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BetaNews.Com (10 non lus)

Android Market e-books goes live; music and movies to follow?

Publié: février 24, 2011, 8:18pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

The Android Market has never had any specific ban on carrying and selling straight up text documents, and users could search through the market and find apps that were, in effect, standalone e-books. Now, however, there is a section dedicated specifically to e-books which currently features around 500 titles from publishers such as Simon and Schuster, Macmillan, W.W. Norton and Co., Hachette, and more.
The URL for the site, market.android.com/books, was discovered by Android Guys last week, and the site noted that URLs for /music, and /movies worked and resolved to the Android Market.
Thursday is the first day the /books URL began landing on a real market page.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Stunning Android growth visualized in new video

Publié: février 24, 2011, 8:02pm CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

It's new to me, anyway. The Android Developers created video, which posted three days ago, uses maps to show how Google's mobile operating system grew from its release in October 2008 through January 2011. I wonder how an iPhone 4 visualization would compare. Earlier this month, Gartner reported that Android sales increased 888.8 percent year over year in 2010. This video is what that growth looks like. Credit where due, I spotted the video on CoolSmartphone.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Inside Intel's Thunderbolt: the next generation of connectivity

Publié: février 24, 2011, 8:00pm CET par Ed Oswald

By Ed Oswald, Betanews

Somewhat hidden in between Apple's announcement Thursday of new MacBook Pro laptops was the debut of a new method of PC connectivity: Thunderbolt. It can be most easily explained as the next generation of FireWire, allowing for transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps.
Those who stand to benefit the most from Thunderbolt would be those in the audio-visual industries, which Intel itself bills the technology as perfect for. "Working with HD media is one of the most demanding things people do with their PCs," Intel's PC Client Group general manager Mooly Eden said. "We've taken the vision of simple, fast transfer of content between PCs and devices, and made it a reality."
This is some 12 times faster than FireWire 800, and 20 times faster than USB 2.0. A technical collaboration between Apple and Intel, the technology would also allow for the combination of high-speed data and HD video on a single cable.
Intel and Apple actually did not need to create anything new in order to bring Thunderbolt to market: instead, two preexisting technologies have been combined. PCI Express, a high speed serial interface would handle the data side, while DisplayPort handles the HD video.
Instead of creating a new port for devices, Thunderbolt-enabled peripherals would be connected through existing Mini DisplayPort connectors. Intel says Thunderbolt is compatible with current DisplayPort displays and adapters, and multiple devices can be daisy-chained to the same port, in Apple's case up to six.
This type of usage may be most beneficial to mobile users, who would be able to expand their computers data and display capabilities with a single connection, which could also help control cable clutter. Thunderbolt-compatible peripherals are expected to begin hitting the market throughout this year.
While Intel is pushing Thunderbolt, USB 3.0 still remains on the horizon. Some analysts speculate that the chipmaker may have held off on implementing the technology to give Thunderbolt a chance. In any case, it appears the two technologies may square off in the not too distant future.
This has already happened once, and in a similar pattern. Apple also backed FireWire in its infancy: the cost and the rather scarce availability of peripherals allowed USB 2.0 to eventually become the de-facto next generation standard.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Google launches its next assault on "cumbersome, legacy" Microsoft Office

Publié: février 24, 2011, 7:01pm CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

In the race to offer Microsoft Office functionality in the cloud, Google has beaten its rival getting a product out of development beta and into production release. Today Google announced global availability of Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, which went into beta late last year. The technology builds off Google acquisition of DocVerse.
Microsoft is working on its own solution, Office 365, which is beta testing and is expected to go v1 sometime this year. For now, Google can claim first to market advantage as it looks to convert more Office users to its cloud services. The cloud is increasingly important to Microsoft. Last year, COO Kevin Turner said that 70 percent of cloud wins are new customers.
In a November 2010 statement, Stephen Prentice, a Gartner vice president said: "Cloud computing heralds an evolution of business -- no less influential than the era of e-business -- in positive and negative ways." Microsoft's challenge is keeping Office relevant in the cloud-connected era of anytime, anywhere and on anything computing. Both Google and Microsoft emphasize the importance of collaboration in their respective Office-to-cloud offerings.
Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office is essentially a plugin for Windows versions of the productivity suit (2003, 2007, 2010). "The plugin syncs your work through Google's cloud, so everyone can contribute to the same version of a file at the same time," Shan Sinha, Google Apps product manager, explains in a blog post. The plugin isn't available for Macintosh Office. Sinha explains in another blog post: "Many of you have also asked about availability for Macs. Unfortunately due to the lack of support for open APIs on Microsoft Office for Mac, we are unable to make Google Cloud Connect available on Macs at this time. We look forward to when that time comes so we can provide this feature to our Mac customers as well."
Additionally, Google announced a 90-day trial for Appsperience. In what I can only call as a deliberate dig, Sinha describes Appsperience as "a way for companies that currently use cumbersome legacy systems to see how web-powered tools help their teams work together more effectively."
That's not a free trial, by the way. "A nominal fee covers 90-day access to Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Cloud Connect and more, as well as assistance from Google experts to help coworkers quickly become more productive together," Sinha writes. What is nominal? Google recommends two configurations for $7,000 or $15,000. The lower priced option is for 50 to 500 users and the other for more than 500 users. The costlier option also includes "single sign-on or password sync integration" and "collaboration champion training."
Well, it's not exactly try before you buy, is it? Microsoft typically doesn't charge customers to evaluate its software or services.
Google's new assault on Office comes as Microsoft's Business division emerges as the company's strongest performing group, suggesting cloud alternatives have yet to have any more bite than bark. During fiscal 2011 second quarter, revenue rose 24 percent to $6.032 billion from $4.864 billion a year earlier. Net income rose to $3.965 billion from $2.947.
Is your business ready for the productivity suite cloud? Please answer in comments.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
IE9's 'Do Not Track' features could become Web standards

Publié: février 24, 2011, 6:50pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C,) the standards body responsible for HTML5, accepted and published Microsoft's member submission for standardized privacy features on Thursday.
Last year, the Federal Trade Commission endorsed a framework for consumer privacy which suggested a persistent browser setting to protect users from services that collect and harvest browser data without users knowing about it.
Subsequently, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google all responded to the proposal, saying they planned to add "do not track" functionality to their respective browsers. Microsoft was the first out of the gate with the feature active in Internet Explorer 9, and it submitted its technologies for user privacy to the W3C for standardization.
The W3C said Microsoft's submission was "both timely and well-aligned with the consortium's objectives and priorities," given the interest in privacy expressed by the FTC, EU, and public at large.
Microsoft submitted two different privacy mechanisms to W3C, a filter list that blocks the download of third-party content through scripts and iframes and such, and a global "Do Not Track" user preference.
Microsof's submission describes the two features in the following manner:
The filter list contains parts of third-party URIs that a browser may access automatically when referenced within a web page that a user deliberately visits. Rules in a filter list may change the way the user agent handles third-party content. By limiting the calls to these websites and blocking resources from other web pages, the filter list limits the information other sites can collect about a user.
The Do Not Track user preference is a setting maintained by the user agent. It can be read by a webserver or client JavaScript. A webserver that respects theDo Not Track user preference will read this value and will not track the user when this setting is enabled.
The Do Not Track preference would apply to all Web documents, and be expressed in both an HTTP header and a DOM property (document.navigator.doNotTrack).
"The proposal with the W3C is a significant step toward enabling an industry standard way for Web sites to detect when consumers express their intent not to be tracked, and help protect themselves from sites that do not respect that intent," Microsoft's Dean Hachamovitch, Corporate Vice President for Internet Explorer said today. "Enabling consumers merely to express their intent to not be tracked is just not sufficient. It's a subset of what effective tracking protection should do. IE9's Tracking Protection also enables consumers to block the content that does the tracking."
An official announcement about work on the standard will come in early March, and W3C staff will be holding a workshop at Princeton University on April 28 and 29 to lay the foundation for work on this standard.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Apple previews mobile-inspired Mac OS Lion to developers

Publié: février 24, 2011, 5:20pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Last October, Apple gave the public its first look at OS X 10.7 "Lion", illustrating Cupertino's vision of mobile-inspired future versions of the Mac operating system. Thursday, the company has released its first developer preview of the OS to members of the Mac Developer Program.
Since the launch of the iPhone, Apple has shifted its strategies to focus squarely on the mobile computing paradigm, and CEO Steve Jobs has repeatedly stressed the importance of "leaving the past behind" as computing in the "mobile era" matures. Leaving the past behind has involved shifting the focus onto new mobile standards in HTML5 and abandoning support for legacy technology like Adobe Flash, ending the company's nearly decade-old line of servers, and now phasing features from its mobile operating system into its operating system for PCs.
"The iPad has inspired a new generation of innovative features in Lion," Apple's senior vice president of Product Marketing, Phil Schiller, said in a statement today.
Much of this inspiration has manifested itself in the delivery and organization of software for Macs. With the new "Launchpad" feature in Lion, all of the system's installed applications are pulled into a full-screen layout identical to how the iPad displays its applications, including the folder creation and organization feature added to iOS 4.2 late in 2010. Furthermore, with the Mac App Store, acquisition and update of desktop software is identical to iOS. Lion also adds multi-touch functionality so users can interact in exactly the same way with their desktop as they can with their iPad.
Lion does have a unique feature that isn't found on iOS called Mission Control, which is a zoomed-out view of all the system's open windows, full-screen applications, dashboard, and spaces. Users can select whichever windows or applications they want to use, and then use a gesture to pull out and find another. The unique part of this feature is that it automatically clusters like windows together in the view. So if you have 15 windows open for a project in Photoshop, when you pull out to mission control to switch to another application, all of your Photoshop windows are "piled" on top of one another in Mission Control.
Lion also includes a new version of Mail which is based upon the iPad's mail application; a new feature called AirDrop for wireless sharing between Macs, FileVault for local and external disc encryption, Auto Save and "Versions" which is a sort of history save for documents; and Resume, for applications that have been closed or quit.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Acronis combines two utilities into one suite deal

Publié: février 24, 2011, 5:00pm CET

By Nick Peers

Acronis has released a compilation of two of its standalone products under the moniker, Acronis Backup and Security 2011. Boasting a price tag of $69.99, it compromises Acronis True Image Home 2011, the celebrated drive-imaging and backup tool, plus Acronis Internet Security 2011, a complete internet security suite. Also included is Acronis Online Backup, which comes with a complementary 5GB of online storage. Users can upgrade to 250GB storage per year by paying $20 extra for the Premium version of Acronis Backup and Security.
True Image Home 2011 is considered one of the best drive backup and imaging tools on the market, while Acronis Internet Security is actually a rebadged version of BitDefender's Internet Security 2011 product. The 2011 releases see completely redesigned user interfaces, plus integration with Windows 7 and support for USB 3.0.
Acronis True Image Home 2011 combines a drive-imaging tool with options for backing up files and email. It also includes Acronis DriveCleanser, a file-shredding tool that provides an extra layer of security when deleting sensitive files. Acronis Internet Security 2011 includes anti-malware protection and a firewall, plus boasts industry leading anti-phishing technologies, parental controls and gaming mode for maintaining protection without affecting performance during gaming. The program also comes with a file vault feature, enabling the user to store sensitive files inside an encrypted container.
The price includes a year's subscription to free updates for Acronis Internet Security 2011, which covers three PCs in the home. It also represents a significant savings on purchasing either product separately (True Image Home 2011 retails for $49.99, while Acronis Internet Security 2010 costs $59.99).
Acronis Backup and Security 2011 runs on Windows XP SP3, Vista SP2 and Windows 7. It requires 512MB-1GB RAM depending on the operating system, plus 550MB free hard drive space. The trial version works for 90 days before requiring registration, with a pop-up window appearing to prompt you to activate the product each time Windows is started.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Apple celebrates Steve Jobs' birthday with dual- and quad-core MacBook Pros

Publié: février 24, 2011, 4:40pm CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Today, Apple finally brought MacBook Pro up to speed with Windows laptops. After skipping the last generation of i Core chips, Apple adopted new Intel "Sandy Bridge" processors for some MacBook Pro models. In a surprising, but rumored move, Apple swapped out nVidia graphics for integrated Intel and AMD graphics. Apple updated all three MacBook Pro lines -- 13.3-inch, 15.4-inch and 17-inch. Apple also introduced a new peripheral port called "Thunderbolt."
The new configurations represent hefty upgrades across the board -- for example, bumping up storage capacity in the entry level MacBook Pro from 250GB to 320GB and doubling the memory on some other models. However, in a disappointing move, Apple did not upgrade 13-inch models' display resolution from 1200 x 800 to match MacBook Air's 1366 x 768.
The move to Intel graphics is surprising. Apple stunned some Apple Watchers by choosing older Intel dual-core processors for new MacBook Air models released last year. Many analysts cited graphics as major reason -- that Apple preferred nVidia discreet graphics to Intel's integrated option. Now, suddenly, Apple has switched to get i Core processors.
Apple apparently chose Intel's Thunderbolt over some other connectors, including USB 3.0, for which peripherals already are available (I own a LaCie USB 3.0 external drive). Apple and Intel claim bi-directional throughput of 10Gbps. The port also can connect to HDMI, DVI and VGA displays.
Like before, the 13-inch model is available in two configurations, selling for $1,199 and $1,499. The lower-cost model comes with 2.3GHz Intel Core i5 processor (dual core); 13.3-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution; 4GB of DDR3 memory; 320GB 5400-rpm hard drive; SuperDrive (DVD combo); Intel HD 3000 graphics; two USB, one FireWire 800 and one Thunderbolt port(s); SDXC card slot; 802.11n WiFi; Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR; FaceTime HD Webcam; Mac OS X "Snow Leopard;" and iLife `11. The higher-end model swaps out the processor for 2.7GHz Intel Core i7 (dual core) and bumps storage to 500GB. Apple also offers 128GB, 256GB and 512GB solid-state storage options. Which, respectively, add $200, $600 and $1,200 to the purchase price. Additionally, buyers can bump memory to 8GB for $200 more.
The two 15.4-inch MacBook Pro models sell for $1,799 and $2,199. The lower-cost model comes with 2GHz Intel Core i7 processor (quad core); 15-inch display with 1440 x 900 resolution; 4GB of DDR3 memory; 500GB 5400-rpm hard drive; SuperDrive (DVD combo); Intel HD 3000 and 256MB AMD Radeon HD 6490M graphics; two USB, one FireWire 800 and one Thunderbolt port(s); SDXC card slot; 802.11n WiFi; Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR; FaceTime HD Webcam; Mac OS X "Snow Leopard;" and iLife `11. The higher-end model swaps out the processor for 2.2GHz Intel Core i7 (quad core) and bumps graphics memory to 1GB with AMD Radeon HD 6750M chip and storage to 750GB. Apple also offers 128GB, 256GB and 512GB solid-state storage options. Which, respectively, add $200, $600 and $1,200 to the purchase price. Additionally, buyers can bump memory to 8GB for $200 more.
The single 17-inch model, selling for $2,499, comes with 2.2GHz Intel Core i7 processor (quad core); 17-inch display with 1900 x 1200 resolution; 4GB of DDR3 memory; 750GB 5400-rpm hard drive, SuperDrive (DVD combo); Intel HD 3000 and 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics; two USB, one FireWire 800 and one Thunderbolt port(s); SDXC card slot; 802.11n WiFi; Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR; FaceTime HD Webcam; Mac OS X "Snow Leopard;" and iLife `11. Apple also offers 128GB, 256GB and 512GB solid-state storage options. Which, respectively, add $100, $500 and $1,100 to the purchase price. Additionally, buyers can bump memory to 8GB for $200 more.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs turns 56 today. Happy birthday, Mr. Jobs.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Updated CCleaner supports Windows 7 SP1

Publié: février 24, 2011, 4:30pm CET

By Nick Peers

Piriform Software has updated its system optimization and cleaning tool, CCleaner, to version 3.04. The latest release adds a number of new features, but most notably also adds support for Windows 7 Service Pack 1, which was made available for download two days ago.
CCleaner is a free tool that cleans out files for both optimization and privacy reasons, covering a wide range of systems, programs and browser settings. It also includes a Registry cleaner, plus tools for managing startup and System Restore points, as well as the Programs and Features Control Panel.
The standout feature in CCleaner 3.04 is added support for Windows 7 SP1, making it an essential update for those who have just installed Service Pack 1. The Registry Cleaner has also been enhanced, adding support for Sound Events and improving cleaning for Unused File Extensions and Application Paths.
Support has been added for several new web-browsing applications, including Comodo Dragon and the embedded browsers for SongBird and Thunderbird. The program also adds several cleaning and management options for existing supported browsers, including cookies for Safari, UserData for Internet Explorer and icon cache folders for Google Chrome jumplists and Opera.
Other new programs supported in this release include Excel Viewer, FeedDemon and Free Download Manager, while AntiVir, AVG and Windows Media Player users will benefit from improved cleaning performance.
It's now possible to define environment variables (such as %AppData%) when setting up Custom Locations for folder cleaning, and the program boasts improved system file detection security as well as a number of minor bug fixes.
CCleaner 3.04 is available now for Windows 2000 or later. A portable version for running directly from external drive is also available.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Is News Corp.'s 'The Daily' giving you more blues than news?

Publié: février 24, 2011, 12:11am CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Every single person I know with an iPad who has used News Corp.'s "The Daily" complains about persistent crashes and really, really, really, slow update times. Now PaidContent reports that the initial two-week free introduction promotion is going on and on and on, kind of like those wait times for news content to download. The Daily Publisher Greg Clayman says a decision on when to end free access has yet to be determined. Say, wasn't News Corp. planning to charge for this thing? You know, 99 cents a week -- better value than McDonalds' Dollar Menu?
The Daily launched on February 2nd in New York City, with News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch leading off the event. It's a digital newspaper initially available for iPad, but a version for Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" tablets could release as soon as a few months. Some advice to News Corp.: Launch the Android version sooner as beta and shake out the nastiness before going v1. Hey, the thing is a mobile application, after all. Why not treat its development that way?
A buggy launch is really a bad way to win new subscribers. That's something Microsoft learned from early negative buzz that stunted Windows Vista adoption. Vista wasn't a bad operating system, it just had a bad reputation. What most hurt Vista? It felt slow, because users had to wait too much. Bootup time to usable desktop was comparably slower than Windows XP, and security prompts kept forcing users expecting to drive 130 km/hour to slow down for speed bumps.
Apple enthusiast/defender John Gruber titled his recent missive on the news app's problems "The Daily Wait." Gruber and I often don't agree on much, but there are occasions. He's right to call out wait times: "Imagine a paper newspaper that was wrapped in an envelope, and the envelope was so difficult to open that it took over a minute before you could see the front page of the issue. Who would buy that newspaper? No one, that's who. And I suspect that's who's going to read The Daily, unless they fix this, and soon." Perhaps "no one" to read is explanation enough for News Corp. holding back those 99-cent per-week charges.
News Corp. spent $30 million developing The Daily, which struck me as way, way too much when Murdoch revealed the number on February 2nd. For 30 million bucks, News Corp. couldn't develop a news app that works? Oh, yeah, operational costs are $500,000 a week. That's maybe a little less than $2 million, seeing how February is a short month, with The Daily generating not even 99 cents from subscribers.
How bad are the problems? Well that's my question for you. If you've used The Daily please share with the class about your experience. Do you like it? Would you like it, if something was different? Is it too slow or fast enough? Say, what about crashes -- are you having any? You know the drill. Please answer in comments, or email joewilcox at gmail dot com.
To get you started, I took a look at The Daily's app page at the iTunes App Store for reviews. Current version is 1.02. As I write, there are 6,763 total reviews with an average rating of 2.5 stars. Uh-oh. That can't be good. For the new version, there are 2,461 reviews with an average rating of still 2.5 stars. Out of those twenty-four hundred or so reviews, 920 are one star and 579 are two stars. Hey, but 428 happy campers gave the app 5 stars. Out of fairness, I looked at some other publications. Wired for iPad has an even lower 2-star rating, with 150 of the 250 reviewers giving it one star. The New Yorker: 1.5 stars with 1,288 1-star ratings out of 1,599 reviews. Even ratings for newspapers like the New York Daily News or Washington Post make The Daily's 2.5 stars look pretty good. So perhaps, if not for persistent glitches, The Daily would appeal to more people.
For fairness sake, I looked at the most recent The Daily reviews. "My first review of The Daily was negative, 1 star, but after the app update, deleted and reinstalled the app, it is working great," from a four-star reviewer. A one-star reviewer gripes: "Crashes constantly" and "I'm upset I paid for a subscription to this." Check your credit card. It's unlikely The Daily charged you anything.
Uh-oh. "This app crashes more than any app I've ever used," writes another 1-star reviewer. A four-star reviewer quips: "New version works worse than the original version." The reviewer likes the "superb concept" not the app. "After I installed The Daily, my normally stable iPad crashed 2 or 3 times a day," writes another 1-star reviewer. By the way, all these reviews were posted today.
So, is The Daily giving you the blues or the news? You know where to answer.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010