga. Last year, for example, director James Cameron debuted a long segment from the then upcoming movie "Avatar."Like previous years, I focused my reporting not on the star-studded panels but the attendees and exhibitors. From my viewpoint, the real stars aren't the Hollywood actors, directors or producers but the artists and attendees, many of whom dress up as ... Citibank discloses security flaw in iPhone banking application - By Ed Oswald, Betanews
Citigroup customers using its iPhone app for mobile banking are being urged to apply an update after the company found a security flaw. The program was storing personal data in a file that could have potentially opened the user up to identity theft.The issue was discovered during a routine security check of the company's products. Citi Mobile was released in March and was updated on July 19 to fix the issue. Customers were notified by mail beginning the following day. The update will erase this file from the phone as well as the computer when applied and synced with iTunes.The company said there was no evidence that the data had been used in a malicious manner.Approximately 118,000 customers were using Citi Mobile for iPhone and all had been co... Google announces Apps for Government in light of LA rollout delays - By Tim Conneally, Betanews
Following news over the weekend that it had missed the deadline to provide the city government of Los Angeles with its own email and collaboration infrastructure, Google today announced "Google Apps for Government".Google Apps for Government provides more secure versions of the popular consumer-facing Web services that Google offers, such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, Sites, and even YouTube. All of the apps are compliant with the 2002 Federeal Information Security Management Act (FIMSA, PDF here,) and operate at the "moderate" level. FIMSA ... Mixed reactions on whether Wikileaks went too far with Afghan docs - By Ed Oswald, Betanews
Internet leak clearinghouse Wikileaks made the news over the weekend, being the source of the release of 92,000 secret government documents detailing US activity in Afghanistan from January 2004 to December 2009. The full suite of documents was provided to three news organizations about two weeks ago.The New York Times, Britain's The Guardian, and Germany's Der Spiegel were given access provided they didn't report on the contents until Sunday. Indeed, it paints a not-too-forgiving picture of a US armed force that was fighting an increasingly organized Taliban on strained resources.Release of the documentation has strained the company's servers, with the site tweeting Monday morning that it was "trem... DMCA revised: unlocking, jailbreaking phones, e-book text-to-speech, potentially fair use - By Tim Conneally, Betanews
Methods for bypassing DVD encryption, unlocking mobile phone carrier locks, and other content protection could be argued as fair use under a revision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced today.Every three years, the Library of Congress must determine if there are any types of works that can be exempt from Section 1201 of copyright law, also known as "Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems." When this provision was enacted, the House Commerce Committee felt that "it could be appropriate to modify the flat prohibition against the circumvention of effective technological measur... AT&T announces Wi-Fi "Hotzones" in Charlotte, Chicago, to help data congestion - By Tim Conneally, Betanews
Last May, AT&T launched a project called "Hotzones" in New York City's Times Square aimed at fixing traffic problems by blanketing the area in Wi-Fi signals. Today, the carrier announced the project is coming to more cities, including Charlotte, North Carolina today and Chicago, Illinois in the coming weeks.Over the last three years, AT&T says its mobile data traffic has grown by more than 5,000 percent, and in the most densely populated areas of the U.S., connectivity is often an issue. New York and San Francisco proved to be especially troublesome for the company's data network, and in 2009, AT&T Mobility's CEO Ralph de la Vega s... Copyright © 2010, Donna's List. All Rights Reserved. |
