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Unconvinced by Windows 7? Ubuntu 9.10 debuted today!

Publié: octobre 29, 2009, 10:17pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

The latest version of Canonical's popular Linux distribution Ubuntu (9.10 "Karmic Koala") was officially released today and is now available for download.
Among numerous performance improvements (Upstart native jobs, Intel video driver acceleration switched from "EXA" to "UXA", GRUB 2 boot loader by default, ext4 filesystem by default) and upgrades to the architecture (Linux Kernel 2.6.31, Gnome 2.28, X.Org 7.4, X.Org server 1.6.4, Xsplash and Compiz Fusion 0.8.4), Ubuntu 9.10 has thrown in a couple of compelling new products to make Karmic Koala worth a second look for those still apprehensive about Linux operating systems and largely unfamiliar with all the architectural and environmental upgrades.
The first of these is SoftwareCenter, a graphical package manager designed to simplify the act of installing or removing software. The rationale behind this project is that Ubuntu has never had a single, cohesive graphical method for application management.
"Having multiple sanctioned graphical methods of installing software...makes people more likely to think that unsanctioned methods are just as safe, when they are not. Meanwhile, the descriptions of available software are often technical gibberish. And many software project and vendor Web sites either provide command-line installation instructions (dulling users to malicious terminal commands from other sources) or .tar.gz downloads that are difficult to install and near-impossible to update," the project's description says.
Including better application descriptions, better screenshots, and a better overall experience, Software Center will hopefully make software discovery, installation and management more user friendly.
Secondly, Karmic Koala comes with Ubuntu One, a cloud sync utility which comes with 2 GB of online storage to all free users or 50 GB for a monthly $10 fee. Ubuntu One lets users store and share files, Tomboy notes, and Evolution contact data between multiple machines, and includes a Web interface for accessing content when on other machines.
In addition to the new desktop interface, a Karmic Koala Netbook Remix and Server Edition (featuring Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud) were also released today.
"Ubuntu 9.10 gives users more reasons than ever to seriously consider Linux at a time when many are thinking again about their operating system options. We are delivering a platform for users interested in an easy-to-use, great-looking, Web-friendly operating system," Jane Silber, Canonical COO said in a statement earlier this week. "A faster, more beautiful boot and login sequence, file and contact synchronization through online services and great experiences on the most popular notebook, desktop and netbook models continue to drive Ubuntu into the mainstream of computing choices."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Non-exclusive iPhones: Has Verizon waited too long?

Publié: octobre 29, 2009, 10:08pm CET par Carmi Levy
By Carmi Levy, Betanews

I've never been a fan of exclusive deals between handset manufacturers and wireless carriers. I understand why they appeal to the Apples and the AT&Ts of the world in the first place, but it ticks me off that sweet deals like this always seem to leave consumers out in the cold. They limit choice and competition, which tends to keep prices artificially high for longer than they should, and they make it easier for carriers to maintain the kind of old, customer-unfriendly practices that have long stained the industry.
When a given gotta-have-it device is available only through one carrier, consumers are forced to make a Hobson's Choice in that they can choose by device, or by carrier, but not both. And if they dislike the exclusive carrier for any reason, they either hold their noses and sign, or learn to live with another carrier's second-rate hardware.
Either way, it's not exactly democracy in action, and it often results in less than optimal experiences for consumers. We all deserve better.
Change already happened
So it's with more than a little eagerness that I watch rumors of Verizon potentially adding the iPhone to its portfolio around the second half of 2010. While the cynic in me thinks the company's still smarting from its stupid-in-hindsight decision to spurn Apple a couple of years back -- a decision which resulted in AT&T becoming the exclusive launch carrier in the US -- the realist in me says Verizon has better things to do than lick old wounds.
First, disclosure: My fellow Canadians and I are no strangers to iPhone exclusivity. Rogers Wireless has been the sole carrier of the device since its debut here just over a year ago (please don't get me started on why we were iPhone-less until 2008). Canadian exclusivity is about to end as both Bell and Telus are scheduled to start selling iPhones here next month.
I hardly think we're alone, either. From where I sit, it's only a matter of time before exclusivity ends in every market Apple is in, as the company shifts toward a cross-carrier model more like Research in Motion's. Although different carriers obviously carry different BlackBerry models, you've still got a certain degree of choice no matter whose store you walk into, or who's sending you a bill every month.
As encouraged as I am to see Verizon potentially getting into the iPhone game, I'm left wondering if its timing is all that great. After all, the wireless market in the second half of 2010 will look radically different than the wireless market of today. Google's Android mobile operating system -- at one time largely a curiosity, due to its limited availability on none-too-impressive hardware -- is about to bust open big time thanks to high-profile hardware releases from a number of vendors, including Samsung, former Microsoft Windows Mobile stalwart HTC, and a possibly resurgent Motorola.
Within a year, Google's services-rich strategy could fundamentally alter the power balance in the wireless device/application market, and erode the iPhone-vs.-everyone else halo that Apple currently enjoys. That's because while Android's 10,000 titles can't match Apple's App Store dominance, its tightly integrated Web services give it enough room to make an end run around the iPhone, and seriously erode the optimistic sales and revenue figures being floated around a possible Verizon iPhone play. When you've got Web services, you don't always need "an app for that."
The latest rumors, based on a Broadpoint.AmTech report cited by AppleInsider, state that VZW could get away with putting up a $300 subsidy per unit for late 2010-model iPhones, if it (easily) sells 14 million of them the following year. While batting numbers like these around is risky business (risky if you like being right, which it seems fewer people do nowadays), you might still get at least a baseline understanding of why Verizon might think it could pull this off.
The time-eroding value of money
But would Verizon be able to make as much money off of iPhone subscribers as AT&T has managed? Can anyone be just as profitable selling a device in Year Four of its lifecycle, as simply one of potentially many carriers? After all, there's no guarantee that Apple isn't also going to offer its devices to other carriers by the second half of 2010, so maybe Verizon should push for a smaller subsidy to limit its exposure. Or perhaps Verizon should push Apple to source only the latest generation (4G?) iPhone instead of the 3G S, or whatever passes for current-generation at that time. And if Android takes root and closes the feature/app gap, should Verizon push for an even sweeter deal? Or simply walk away?
However it plays out, it's becoming increasingly clear that any delay is bad for everyone:
- Bad for Apple because it keeps an artificial upper limit on market share growth. Worse, because it pushes broader iPhone availability so far out that by then, it'll be competing against itself with the tablet..or whatever that next "One More Thing" turns out to be. Apple's overall product roadmap means iPhone's window as a profit-rich halo device could close before Verizon even gets in the game.
- Bad for Verizon because it needs to build out a robust offering of leading edge smartphones to maintain its shrinking market share advantage. Android-based devices will help, but iPhone would push Verizon over the top headline-wise. Assuming it happens sooner rather than later, of course.
- Bad for consumers because they shouldn't have to wait years for wider carrier availability, and the positive effect on rates and plans that competition of this sort inevitably brings.
None of this would matter if the iPhone were a middling piece of mobile hardware with a barely active application store and moribund developer community. If we all coveted other devices (and if the iPhone wasn't so culturally, if not numerically, dominant), we'd yawn at the prospect of any carrier, much less Verizon, adding a new device to its portfolio.
But the iPhone is none of those things, and consumers deserve to have the choice earlier in the product life cycle. That they may be forced to wait until the second half of next year is further evidence that carrier-exclusive deals make no sense in today's fast-changing mobile market. It's time for them to disappear for good.
Carmi Levy is a Canadian-based independent technology analyst and journalist still trying to live down his past life leading help desks and managing projects for large financial services organizations. He comments extensively in a wide range of media, and works closely with clients to help them leverage technology and social media tools and processes to drive their business.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Verizon's Droid claims 10,000 apps, graphics co-processor, and 'a map for that'

Publié: octobre 29, 2009, 9:18pm CET par Jacqueline Emigh

By Jacqueline Emigh, Betanews

At a sneak preview in New York City on Thursday night, execs from Verizon Wireless, Motorola, and Google gave reporters from Betanews and elsewhere a point-by-point illustration, supported by a few of Android's 10,000-plus apps. They also showed off some features not even mentioned in Verizon's anti-iPhone marketing blitz: a stellar 3.7-inch high res display, turn-by-turn GPS voice navigation with Google Latitude and Street Views, and innovative peripherals like a car mount and multimedia station.
In a scathing new ad campaign, Verizon takes aim at everything Apple's rival iPhone doesn't do. "iDon't have a real keyboard," according to an ad. "iDon't run simultaneous apps," and so on, and so forth.
But as they say, seeing is sometimes believing. As I witnessed during demos on Wednesday, Droid does have a "real" slideout keyboard, although some have criticized it as kind of cramped.
"At 13.7 millimeters, this is the thinnest slider QWERTY around," said Juan Ignacio Sarmiento, a Motorola marketing evec, as he pulled the slider out from the Droid during the demo.
Also aboard the Droid are two software QWERTY keyboards -- one in horizontal (landscape mode) orientation, and the other in vertical (portrait mode).
As advertised, too, the Droid runs multiple apps simultaneously -- a feat achieved, of course, through Android multitasking capabilities. Essentially, you don't need to close out of one app before launching another app, something the iPhone still forces you to do.
In fact, Android is gaining ground fast against Apple's App Store for iPhones, with more than 10,000 applications already online in the Android Market, Sarmiento contended.
I haven't even come close to viewing all of those thousands of Android apps, so it's unclear to me how well all of them will work on the Droid. But also during the meeting, Verizon's Menniti told me that he expects a lot more apps for the Droid to spring from Google's just released SDK 2.0.
Other claims from Verizon also ring true. The Linux-based Android environment supports open development. Some of these apps -- such as a calculator, for example -- are widgets. The Droid's batteries are indeed interchangeable.
I haven't had a chance yet to try out for Droid's 5-megapixel autofocus camera to take night-time photos (another advertising assertion). But Menniti shot some pics successfully in a dimly light corner of the demo room.
Sarmiento attributed the Droid's night-time photo abilities to a dual LED flash, along with work the Droid partners have done around photo issues like color resolution and white balance.
And yes, the Droid is definitely customizable -- and then some. The choice of three different QWERTY keyboards is a help here, and so are the 10,000+ apps and Droid-specific peripherals.
The Droid's high-res display -- specifically, it offers 480x854 WVGA resolution -- is another stunner. With resolution that high, you can view most Web pages at full size, according to Menniti.
To accommodate this high-res screen in a 4.56-by-2.36-inch gizmo, Motorola's engineers might possibly have made some trade-offs in overall processing speed. The Droid's main processor runs at 550 MHz, rather than at the higher rates possible with a heftier chip. But the main processor is also accompanied by a separate on-board graphics chip. And all of the apps I saw operating on Wednesday seemed to be running quite fast enough.
All of the Droid's rich functionality is accessible just by touch, without the need for a stylus. By comparison, Microsoft's Windows Mobile is just starting to reach that goal in its own new version 6.5.
Also in the plus column is the Droid's very broad 3G reach. On maps supplied by Verizon Wireless, you can graphically compare Verizon's huge US coverage area to the much scantier areas served by T-Mobile, Sprint, and even AT&T -- whose 3G network is used by Apple's iPhone in the US.
Sitting in its pint-sized multimedia station, while running clock and radio apps, the Droid becomes a digital alarm clock. Pop the Droid into its car mount, and the gizmo turns into a voice-capable on-board GPS system.
Although earlier Android phones have run Googe Maps, the Droid is the first to integrate turn-by-turn navigation, said Google's Michael Siliski, during another demo. This integration also includes Google Latitude and Street Views. According to Siliski, you don't even need to give a street address to get turn-by-turn instructions for driving to a restaurant, for instance.
Siliski told me that it's way too early to tell whether Google will ever market its GPS navigation outside the US.
"We're still in beta with this," he noted. Yet the Droid's just announced Google Maps Navigation is due to leave test mode when the phone ships on November 6.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Nintendo makes DSi screens bigger than competitors

Publié: octobre 29, 2009, 7:23pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

This morning, Nintendo announced the third upgrade to the DS family, the DSi LL (or DSi XL), will be released in Japan on November 21, one year after the DSi debuted, for ¥20,000 (approx. $220). The LL's main improvement is the size of its screens, which have been increased from 3.25" to 4.2" with a moderate increase to the size of the chassis. The device also includes a much bigger stylus, which looks to be the size of a ballpoint pen, and battery life has reportedly been increased to five hours at maximum screen brightness.
Handheld gaming has been a strong suit for Nintendo since the early '80s, and it has consistently led the category despite the constant string of capable competitors touting higher quality or more innovative portable gaming platforms. Of Atari, Sega, NEC, Tiger, Bandai, SNK, and a handful of other notables, few video game and toy companies have been able to engage the handheld market for more than a single generation.
Nintendo, meanwhile, has managed to work its way through seven consecutive generations of handhelds. It has done this by working on an extremely predictable and regimented upgrade path, incrementally refreshing its handhelds and slowly phasing out prior generations while retaining backward compatibility. This means each generation is made up of families of systems rather than single units.
The seventh generation Nintendo DS (dual screen) family of consoles debuted in 2004 and has since been upgraded twice: from DS to DS Lite in 2006, and then to DSi in late 2008.
Despite the availability of the new DSi, Nintendo's handheld sales dropped nearly 20% in 2009. This, paired with unfavorable exchange rates, brought Nintendo's profits down 61% in mid-summer. Today, the company reported a 52% decrease in quarterly profit and cut its annual forecast by about 25%. Things are looking pretty stale six years into the DS series, but bigger screens address a couple of potential audiences and use-cases.
The improved visibility and more comfortable stylus could appeal to older gamers or those who simply don't care for small screen gaming. The 4.2" screen is respectably larger than the new PSP Go's (3.8"), the iPhone 3G S' (3.5") and even those of smaller-form MIDs like the now-delayed Nokia N900 (also 3.5").
As Apple is wont to remind us, the public has embraced downloadable touch-based gaming, and the iPhone/iPod Touch platform has more than 21,000 games available. Nintendo DS and Sony PSP have barely 5,000 combined. However, iPhone screen visibility remains a major issue. The iPhone's lack of buttons forces developers to integrate touch or motion control into their games, and the execution is oftentimes poor. Touching the screen always interrupts the gamer's field of vision, and it proves to be detrimental in games where the developer hasn't fully taken this into account. Furthermore, tilting, shaking, or waving the iPhone as some games demand is simply "counter-immersive" -- if such an adjective exists.
Though the DS family still lacks motion sensors, it has plenty of interfaces that developers can tap into to let the user's view of on-screen action remain continuous. The touch screen's view may be interrupted, but the upper screen's view remains. And failing that, there is always the option to rely on the D-pad, buttons, microphone, and in the DSi's case, two cameras.
The point of this upgrade is that it falls in line with Nintendo's past handheld upgrades, where displays get upgraded as the technology becomes affordable and energy efficient. With improved screens typically comes an improved user experience and a more engaged audience.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009