Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » août 2, 2010

BetaNews.Com (6 non lus)

Android experiences unprecedented U.S. growth, next stop China?

Publié: août 2, 2010, 11:54pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Independent tech analyst group Canalys issued its own analysis of the smartphone industry on Monday, which found that Android-based handsets experienced an incredible 886% growth worldwide during the second quarter of 2010.
In July, market research firm GfK announced it had tracked a 350% growth in Android shipments in the UK, bringing it to a 13.2% share of the postpaid market. During the same quarter in the United States, Canalys says Android shipments increased by 851%, which dove it to a 34% market share, ahead of both the iPhone and BlackBerry devices.
"In the United States, we have seen the largest carrier, Verizon Wireless, heavily promoting high-profile Android devices, such as the Droid by Motorola and the Droid Incredible by HTC," Canalys Vice President and Principal Analyst, Chris Jones said. "These products have been well received by the market, with consumers eager to download and engage with mobile applications and services, such as Internet browsing, social networking, games and navigation."
According to Canalys, Android has effectively captured the United States, the world's single largest mobile phone market. The next big market to focus on would be China, the world's second largest market by shipment.
During the second quarter, Canalys says Android had a modest 7% share of the Chinese market, while Nokia continued its lead. China Mobile's commitment to its own Android-based platform, called OMS, will help advance Android penetration as the carrier rolls out more "OPhones."
"Given Google's substantial involvement in the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), that its relationship with the Chinese authorities appears to have improved recently, and that its operating licence has been renewed, will help reduce concerns that tensions could have an impact on the potential for the OHA-based Android and OMS platforms in the country, particularly among vendors that have committed resources to producing Android devices for the Chinese market," Canalys Senior Analyst, Ty Lau said in a statement.
In early July, the first OPhone 2.0 device was released (Samsung I7680) which built the operating system off of the Android 2.1 source code.
Additionally, HTC has announced its official brand launch in China, and unveiled its first products branded for the Chinese market, the HTC Tianxi (aka HD2, Windows Mobile 6.5.3), HTC Tianyi (Android), HTC Desire (Android) and HTC Wildfire (Android). Previously, many of the company's products were released in China under the Dopod brand.
"The pace of mobile innovation globally is moving at an extraordinary pace and we are excited to be bringing many of our most innovative phones to China, the largest and most sophisticated mobile market in the world," said Peter Chou, chief executive officer of HTC.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Nokia - Motorola - Android - Smartphone - United States
Jailbreakme.com returns, iPhone 4 finally jailbroken

Publié: août 2, 2010, 9:25pm CEST par Ed Oswald

By Ed Oswald, Betanews

The iPhone Dev Team has struck again, this time releasing a Web-based jailbreaking solution that is compatible with all iPhone models, including the iPhone 4. The solution requires only an Internet connection and mobile Safari to complete the hack.
It should be noted that this only allows for the installation of unapproved apps to the device, and not the use of the device on unsupported carriers. The Dev Team said in a blog post Sunday that a version of ultrasn0w -- the carrier unlock -- would be compatible with iPhone 4 shortly.
The hack is not without problems: FaceTime and MMS messaging reportedly is suffering some issues on phones with the jailbreak. However the Dev Team said that they are looking into the problems, and a fix may be on the way shortly.
Jailbreaking the device would be as simple as visiting a website, called jailbreakme.com. The hack takes advantage of a security hole in mobile Safari surrounding the display of PDF files. It allows access to the code within iOS which "jailbreaks" the device.
Cydia is installed on the device, which acts as a repository for these unapproved apps that don't make it onto the App Store. The jailbreak does not affect approved apps: the user can install both on the same device with few -- if any -- problems.
Hacker "comex" is being credited with the work behind the jailbreak. It is also the first time that jailbreakme.com has become useful again in nearly two years. While the site first surfaced in 2007 after the release of the 1.1.1 software update, it relied on a different security flaw in mobile Safari to make it work, which it then would fix following the jailbreak.
Apple however put a stop to the web-based jailbreaking with the 1.1.2 update, rendering jailbreakme.com useless.
Comex and Dev Team's work comes shortly after the Library of Congress ruled jailbreaking as fair use under the DMCA, which Apple argued against. The company still maintains that users should not jailbreak, and is still threatening to void the warranties of those who do.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

iPhone Dev Team - IPhone - Apple - Safari - Jailbreak
E-mail filtering software Cloudmark Desktop becomes DesktopOne

Publié: août 2, 2010, 9:10pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Cloudmark today announced an update to its e-mail filtering software for Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird 3, Windows Mail, and Windows Live Mail. The software, formerly known as Cloudmark Desktop, is now called Cloudmark DesktopOne, and unlike previous versions, the shareware version can now be used in Basic mode for an unlimited length of time.
Cloudmark Desktop was formerly available as a fully-featured 15 day trial, but now, DesktopOne limits the number of inboxes monitored to just one IMAP, POP, or webmail account at a time, and gives users just one Spam folder, but does so with no time limit. The inbox being protected by the software can be changed at any time as well.
To open monitoring to an unlimited number of inboxes, and add premium features, Cloudmark has a Pro subscription tier for $19.95 per year.
The software still works on its "Fingerprint" system, which is essentially a database of untrustworthy senders, updated every time a user marks an e-mail message as spam or phishing.
Cloudmark DesktopOne supports both 32-and 64-bit Windows Vista and Windows 7, as well as Windows XP and 2000. Supported e-mail clients include Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird and Windows Mail.
The free version of DesktopOne can be downloaded from Cloudmark's site today.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Windows Vista - Windows Live Mail - Outlook Express - Microsoft - Windows XP
E-mail becoming a mobile activity as social networks dominate U.S. time online

Publié: août 2, 2010, 7:17pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Leading media research company Nielsen posted a report Monday called "What Americans Do Online..." that details how U.S. Web users spend their time online. According to the research, use of social networks has risen 43% since last year, and they now take up more than a third of the total time an average user spends online.
"Despite the almost unlimited nature of what you can do on the web, 40 percent of U.S. online time is spent on just three activities: social networking, playing games and emailing leaving a whole lot of other sectors fighting for a declining share of the online pie," Nielsen analyst Dave Martin said in the company's blog.
Rounding out those top three activities, online games now take up 10.2% of users' time online, and E-mail takes up 8.3%. E-mail usage actually experienced a significant year-over-year drop of approximately 28%.
Market research group Gartner predicted earlier this year that "By 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users."
Nielsen's findings today said, "The rise of social networking hasn't pushed email and instant messaging into obscurity just yet. Although both saw double-digit declines in share of time, email remains as the third heaviest activity online...while instant messaging is fifth, accounting for four percent of Americans online time."
But this change may not be about social networking replacing email. It could be about the mobile Web experience changing the desktop one.
Nielsen's study also breaks out mobile Web consumption statistics, and it appears that while users are spending less time E-mailing from their computers, they're spending more time E-mailing from their mobile phones.
According to Nielsen, mobile E-mail usage increased 4.2% to encompass 41.6% of U.S. mobile Internet time. Social networking did experience a much larger 28% growth in the mobile space, but that activity still only makes up 10% of users' time on the mobile Web.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Nielsen - Social network - Instant messaging - Mobile phone - United States
Windows 7 adoption surpasses Vista use, Mac OS flat

Publié: août 2, 2010, 6:57pm CEST par Ed Oswald

By Ed Oswald, Betanews

Usage of Windows 7 has eclipsed that of its predecessor Vista for the first time, data from research firm NetApplications indicates. Regardless, Windows XP remains the most commonly used operating system.
Share of Windows 7 in July hit 14.46 percent, a hair above Vista's 14.34 percent share for the month. This was nowhere close to Windows XP, which saw a 61.87 percent share, which has declined slowly over the past year as adoption of Windows 7 rises.
Mac OS share essentially remained flat in July if not ever so slightly downward at 5.06 percent. Apple's slice of the computer market has remained generally around the five percent mark for much of the last year after showing considerable growth in the year previous.
The fact that XP is still holding strong after being on the market for nearly 10 years shows Microsoft's challenge in getting its customers to upgrade to Windows 7. In the company's defense however, it does appear anecdotally that the newest version of Windows is seeing a faster uptake than its predecessor.
It could be due to the fact that Microsoft is beginning to phase out support of Windows XP, which eventually could lead companies to be using a potentially insecure operating system. Official Microsoft support on XP is currently slated to phase out by 2014, although XP SP2 support ended last month.
Whether this strategy works for the company in getting IT deployments to finally upgrade to newer versions of Microsoft's operating system remains to be seen.
In related news, NetApplications found Microsoft also saw share of its Internet Explorer web browser rise slightly to 60.74 percent, its second month of share gain. Safari use also rose as well, above five percent for the first time in the history of the survey, and Firefox and Chrome both saw their share decrease slightly.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Windows XP - Operating system - Apple - Microsoft - Windows Vista
Microsoft announces Office for Mac 2011 pricing, sets October launch

Publié: août 2, 2010, 4:23pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Microsoft's Mac business unit today released the final pricing of Office for Mac 2011 when it is released in late October. The productivity suite will come in three different editions, and will include a couple of multi-pack options.
Office for Mac Home & Student Edition will come with Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Messenger 8 and will be available for $119 for a single install, or as a Family Pack (3 installs) for $149. This particular edition does not include Outlook for Mac, but it can be added through an online upgrade program.
Home & Business Edition will be the most comprehensive Office package from Microsoft, and will include Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and Messenger 8 for $199.00 for one install, or as a two-install multi-pack for $279.
Office for Mac Academic Edition also includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook and Messenger 8, but only costs $99 for one install. Academic retail prices are available to teachers, faculty, staff, and students of U.S. educational institutions.
The software is slated for a late October release, but customers can buy Office 2008 between August first and November 30 and upgrade to Office 2011 for free when it launches.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Microsoft - MicrosoftOffice - Microsoft PowerPoint - Microsoft Word - Microsoft Excel