Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » octobre 27, 2011

BetaNews.Com (11 non lus)

HP pulls a Netflix, decides against PC division spin-off

Publié: octobre 27, 2011, 10:33pm CEST par Tim Conneally

Hewlett-Packard on Thursday announced it will not spin off its Personal Systems group. For the last month, the company has been looking at possible "alternatives" for the PSG -better known as the consumer computer portion of HP that leads the global market- and one of the options the company discussed was turning it into a separate company, akin to what IBM did when it sold off its PC division to Lenovo more than five years ago.

"HP objectively evaluated the strategic, financial and operational impact of spinning off PSG. It’s clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees,” said HP's new president and chief executive officer Meg Whitman. “HP is committed to PSG, and together we are stronger.”

Ultimately, the company found that the PSG was too deeply woven into the global supply chain, IT and procurement structures for an effective spin-off to take place. The company today said "the cost to recreate these in a standalone company outweighed any benefits of separation."
Mobile browser compatibility: Test it, or let someone else worry about it

Publié: octobre 27, 2011, 9:57pm CEST par Tim Conneally

Testing a site for mobile browser compatibility can be a tricky matter. Each of the different mobile platforms has their own built-in browser in addition to downloadable third-party ones, there are the different screen sizes and resolutions, different orientation sensors, and different processor power profiles.

And there's the ever-present problem of plug-in support and support for the new, growing browser technologies like HTML5 and CSS3.

But there are solutions, both for Web app developers and site admins.

This week, Google integrated the Selenium WebDriver project into the Android SDK as an add-in. Selenium can test websites and Web apps for Android 2.3+ browser compatibility within the Eclipse IDE or directly from the command line, and it simulates user interaction such as flicks, clicks, scrolls, long-presses, screen orientation flips, and so forth.

"We try to stay as close as possible to what the user interaction with the browser is. To do so, Android WebDriver runs the tests against a WebView (rendering component used by the Android browser) configured like the Android browser. To interact with the page Android WebDriver uses native touch and key events. To query the DOM, it uses the JavaScript Atoms libraries," the project's Wiki says.

Of course, if time is short, and Android-specific interaction testing isn't quite in the cards for your site, there's always simple substitution.

This is where a service like Onepager comes in. OnePager is a startup Website builder that focuses on giving its users a dead simple way to deliver sites with the broadest compatibility.

Let's say you have a plug-in heavy or cutting edge HTML5 site for your family restaurant. It looks great and works well across desktop browsers, but you need a mobile version that works on every mobile platform out there. Nothing fancy, just a guarantee that the important information (your location, contact information, hours, menu, links to social media/review sites) will be available on whatever device will be looking for you. This is what OnePager gives its users, a simple template for building a site that contains all this information that can be completed in minutes. It's almost exactly the same as about.me and flavors.me but for businesses.

Like those services, Onepager is totally free, too. However, there are monthly/yearly subscription tiers for users who want to use their Onepager as their full site, complete with analytics, custom URLs, and hosting with unlimited bandwidth.

By using a tested and proven template, you can opt to sidestep often lengthy browser compatibility tests. It's one of the many reasons that social media pages are sometimes found as the main sites for businesses and organizations; compatibility issues are entirely handled by someone else.

Photo: Bannosuke/shutterstock
Got Google Apps? Now you can get Google+ too

Publié: octobre 27, 2011, 9:51pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Nearly four months to the day after Google first unveiled its social network to the masses, the search giant on Thursday opened up Google+ to users of its Google Apps platform. While users of standard Google accounts have been able to sign up for the service without an invite since late September, those registered under a Google Apps account remained logged out.

Google claims that technical issues prevented a faster rollout for Apps customers, but did not specify the exact cause of the delays.

The process is not automatic: each Google Apps administrator must turn on Google+ within their administration panels. However, once activated users will be able to sign up from the Google+ front page when logged into their accounts like any other users.

"Google Apps fans, today we’re ready to add you to our circles", product manager Ronald Ho says. He adds that Google Apps users on Google+ would gain additional benefits over the standard user. For example, in addition to the standard Public and circle-based sharing options, the Apps user will also be able to share within their organization.

Ho says the company is working on a tool that would assist Google+ users who used their personal accounts to gain access to the service to migrate them to their Google Apps logins. "We expect this migration option to be ready in a few weeks", he says.
Now you can globally manage Outlook attachments

Publié: octobre 27, 2011, 8:34pm CEST par Mike Williams

Use Outlook for a while and it’s all too easy to build up a bulky Inbox, weighed down in particular by all the attachments you’ve received. And while you can delete or save these individually, Outlook doesn’t provide any global way to manage all your email attachments. Which is why you may well need NirSoft’s OutlookAttachView.

The program has more filtering capabilities than we expected. So, for instance, you can choose to view only attachments sent within a particular date range, of a particular size or file type, from a specified group of senders, or to defined email addresses, amongst other options. But if you don’t care about any of that – or you’re just in a hurry -- simply click OK on the opening Scan Options dialog and OutlookAttachView will show you all the attachments for messages stored in the default Outlook profile.

The attachment report is also surprisingly detailed. So you’ll see the attachment file name; the email address and computer it came from, as well as the email client used to send it; the date it was sent; the subject, MIME type, and of course the attachment file size.

If you’re looking for quick cleanup, then clicking the File Size column header will sort the attachments by size. Select any of the top few files that you’re sure you won’t need, click the Delete button, and that’s it: they’re gone. (The original email message remains, though, if you look -- it just won’t have an attachment any more.)

Or alternatively, if you select particular files of interest (or press Ctrl+A to select them all), then use the right-click “Copy” option, OutlookAttachView will save your chosen attachments to a folder, so now you can view or manage them without having to go through Outlook each time.

You do have to be cautious how you use the program. Think carefully before you delete something, for instance -- there’s no way to recover an attachment you’ve wiped accidentally. And in particular be wary of opening attachments you don’t recognize. OutlookAttachView doesn’t have any security warnings before launching attachments which may contain executable code, so if that mystery XLS or PDF file contains malware then opening it may infect your PC.

These issues aside, though, OutlookAttachView is a very useful way to examine and manage your Outlook attachments. It’s powerful and packed with features, yet like most NirSoft programs, remains tiny -- only 123KB, including a Help file.

Please note, OutlookAttachView comes in two builds. Use the 64-bit edition for 64-bit Outlook 2010, while the 32-bit edition should work well for everything else (Outlook 2003, 2007 or 2010).
First an outage, now a lawsuit: US, Canadian Blackberry users want compensation

Publié: octobre 27, 2011, 8:26pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Research in Motion will now need to fight off class action suits in both the United States and Canada, following a four-day outage earlier this month which started overseas but quickly spread worldwide. The outage left some without email, web browsing, and instant messaging for several days.

RIM apologized for the issues and offered free apps and enterprise tech support for its customers' troubles, but that was not enough. The US effort was filed on Wednesday in the US District Court for the Central District of California in Santa Ana, and the Canadian suit in the Quebec Superior Court. Both efforts seek class-action status.

Sherman Oaks, Calif. resident and BlackBerry user Eric Mitchell brought the US complaint. In it, his lawyers accuse RIM of breach of contract, negligence and unjust enrichment. While Mitchell did not pay RIM directly for service, he paid for BlackBerry services through his Sprint wireless contract.

The suit says that the plaintiffs were unsatisfied by RIM's efforts to placate affected users, and that the company did not take full responsibility for the outages. It says that RIM earns about $3.4 million a day in providing these services, and that the plaintiffs should be compensated for services they did not receive.

Along with seeking class-action status, the suit seeks damages including cash compensation for the service outage as well as payment of all associated court costs.

If the US suit becomes a class action its size could be 2.4 million in the state of California alone. That said, class-action efforts have failed before simply because the class would be too big -- most recently a sexual discrimination suit against Wal-Mart that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

There, the class would have been about 1.4 million. Here, it could easily run into the tens of millions, and depending on what compensation the plaintiffs are seeking, the monetary cost into the hundreds of millions.

RIM could not immediately be reached for comment.

Photo Credit: sgm/Shutterstock
Hate Google? Try Firefox with Bing

Publié: octobre 27, 2011, 6:20pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

In the rush to cover Nokia World and new Windows Phones, I missed something kind of ground quaking yesterday. Microsoft is promoting Firefox with Bing. The default search engine, which users can change, is Google on standard Firefox. Now they can get the browser with Bing as default. Did hell freeze over and I miss the tweet?

Firefox exists today because of Google. People can rabble on about the importance of open-source and raise Firefox as the poster application for the movement's success. Software development isn't free, and running an organization and marketing products require capital. Firefox launched 7 years ago next month, and Google not only has powered search but provided through the bundled service the cash that keeps the organization running. Why on earth, or any planet, then would Mozilla jeopardize that relationship?

Sixteen days ago, Mozilla released its annual report, revealing that 98 percent of revenues come from search. The majority must be from Google, because it's the default search engine and Google is No. 1 in most countries (okay, not China).

Web browsers languished after Microsoft won the browser wars and essentially extinguished Netscape as a rival. But bundled search, with Google coughing up fees, revived browser development with Netscape (before its eventual death) and Mozilla leading a new charge into territory conquered by Microsoft in the mid-Noughties. Good thing for Mozilla that Microsoft had largely abandoned that territory by letting Internet Explorer development languish. Firefox charged into IE territory -- as did others. Internet Explorer has retreated since, with usage share down to 54.39 percent in September, according to Net Applications, from about 90 percent in 2004.

But Mozilla is losing usage share, too, as partner Google laps it up. Firefox fell to 22.48 percent from 23.52 percent usage share between November 2010 and September 2011, according to NetApps. September marked the fourth consecutive month of decline for Firefox. Meanwhile, Chrome usage share rose to 16.2 percent from 9.57 from November to September, consecutively gaining share for all 11 months. At this pace, Chrome should catch Firefox by mid-2012. That makes Google a new-found competitor and one taking money from Mozilla's wallet.

Mozilla has two good reasons then to release Firefox with Bing: Google is a competitor, and Bing can make up search revenues lost to Google. Microsoft powers Yahoo search. Combined, they had 31 percent US search share in September, according to comScore. That's just one country.

But there is another reason to consider, and this one could really lead to a hell freezes over announcement. Mozilla's search deal with Google is up for renewal next month. Could it be Mozilla is prepping for a switch to Bing as default, which would be a huge coup for Microsoft and eventually Mozilla if Bing search share rises. The move also could be little more than a negotiating tactic, with Mozilla looking to leverage Firefox with Bing as it works out a new agreement with Google. Regardless, there's a new choice for users, not that switching search providers is hard in Firefox.

Still it removes an extra step. "We’re teaming with Mozilla to release Firefox with Bing, a version of the popular Web browser that includes default search settings for Bing," says Tor Steiner, of Microsoft's Bing team. "Now Firefox users who are Bing enthusiasts can use Firefox with Bing to use the Web the way they want without having to take extra steps to navigate or customize their settings to Bing".

Windows users can download the software here.
Uh-oh iTunes, WinAmp comes to OS X, syncs with Android

Publié: octobre 27, 2011, 4:53pm CEST par Mark Wilson

WinAmp used to have a huge following back in the days when MP3 was still something of a new format, and the increased popularity of the Mac and Android platforms seems to have brought about something of a resurgence. While Windows users have long enjoyed the player, Mac users have not been so lucky. All this changes with the release of a beta version of the Mac player along with an important update for users of the Android version of the app.

The curiously names WinAmp for Mac Sync Beta not only indicates that the Mac software is currently in beta testing, but also that there is a strong focus on synchronization. While the player can be used to listen to your locally stored music library, it can also be used to keep your iTunes library synchronized as well as synching music with your Android device.

The great thing about Android syncing: it can be done wirelessly so there’s no need to hunt around for that elusive USB cable. Synchronizing music in this way makes it easy for anyone who has tired of working with iTunes to make the switch to a different player with a minimum of fuss, and the Android version of the music player is well worth checking out as well.

In addition to music, you can also choose to synchronize videos. But while these are all important updates, WinAmp is still WinAmp at heart -- it is basically a lightweight music player that can be used to listen to music stored on your hard drive or to stream online radio and much more.

You can find out more and download free copies of the apps by paying a visit to the WinAmp for Mac Sync Beta review page and the WinAmp for Android review page. An updated WinAmp for Windows is also available.
Sony buys Ericsson out of mobile phone joint venture, both companies happy

Publié: octobre 27, 2011, 4:27pm CEST par Tim Conneally

Sony Corporation's joint venture with Swedish telecommunications leader Ericsson will become the sole property of Sony, the two companies announced on Thursday. Sony will acquire Ericsson's 50 percent stake in the joint venture for approximately 1.05 billion Euro in cash.

This change in ownership will affect quite a few aspects of both companies' businesses. Firstly and perhaps most importantly, Ericsson, which has a long-standing goal of connecting 50 billion devices, can take its focus off of handsets, a technology it views as "first wave connectivity," and concentrate on the areas where it is most powerful: components and infrastructure. This way, it can focus on the future of "networked everything" rather than the past of consumer electronics.

Secondly, Sony will now be able to merge its handset division with its other portable consumer electronics devices, like its new tablets and mobile video gaming product the PlayStation Vita.

Finally, this acquisition gives Sony broad access to Ericsson's intellectual property related to wireless communications, and it has entered into a cross-licensing agreement that will cover all of the products and services Sony offers. Additionally, Sony's buyout of the joint venture will give it "ownership of five essential patent families related to wireless handset technology," though the companies did not specify how many individual patents this is.

"This acquisition makes sense for Sony and Ericsson, and it will make the difference for consumers, who want to connect with content wherever they are, whenever they want. With a vibrant smartphone business and by gaining access to important strategic IP, notably a broad cross-license agreement, our four-screen strategy is in place. We can more rapidly and more widely offer consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions that seamlessly connect with one another and open up new worlds of online entertainment. This includes Sony’s own acclaimed network services, like the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network," said Sir Howard Stringer, Sony’s Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President in a statement on Thursday morning.

Sony currently has an 11 percent market share of Android-powered smartphones by value internationally.
FoxIt Reader 5.1 goes social -- Facebook and Twitter

Publié: octobre 27, 2011, 3:24pm CEST par Nick Peers

Foxit Software has updated its free PDF tool, Foxit Reader to version 5.1. This new release adds tools for sharing content from PDF files with Facebook and Twitter, and adds a Read Out Loud feature that uses speech synthesis to read any text embedded into the current PDF file.

Version 5.1 also introduces a new Reading Mode that helps to maximize the reading area via options that help to provide a full-screen view of the current document. The program can be updated through its own updater or downloaded separately and installed over the top of the existing verson.

Foxit Reader 5.1’s new social networking integration feature is accessed via the Facebook icon on the toolbar or by clicking the Share button on the Basic tab when using the program’s tabbed ribbon interface. This opens a panel on the right-hand side of the screen inviting the user to link the program to their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Once done, the user can share files, images or text via their social network of choice.

Files and images can be selected from the computer’s hard drive, or the user can opt to share the currently selected PDF by right-clicking it and choosing Share Current Document. The user can also use Foxit’s screen grabbing tool to select a portion of the document and share that as an attached image -- this time, select the portion of the screen to share before right-clicking it to select Share the selected image.

Version 5.1 also implements a new tool that can read out the embedded text in a PDF file via the View menu via a female, computerized voice. Playback can be paused from the same menu, and the user can opt to read out the current page or the entire document.

Foxit Reader 5.1’s new Reading Mode, which can be enabled by default for PDF files opened directly in the browser, features a number of options for removing parts of the program interface, specifically toolbars and ribbon elements, to maximize the screen space for the current PDF file. This is provided via a Read Mode button in the top right-hand corner of the window, which hides all toolbars plus collapses the ribbon-like interface so only the tabbed headings are visible.

Readability is also improved through enhanced text rendering, which Foxit promises makes text clearer and more sharply defined. Other changes include improved startup and PDF opening and closing times, plus Foxit Reader now automatically chooses paper size when printing, based on the PDF’s own page size.

Foxit Reader 5.1 is a freeware download for PCs running Windows 2000 or later.
Benchmarking tool AIDA64 keeps bang up-to-date at all times

Publié: octobre 27, 2011, 1:33pm CEST par Joe Cassels

FinalWire has announced the release of the latest version of its diagnostics and benchmarking program, AIDA64 v2.00, which is great news for anyone who wants to ensure that their PCs are running smoothly.

The diagnostic software enables you to identify any malfunctioning components so you can replace them if necessary. Benchmarking enables you to see if your system is performing as well as it can, and if it isn’t you can take some steps to correct the problem.

New in version 2.00 is Automatic Online Updating, which ensures that the software is kept bang up-to-date at all times. It also provides full support for the LGA2011 Intel "Sandy Bridge-E" processors, plus preliminary support for the following processors: AMD "Krishna" and "Wichita" APUs, Intel Atom "Cedarview", Intel "Ivy Bridge" and Intel 7-Series chipsets.

Western Digital hard drives get new enhanced support and the software includes GPU details for AMD’s Radeon HD 6625M and nVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 570M. AIDA64 has also been updated to fully support the virtual environment in VMWare Workstation v8.

You can get AIDA64 v2.00 in three different editions. Extreme edition is aimed at home users and is designed to help you to benchmark a single system. It helps overclockers tweak their systems and perform hardware diagnosis and stress testing, and costs US $39.95. AIDA64 Business edition is licensed for up to five PCs and provides the ability to compile and manage a software inventory for a company, and is available for $79.95.

There’s also AIDA64 v2.00 Extreme edition with an Enterprise licence, which entitles a single person to use the software on as many PCs as he or she likes, including those of customers. This costs $149.95.

A trial of AIDA64 v2.00 is available for free download now, and requires a PC running Windows 2000 or later.
I really want to get excited about Lumia 800 Windows Phone, but...

Publié: octobre 27, 2011, 4:47am CEST par Joe Wilcox
Nokia makes it damn hard. No US distribution this year. (Europe? With the Euro zone in state of collapse?) No front-facing camera -- long a standard feature on Nokia handsets -- and, hells bells, Microsoft now owns Skype. Surely that makes front-facing camera selling in Europe, Nokia's and Skype's home turf, required equipment. The phone maker announced the Lumia 800, and lower-cost Lumia 710, today at Nokia World.

I'm a longstanding Nokia enthusiast -- a rare-breed in the United States and particularly among journalists, many of whom trumpet for iPhone. I've owned two different N95s, E71, N79, N97 and N900, among other Nokia handsets -- and loved them all, even with their quirks. But in January 2011, I opined: "Confessions of a former Nokia enthusiast", writing "I love Nokia, but Nokia doesn't love me". I'm still not feeling the love, and perhaps I set expectations too high. A few weeks back I thought of writing a post titled something like: "Will the hottest phone this holiday come from Nokia and not Apple". Good thing, I didn't.

I had hoped that Windows Phone would bring a fresh new era to Nokia handsets, instead the Lumia 800 clings to sadder tradition -- shipping last year's model. Before Apple shipped iPhone in July 2007, Nokia defined bleeding-edge mobility, rightly claiming handsets like the N82 or N95 were pocket computers. But the Finnish phone maker lost its way with smartphones, a category it created in 1996. Each new model post-iPhone seemed to be behind others, often because they took so long coming to market. When Nokia announced the N8 in April 2010, the tech looked pretty good but old when it shipped half-a-year later, following iPhone 4.

Nokia should be applauded for fixing the lag-to-market problem. Independent analyst Ian Fogg observes: "The Lumia 800 Windows Phone is already shipping from Nokia’s factories just eight months after the major strategy change". He, like me, contrasts this against N8's slow move to market.

Last Year's Model

Back to those features of yesteryear, only the camera stands out as likely being ahead of competitors. But Nokia has long had and maintained leadership here. The f/2.2 Carl Zeiss lens and big sensor (for a phone) are suited to capturing good photos in low light -- then there is the dual-LED flash; most competing phones have single-LED flash.

Otherwise it's last-year's tech for a smartphone of this class:
- Single-core processor, while iPhone 4S, Galaxy S II and others are dual-core
- 720p video recording, while competitors are 1080p
- Bluetooth 2.1, while iPhone 4S has Bluetooth 4.0
- 512MB, like iPhone 4S; both are behind Androids
- AMOLED display is okay, except outdoors
Because of the single-core chip, some people complain the Nokia Lumia 800 is underpowered compared to iPhone 4S and Androids in the same class. "At this point, is there really any reason to buy a single-core personal computing device unless it's a throw-away? That applies to any platform or form", writes Simon Pasieka, in response to a question I put on Google+.

I've been deprived using Windows Phone and can't say, but real users and wireless carriers tell me that Microsoft's software is light and responsive on handsets with single-core chips. If true, the 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 single-core processor is fine. Still, Pasieka has a point: "Unless WP7 does not multitask well, and from what I am hearing it does, there is no way a single core Nokia will be more responsive than multi-core Samsung or HTC".

See Tim Conneally's slideshow: "Hands-on with Nokia's first Windows Phones"

I want to root for Nokia and Lumia 800, but I'm not feeling it yet. There's something here that feels unfinished. Has Nokia primed Lumia 800, and sibling 710, before its time or simply shipped what was ready now rather than wait to get it all? I want to give Nokia benefit of the doubt, but it's hard when comparing Lumia 800 hardware to the luscious Symbian-based N9 (and similarities between them are, unsurprisingly, striking).

Nokia N9 quick specs: 3.9-inch AMOLED display -- curved Gorilla glass -- with 854 x 480 resolution; 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 OMAP3630 processor; 1GB RAM; 16GB or 64GB storage; 8-megapixel rear-facing camera -- Carl Zeiss f/2.2 lens with 2x LED flash; front-facing camera for video conferencing; 720p video recording; Near-Field Communications; Bluetooth 2.1; GPS: 1450 mA battery; and MeeGo 1.2 "Harmattan."

Nokia Lumia 800 quick specs: 3.7-inch AMOLED display -- curved glass -- with 800 x 480 resolution; 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 processor; 512MB RAM; 16GB storage; 8-megapixel rear-facing camera -- Carl Zeiss f/2.2 lens with 2x LED flash; 720p video recording; Near-Field Communications; Bluetooth 2.1; GPS: 1450 mA battery; and Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango".

Clinging to Hope

"What a disaster for Nokia & WP7. Ugly phones, no front camera, with iOS 5 running circles around these phones", BetaNews reader ilev comments. "Ah, and according to [Nokia CEO Stephen] Elop these are the REAL WP7s, so, anyone who bought a WP7 until now bought crap phone".

Others are more optimistic about today's announcements. "Nokia World 2011 marks just the start of a new Nokia. Nokia has progressed through the first stage of a transition", Fogg says. "But there's much much more to do. These two Lumia handsets just the first two smartphones of what Nokia intend to be an entire product family that will spearhead a revival in the US, Europe and Asia".

The Lumia 800 will be available in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom, from 31 operators, starting next month. Nokia plans to bring the Windows Phone to Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan by year's end. These are core Nokia markets, by the way, and right place to start.

What about missing the United States during the holidays? I asked Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis. "I don’t necessarily see not having a product in store in the US for the holiday as a negative", he says. "They’ll have Europe and since their presence here is so anemic I think holiday would be a struggle to get some mind share amid all the noise of the holiday season".

Can Nokia pull it together, and can Microsoft and Windows Phone make a difference? I'm feeling less pessimistic today than July. But not enough to get excited, sigh, about Lumia 800. What about you?

Photo Credit: Tim Conneally