Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » novembre 2011

In an effort the provide better personalized recommendations, eBay has acquired privately-held Hunch, a two-year-old service that suggests content on the Internet based on personal tastes. The auction service expects Hunch to integrate into a variety of its offerings beyond recommendations.

Hunch founder Chris Dixon will lead eBay's existing recommendations team, reports indicate. "We’ll be tackling all kinds of interesting challenges as part of eBay including predictive merchandising, interpreting unstructured data and creating merchant insights", he writes in a blog post announcing the acquisition. "We can’t wait to get started".

Dixon says Hunch will continue to operate as a standalone site, and all employees will remain with the company, which stays in New York City.

"With Hunch, we’re adding new capabilities to personalizing the shopping experience on eBay to the individual relevant tastes and interests of our customers", eBay's chief technology officer Mark Carges says. "We expect Hunch’s technologies to benefit eBay shoppers as they browse and buy, and to bring sellers on eBay new ways to connect the right products with the right customers".

Hunch uses information from the users' activities on social networks, people they friend or follow and answers to a set of questions the service asks. From there, Hunch matches users with products it thinks they may be interested in.

eBay hopes that Hunch move it beyond traditional recommendation services, which often are merely aggregated from previous sales of similar items but have little to do with the interests of the users themselves.

The companies didn't disclose terms of the deal, however earlier Monday Michael Arrington wrote that eBay paid $80 million for Hunch.

Photo Credit: goldenangel / Shutterstock

Early Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" adopters must do without Flash, as Google confirms that current versions are incompatible. However, Adobe says they won't wait long: a compatible Flash release should be available by the end of the year.

Adobe announced earlier this month that it would end support for mobile versions of Flash, a move that acknowledges the shift towards HTML5 among mobile developers. Indeed, Adobe confirms that its port of Flash for ICS will be its last: future versions of Android will not be compatible.

There is one reality that Adobe must face with Android, and that's fragmentation -- thus some users could still be on versions of the OS that are still Flash compatible. Adobe will still provide updates for those users, but only to address "critical" bugs and security issues, it says.

In related Flash news, the company remains committed to Adobe AIR, its application runtime used to create Internet-based applications. That platform uses a variety of technologies -- including Flash -- and Adobe still plans to support it for the foreseeable future. The company also intends to support Flash for desktop applications, but even there HTML5 has made inroads.

A survey released in September by JavaScript and HTML5 consulting firm appendTo claims 84 percent of developers plan to employ HTML5 within the next six months. Another survey conducted by Appcelerator and IDC found that 66 percent of mobile developers are "very interested" in developing for the platform.

Network services company Infoblox on Monday released the results of a survey conducted by The Measurement Factory called the IPv6 Census, which revealed that support for IPv6 by .com, .net, and .org zones grew by 1,900 percent in one year, thanks in large part to the support by popular registrar GoDaddy.

Last February, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) announced that the last IPv4 addresses had been allocated, and that it would only be a matter of time before they ran out.

And in the decade that IPv6 has been around, it's been supported by software makers, popular web destination owners, and enterprise service providers. Having support from Go Daddy means IPv6 now has support from the world's largest accredited domain registrar, which is responsible for more than 50 million domain names.

Still, the massive jolt provided by Go Daddy only brings total support for IPv6 by .com, .net, and .org subdomains up to 25.4 percent. If we were to subtract Go Daddy's contribution, there was still growth, but the total support would only be around 3 percent.

The survey also found that less than one percent of the zones had IPv6-enabled Web servers, and that about two percent of the zones had IPv6-supportive mail servers.

Adoption of IPv6 has been glacially slow in certain segments, such as service providers. Just two weeks ago, the US' leading ISP, Comcast announced it was doing pilot market deployments of IPv6 for a nationwide rollout next year.

Infoblox, however, is targeting domain registrars.

"A significant percentage of businesses run on the registrars’ networks, relying on the registrars’ systems for email and a web presence, which don’t predominantly support IPv6 yet," the company's announcement said on Monday. "If the registrars added IPv6 support for email and web servers, a significant impediment to those businesses’ enabling IPv6 would be removed and adoption gains could jump. If a registrar isn’t supporting IPv6, it creates a serious obstacle to any business wanting to implement IPv6 for its external content."

Photo: Oleksly Mark/

When you need to install (or reinstall) Windows then normally you’ll reach for the regular CD/ DVD. But this is slow, easily scratched if you leave it lying around, and of, course, won’t be any use at all if your target system doesn’t have a working optical drive.

And that’s where WinToFlash comes in. This straightforward tool will take your installation disc (Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and Server 2003/ 2008 are supported), copy the files to a USB flash drive, and make it bootable, leaving you with a faster, more durable and convenient installer.

If you want to get involved in the complexities of this, then an Advanced Mode makes them all available. You can, for instance, choose the file system you’d like on the USB drive, its MBR configuration, FAT 16/32 configuration and more. So if you’re a Windows expert then there should be enough here to overcome any boot issues you might have with particular hardware.

The WinToFlash default settings are well chosen, though, so if you prefer the easy life then you can just run a simple wizard, point the program at your Windows disc and flash drive, and it’ll take care of everything else.

You still have to pay close attention to what you’re doing, of course. By default WinToFlash will format the target drive to make it bootable, for instance, destroying any data it contains -- so be very sure you point WinToFlash at the right location.

And booting from USB may not always be so easy, particularly with older PCs. If your system stubbornly starts from the hard drive as usual then check your BIOS setup program for its boot settings; you may need to give USB or removable devices a higher priority on the boot list.

For the most part, though, WinToFlash works just fine, and in around 10 minutes the program produced a bootable USB flash drive which launched without problems on our test Dell Inspiron notebook.

The first public beta of TeamViewer 7 is now available, revealing some major additions to this popular remote access tool.

Many of the new features concentrate on solid improvements to what’s gone before. It’s now possible to save advanced connection settings for each remote PC, for instance, so you’re ready to work with a system just as soon as you connect. File transfer is now as easy as dragging and dropping a file or folder from a session window to your own PC. And sessions can be recorded, both as screenshots or AVI videos.

Other additions can help you to manage complex remote control situations, with, for example, new multi-monitor support allowing you to display separate session windows in each monitor.

But the big news this time around is TeamViewer 7′s ability to host online meetings for up to 25 people. Participants can be alerted via email, and join from smartphones, tablets or computers. Once everyone arrives they’ll all be able to view the same screen, see and hear everything you’re doing, chat, use a white board or share files. And the new ability to create a video record of what’s happening may be useful for reference, later, or to share with others who couldn’t make the big event.  Not bad at all for a program that is still entirely free for personal and non-commercial use.

There are some minor issues to consider before you take a look at the new build. Older versions of TeamViewer won’t be able to connect to this build, for instance, or join the new TeamViewer 7 meetings. And the program is still a beta, of course, so will contain bugs: treat it with caution.

If these are concerns for you then the good news is that the finished release isn’t far away, with a release expected in early December.

But if you’re eager to see what the new build has to offer, then there’s no need to wait -- the beta build of TeamViewer 7 is available now.

US Thanksgiving is this Thursday, and their friends across the ocean have something for the Apple Fanclub of bloggers and journalists to be grateful for: Canalys predictions that the Mac maker will be the No. 1 PC vendor next year -- gasp, possibly during holiday 2011. "HP and Apple will fight for top position in Q4, but Apple may have to wait for the release of iPad 3 before it passes HP", Canalys analyst Tim Coulling says.

It's an amazing proclamation, considering that IDC put Mac global share at a puny 5.2 percent in third quarter. You'll read lots of gleeful headlines today about how Apple is going to strip HP's britches, then leap to the top spot. Canalys' magical prediction is all about counting. Is a tablet a PC? The UK-based analysis firm says yes, and adding iPad to the mix pulls Apple up from the doldrums to the stratosphere.

I first asked the "Is Apple No. 1?" question that Canalys answers now in August 2010. The answer is hugely important and has far-reaching implications for Apple, perceptions about its future and how shareholders react in the early post-Steve Jobs era. Apple's a nobody at 5 percent, but the new kid in town if snatching HP's PC crown. Then there are the blogs and news stories pushed by the Apple Fanclub.

What's a PC?

Everything hinges on definition, which isn't as clear now as when I posed it 15 months ago. Gartner and IDC classify iPad and its Android competitors as media tablets, separate from PCs. They distinguish desktop operating systems like Windows from Android and iOS. Windows running on the Samsung Series 7 slate is a PC, while iPad is not, by their definition. Are they right?

Two factors muddle Gartner and IDC definitions: iOS 5 and Windows 8 on ARM processors. IDC defines a media tablet as a slate device ranging in size from 5 inches to as much as 14 inches and running so-called lightweight operating systems, such as iOS and Android OS, on ARM processors. The analyst firm classifies tablets running Windows on x86 processors as PCs. Windows 8 Metro will run on ARM processors, so will they not be PCs then? That's a definition question Gartner and IDC must address.

Then there is iOS 5 to consider. Over six months and several posts, I asked if Apple's tablet is a PC. February 2011 I answered: "iPad is not a PC". From the post:

As long as iPad requires a PC for activation and to receive operating system updates, it is a dependent device. Apple's tablet requires a PC to fully function. By comparison, I would rank the new generation of Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" tablets as PCs, based on function. Multi-core processors, improved graphic performance and Honeycomb will make tablets like the HTC Flyer, Motorola XOOM and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 PC replacements for many buyers. Android has never been dependent on PCs. Account activation takes place from the device and all updates are sent over the air -- that is directly to the smartphone or tablet.

By the "it's dependent" reasoning, Canalys and DisplaySearch are both wrong to classify iPad as a PC. Many Betanews readers have expressed similar opinion in comments, and they're due some recognition.

Uh-oh, iOS 5 and iCloud pretty much liberate iPad from its PC dependence. Users can sync to the cloud and receive updates over the air. There's still strong argument that iPad is a PC-companion device but it's no longer wholly dependent on personal computers. But is it liberated? You tell me. I haven't used iPad since iOS 5's release. Is activation also OTA, or is a PC required? It's a small thing but factors into the definition.

But is that enough distinction? My wife's Kindle doesn't require a PC, but that surely doesn't make the e-reader one. Windows on ARM makes definitions murkier than iOS 5, I think. Some people will argue that if iPad replaces a personal computer then it's a PC. I disagree. CD players replaced vinyl record players but they're not counted as the same thing. They're different devices recokened separately. Same is true of VHS and DVD players. Replacement doesn't make one thing the other.

Is iPad a PC?

Hell, not even Apple counts iPad as a PC. Tablet and Mac sales are separate. Before his death Jobs spoke enthusiastically about the post-PC era, and he referred to iPad and iPhone in that context. Not even Apple's then CEO regards iPad as PC -- if it's a product leading the post-PC era. From that perspective, Canalys shouldn't classify iPad a PC, like smartphones aren't counted as PCs.

The definition really should apply the other way around -- tablet classification needs changing. Windows slates should count as tablets not as PCs based on form factor and function -- and why not, then, those running x86 processors. The classification is more sensible and, by that reasoning, means that iPad is not a PC and it's outrageous for Canalys to claim that Apple will be No. 1 next year based on current shipment growth trends. Similarily, I shouldn't call Android tablets PCs, either. So I correct myself. If iPads aren't PCs, neither are Android tablets.

By the way, Canalys refers to tablets as "pads" and predicts 59 million unit shipments for all 2011 -- 22 million in fourth quarter. I won't state PC market share for obvious reasons.

Do you agree? Is iPad not a PC? Please answer in comments below and take to poll above.

The results are in to BetaNews poll "US Congress is considering two new copyright bills: PROTECT IP and Stop Online Piracy Act. Do you support them?" Among the 2,560 people who responded to the question (so far), 63 answered "Yes". Who are these people? I'm surprised it's that many. Only 95.43 percent answered "No" to legislation with wide bipartisan support and likelihood of passing both Houses in some form.

"Whenever you hear about something having 'bipartisan' support, hold onto your wallet and don't pick up the soap" writes commenter psycros. My own reaction is equally strong, and the proposed bills are supposed to protect me. I'm a victim. Everyday people steal copyrighted content BetaNews paid to produce and posts it for their own profit -- if nothing else feeding off the Google economy. PROTECT IP and SOPA are supposed to protect my writing and livelihood as a copyrighted content producer. No thanks.

To recap, Senators introduced PROTECT IP in May and House representatives did likewise with SOPA in October. Either bill would give the government broad powers to take down websites, seize domains and compel search engines from indexing these properties. Little more than a request from copyright holders is necessary. It's essentially guilty-until-proven-innocent legislation that would punish the many for the sins of the few, while disrupting the fundamental attributes that made the Internet so successful and empowered so many individuals or businesses to accomplish so much. (Review the bills: PROTECT IP. SOPA.)

Government's Facebook Killer

Based on my reading of both proposed bills, some of the most disrupting and socially transforming websites/cloud services wouldn't exist today if enacted, say, in 2005. YouTube, which opened to the public in November 2005 and Google purchased 11 months later, could have been killed in its infancy because users posted copyrighted content they didn't own. The bills would have empowered the US Justice Department to seize the website and its domain, potentially stifling a new industry.

Americans watched an average 19.5 hours of online video in September 2011, according to comScore. Google sites, mostly from YouTube, handily topped the list, with 161.4 million unique viewers. Second ranked VEVO: 57.3 million. Number of videos watched, respectively, between the two sites: 18.6 billion and 748 million. Also in September, number of video ads reached more than 50 percent of the US online population -- a milestone. But the video sites and burgeoning ad market behind them likely wouldn't exist today if government, at the behest of Hollywood, seized YouTube and other video sites in the late Noughties.

Then there's Facebook, the most socially disruptive and empowering website/service to come along in a generation. Thirteen months ago, writing for The New Republic, Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig observed that many "The Social Network" reviewers overlooked the movie's most important character: The Internet, and the ease with which it allowed Mark Zuckerberg to create Facebook. Lessig uses the founding of Nantucket Nectars as vehicle for comparing the old and new worlds:

At each step after the first, along the way to giving their customers what they wanted, the two Toms had to ask permission from someone. They needed permission from a manufacturer to get into his plant. Permission from a distributor to get into her network. And permission from stores to get before the customer...

Zuckerberg faced no such barrier. For less than $1,000, he could get his idea onto the Internet. He needed no permission from the network provider. He needed no clearance from Harvard to offer it to Harvard students. Neither with Yale, or Princeton, or Stanford. Nor with every other community he invited in. Because the platform of the Internet is open and free, or in the language of the day, because it is a 'neutral network' a billion Mark Zuckerbergs have the opportunity to invent for the platform.

If either PROTECT IP or SOPA was law, Zuckerberg would need permission, and with or without it he could easily be shut down by Harvard or government intervention, simply because Facebook users post or even link to copyrighted content.

US Congress is considering two new copyright bills: PROTECT IP and Stop Online Piracy Act. Do you support them?

Guilt by Association

Still, piracy, whether or not intentional, is widespread. I won't state figures here, believing most are overstated by groups like Business Software Alliance that assume most or every pirated created work would be a sale -- that's unlikely.

Commenter Rsharp20 writes: "Piracy is a problem, and the only people who do not want such a bill are the people who do pirate". I don't pirate anything, but I oppose the bills, even though they would, in theory, protect me from pirates.

Nicole F. sees the situation differently:

To those who support the bill, mainly those that think that the only people opposing this bill are pirating individuals or that the bill has merit for its plans against pirating: The written intentions are good, but the problem with this bill is that is so vague and gives corporations way too much power.

Rather than holding the individual accountable for piracy, it holds the entire website accountable. This bill gives corporations the power to take down said websites for even one comment, post, etc. that they deem inappropriate/illegal (which, might I add, would be the responsibility of the individual, not the website itself -- so long as it clearly states legal policies in line with the gov to users and requires that they adhere to them).

This means that massive sites whose primary function are for social networking and sharing of user-created media, not for piracy, can be shut down completely (just because of a few idiots that would risk the whole website and all its users to get some videos or music for free). This is a HUGE threat to freedom of speech since many of these sites are where ideas are expressed and shared, where inspiration happens and movements begin.

In reviewing the bills, I take away similar impression. So it's not just that Mark Zuckerberg couldn't create Facebook, it wouldn't be sustainable because of what people post or link to. Does the government have the legal authority to take down sites that link to others promoting illegal activities like drug trafficking? But, hey, it's okay to seize sites and domains because of Harry Potter?

Protect Copyrights or Free Speech?

But there's another way to look at both bills, as BetaNews commenter scophi observes:

It's about shutting down major websites that are intentionally mass pirating software, products, medical prescriptions, stolen identities, etc. It's an effort to get companies to stop doing business with known traffickers. It's about closing down available outlets for pirates/thieves to trade their stolen goods. It's an attempt to stop mass criminal activity on the web.

Additionally, IP is not over-protected here. If anything, it's the opposite, given our country's economic and political upbringings. That's why the bill is called PROTECT IP, because there's so little of it right now. The bill is looking to expand IP protection.

Without IP, there is little motivation for R&D, authorship, or marketing. It's the basis for pharmaceutical companies, technology patents, musical groups, artists, engineers, writers, and virtually any field where innovation is possible. America is built on IP and ownership of ideas...The right to self-ownership and the ability to profit from your own efforts is the foundation of modern civilization.

Freedom of speech and free flow of information also are foundations of American civilization. In the late 1700s, a young United States government set up boundaries for copyrights and patents, granting limited, short-term monopolies over creations/inventions before they become public domain. Let the inventors profit for a time, but allow all society to later benefit. There appears to be some conflict between free speech rights and those protecting copyrights. If you've got time, Stanford Technology Law Review paper "A Free Speech Theory of Copyright", by Steven Horowitz, is worthwhile reading.

My question to scophi and others; Isn't Congress proposing to use a bazooka to kill mosquitoes? Should all mosquitoes be exterminated?

In a February 2011 interview, writer Neil Gaiman offers startling perspective about online piracy: "Places where I was being pirated, particularly Russia -- people were translating my stuff into Russian and spreading it out into the world -- I was selling more and more books. People were discovering me through being pirated, and then they were going out and buying the real books. When a new book would come out in Russia, it would sell more and more copies".

Another example predates the YouTube and Hulu era of streaming content. Back in 2004-2005, NBC Universal's Syfy (previously known as SciFi) network broke into limited streaming after observing the strange benefits of pirating. Mindjack's May 2005 story on BitTorrent trading of "Battlestar Galactica" episodes is a harrowing tale of piracy boosting TV viewership. "Battlestar Galactica" aired in the United States before the United Kingdom, making its way to BitTorrent in the between time. Mark Pesce explains the outcome:

While you might assume the SciFi Channel saw a significant drop-off in viewership as a result of this piracy, it appears to have had the reverse effect: the series is so good that the few tens of thousands of people who watched downloaded versions told their friends to tune in on January 14th, and see for themselves. From its premiere, 'Battlestar Galactica' has been the most popular program ever to air on the SciFi Channel, and its audiences have only grown throughout the first series. Piracy made it possible for 'word-of-mouth' to spread about 'Battlestar Galactica.'

NBC Universal and Syfy responded by streaming select "Battlestar Galactica" episodes by summer 2005. Full-episode TV streaming was pretty novel in early 2005. Would it exist today at all, if PROTECT IP or SOPA was law six years ago?

Many opponents argue that both bills would curtail free speech, empowering the US government, or even big business backing it, to censor unwanted information online. Electronic Frontier Foundation says "this legislation invites Internet security risks, threatens online speech, and hampers Internet innovation".

Perhaps I'm naive questioning that as overt outcome. But it's easy to see unintentional consequences, because of the potential impact on social networks that Nicole F. observes and, frankly, the way the World Wide Web has operated since its conception more than two decades ago. Still, both bills would allow the take down of websites and seizure of domains without much due process. As I asserted earlier, it's guilty-until-proven-innocent legislation.

"Once these powers are granted they will be difficult if not impossible to take away", Betanews commenter Dirtanian warns. "Though this result has been inevitable since the dawn of the Internet. The web is like the wild west and there are those with power that feel it must be tamed by any means necessary".

Photo Credit: conrado/Shutterstock

It's time for your yearly physical. Walking into the doctor's office is like any other visit: the same corny elevator music, the same outdated magazines, and that stack of paperwork the receptionist always hands you to fill out. But there's something new in that paperwork. Your doctor is asking you to sign a new agreement. What it asks for surprises you.

Your doctor wants you to turn over the rights of what you may say about him or her online. Sound ridiculous? It's not and is the newest method medical professionals use to protect their reputations. One company is spearheading this effort, and has become the target of criticism for its practices.

The Doctor Owns What You Say

The company is Medical Justice, a North Carolina-based outfit behind what is called a "Mutual Agreement". Used by an undisclosed number of the 3,700 doctors nationwide represented by the company (Medical Justice claims it "doesn't keep track"), signing the agreement hands over the copyright of your Internet posts on ratings sites to the doctor. If a physician considers your posting "egregious", then you must remove it.

"We don’t want your practice to be judged by two or three patients", Medical Justice founder and CEO Jeffery Segal says. He argues that the increasing criticism over its practices result from first efforts more than two years ago to combat negative reviews.

Medical Justice then supplied its clients with a much stronger agreement -- which opponents liken to a gag order -- giving the doctor free reign to compel removal of any post for any reason.

Segal, who is a MD, claims the company's "revised" agreement is far less hardline, and is designed to be used sparingly. "I can't guarantee that some doctors may be abusing it", he admits.

The Reliability of Doctor Ratings May Be At Risk

Medical Justice's failure to guarantee its clients are not sugar-coating their reputations has ratings sites upset. Of the three ratings sites that responded to BetaNews' requests for comment for this story -- RateMDs.com, Angie's List, and HealthGrades -- all say they have had contact with Segal's company.

RateMDs.com and Angie's List are fighting back, however. RateMDs.com maintains what it calls the "Gag Contract Wall of Shame", while Angie's List places an "Unfriendly Consumer Practices" tag on doctor’s profiles that it knows uses such waivers.

"We've been alerting consumers to [the posting agreements] and opposing them everywhere we can", Angie’s List spokesperson Cheryl Reed tells BetaNews. RateMDs.com co-founder John Swapceinski says it's an issue of free speech.

"The contracts ask sick patients to trade their freedom of speech for medical treatment", Swapceinski argues. "It is reprehensible".

While Segal claims in our interview that he does not contact the sites demanding removal of bad reviews, HealthGrades tells BetaNews that the company heard from Dr. Segal himself on several occasions including threats of legal action, according to spokesperson Marsha Austin. These contacts occurred as recently as the end of 2010, a year after Medical Justice claims to have changed its policies.

All three ratings sites say they have never removed any reviews that Medical Justice has contacted them over. Doctors using Medical Justice may find themselves paying for a service with a very low rate of success, and puts the firm's business model into question.

Is Medical Justice Gaming The System?

Segal and Medical Justice may realize the shortcomings of their strategy. He tells BetaNews that the company has an internal system in development where patients can review their doctors at the office itself. These reviews are not shared publicly right away: the doctor will see them before Medical Justice attempts to post them online.

This raises a whole new set of issues. What's the benefit to Medical Justice in posting negative reviews that patients may give? While Segal points out that the company does not edit reviews, one ratings site shared with BetaNews data that shows a pattern of extremely positive reviews coming from IP addresses traced to Medical Justice.

Between November 5, 2010 and March 29 of this year, RateMD.com noted 86 positive reviews for 38 doctors in 14 states. In every review, the doctor was rated five out of five stars in every category. RateMD banned those IPs and removed the suspicious reviews.

It is not clear whether these reviews were the result of a test of the new system described by Segal. Due to patient privacy laws, it is impossible to confirm anything about these patients' reviews.

Ratings sites may have the most to lose with this new system since accurate reviews may be harder to ensure given there are companies like Medical Justice that allegedly could game the system.

Gag orders on Internet reviews may seem like a clear affront to free speech but according to noted First Amendment lawyer Lawrence Walters, the agreements are completely legal. "People are free to give up their right to post negative comments by signing contractual agreements with private companies, containing such restrictions", he says.

Walters does believe the practice its questionable. "Requiring a patient to give up his or her right to communicate about the quality of a physician's services as a condition of treatment raises some ethical concerns, even if it is not illegal".

Patients are responsible to know what they are signing. If a doctor asks you to sign away free-speech rights, legally the only recourse you have is to find another doctor.

Medical Justice is undeterred and will move forward. "Our goal is to provide a more accurate online picture of a doctor’s practice that also contributes to an enhanced patient-physician feedback system with better checks and balances", Segal argues.

"This system will not only encourage more reviews, but will create a feedback loop to drive quality practice improvement and faster resolution of patient concerns -- all while fortifying the patient-doctor relationship", he emphasizes.

Photo Credit: ZouZou/Shutterstock

Another busy week software releases has passed, and chances are you missed something. Fear not, we have collected together some of the highlights of the past seven day in another handy roundup so you can catch up.

VMWare released a series of updates to it virtualization software, starting with VMware Workstation 8.0.1. The app can be used to run virtual copies of Windows and Linux and the latest version includes graphics performance improvements as well as support for Ubuntu 11. VMware Player 4.0.1 is the free version of the virtualization tool for Windows while VMware Fusion 4.1 is more a major upgrade for Mac users, which supports full screen mode in Lion, improves performance of virtual machines and much more.

But you may well be more interested in looking after your standard copy of Windows rather than a virtual one, and this is where IObit Advanced SystemCare 5 FINAL can help. The updated system optimization tool includes real-time optimization in the form of ActiveBoost while the re-written program uses fewer resources. Sticking to the system utility theme, Quick Erase 0.4 makes it possible to quickly and easily erase files you would rather were not seen by anyone else -- for whatever reason. There are twelve secure deletion options to choose from, helping to ensure that the files you delete stay that way.

If you are more interested in ensuring that your files are backed up rather than deleted, BurnAware Free 4.2 may be right up your street. This free CD, DVD and Blu-ray burning tool can back up data, burn ISO images and create audio discs. Also on the creative front, Microsoft Expression Encoder 4.0 SP1 captures video from a variety of sources, before editing and converting it for viewing on a range of devices, including online broadcasts. This is an example of a program that can be made as simple or as complex as you like, and while it is possible to get results fairly quickly, there are plenty of options here for anyone who wants to get a little more involved.

Skype for Windows 5.7 Beta and Skype for Mac 5.4 Beta both received updates this week, adding the ability to conduct video chats with your Facebook contacts amongst other enhancements. The group chat options of Skype is ideal for conducting online meetings. Whether you are conducting on- or offline-meetings, PointerStick 1.0 is a valuable tool. This free utility provides a large onscreen pointer that can be used to draw attention to thing you want to demonstrate.

The week was quieter for browser updates -- Waterfox 8.0 released. This is a browser for users of 64-bit Windows who can’t wait for the 64-bit version of Firefox as it is based on Firefox code and is virtually indistinguishable from the more common 32-bit version of Mozilla’s browser.

The Internet can be used for business and pleasure, and when used for entertainment, Game Downloader 2.5 can point you in the direction of dozens of downloadable games. We’ve already mentioned one disc burning tool, but Hamster Free Burning Studio 1.0.9.9 is also worth a mention if only for its pleasingly customizable interface. On the subject of eye-candy, Horloger 1.0 FINAL is an attractive desktop clock for Windows users that will appear familiar to HTC Sense users -- good-looking and functional.

For music fans Apple iTunes 10.5.1 (32-bit) and  Apple iTunes 10.5.1 (64-bit) were both updated, adding support for iTunes Match in the United States. If video is more your thing, Freemake Video Downloader 3.0.0 makes it possible to download streaming video from an extensive list of supported sites, while a blast from the past RealPlayer 15 adds the ability to track your friends’ Facebook videos.

Whatever type of software you are looking for, there’s something here from the past week for everyone.

Yesterday I coughed up $6.99 for Loud Crow Interactive's digital pop-up remake of the Charles Schultz holiday classic. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is available for Android and iOS from the Amazon, Apple and Google mobile apps stores -- for smartphones and tablets. The digital book delights, is more than worth 7 bucks and demonstrates how tablet apps/books should utilize the touchscreen. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is the must-have addition to any tablet you gift. Tablets top this year's holiday wish lists.

But "A Charlie Brown Christmas" also reveals a problematic similarity to the early PC era: Application incompatibilities across operating systems. Schultz's remade classic is available from the three aforementioned stores, and buyers will have to cough up for at least two platforms, if, say, Junior has Android phone and Janie iPad and both want the same digital app/book. They can purchase from Android Market but will have to again at Apple's App Store. Buyers pay twice if they want what functionally is the same content for two different platforms. This isn't a new problem, but visible example because of price (compared to, say, a 99-cent game). Loud Crow's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" is available from the same three stores and Nook, too. The situation presents hardships for some developers and consumers.

From a couple different perspectives, nothing is radically new here. Microsoft sells separate Mac and Windows versions of Office. Buyers pay twice for separate platforms, even if the software for one provides licenses for multiple computers. That said, some other products are cross-platform and usable on Windows or the Mac, such as Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (although, under ToS aggreement, not at the same time when singly licensed). Until Steve Jobs' disdain for Adobe Flash in early 2009, the technology stood at the forefront enabling developers to provide compelling digital content and games across platforms. HTML5 promises to revive some of this capability, but that doesn't help you if looking to buy Shazam Encore for Android smartphone and iOS tablet and pay just once.

There's another way to look at this, and it's also a defense -- that the situation is status quo: Consumers have always paid for multiple platforms. So dad when younger bought The Beatles White album in vinyl, 8-track and cassette formats. Later, daughter separately paid for the CD and digital remastered downloads from Apple. Same applies to movies, going from VHS tape to DVD to Blu-ray and digital download. Consumers long have paid for the same content multiple times. In each of those examples, however, the technology changed. Vinyl records and CDs are different formats, use different hardware and arguably improves from one to the other.

With "A Charlie Brown Christmas", buyers get essentially the same product, regardless of platform. They pay up -- a platform tax, so to speak -- for having Android phone and iOS on tablet, or, on Android, Samsung Galaxy S II and Kindle Fire or Nook. Purchasing from one Android store doesn't ensure compatibility across them -- and that's ignoring the fragmentation issue. Vinyl, CD or cassette is one format that works across multiple devices from many manufacturers.

It's a New Classic

I raise these concerns here and now because "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is classic remake of a classic story that hundreds of millions of people watched on television for more than 50 years. The digital book/app is interactive, like a pop-up paper title, but adapted to touchscreens. It's sure to delight adults and kids, and if other Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers are like me they'll awash with memories.

My sisters and I gathered before the television every December to watch the "A Charlie Brown Christmas" special. Dolly Madison sponsored the airing, which frustrated me. The pastry company advertised Zingers -- coconut and strawberry sauce covered Twinkie-like cakes -- with character Snoppy on the packaging. But, argh, no stores sold Zingers in Northern Maine. This and other memories rose as I immersed in Loud Crow's delightful digital book.

In June 2010, nearly six months after asserting no one needs a tablet, I admitted to being wrong about iPad. I didn't backtrack because of sales figures, reviews or predictions about success. I changed direction after buying iPad and seeing from a content consumption perspective its immersive qualities. I wrote then: "Apple's tablet is a sit down and focus device, as much because of size and shape as screen and user interface. The totality -- physical design and software benefits -- is immersion".

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" is wonderfully immersive and demonstrates the potency of touch. As I've long repeated: The most natural user interface is you. Human beings are tool users. We're tactile. We manipulate the world using fingers and hands. Go into a store this Black Friday and observe shoppers. They look and then they touch.

I purchased the interactive digital book from Android Market and consumed it on Motorola XOOM. iPad isn't the only immersive tablet out there. I really like XOOM more than iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for reasons I can't identify. XOOM is a brick compared to the other two tablets. But there's something that, for me, is better using XOOM.

Last night, I shopped the local Fry's Electronics looking for a case to protect the XOOM and got a big surprise. Besides iPad, I saw more than a dozen tablets on display. But when looking for a case, I found just a few for any other tablet but iPad. And there were iPad cases everywhere -- down and around several isles. I'd be stunned if any less than 95 percent of the 40 or so different cases I counted was for iPad. Now what does that tell you? :)

Editor's note: "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is wonderful consumed on smartphones, too. Before any commenters complain, I put tablets only in headline for simplicity and shortness.

The whole idea of "cutting the cord" means a household cancels its cable or satellite television subscription and relies on IP-based content delivery methods that offer greater choice of programming. The trend often doesn't focus on users actually getting rid of their televisions as well, even though it is entirely possible with technology that is available right now.

And I'm not talking about Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, Amazon Video, Vudu, Ultraviolet, or any of the other pay-per-view or subscription streaming video services, even though they really could turn a mobile device into a TV replacement. I'm talking about the Hauppauge Broadway, which I spent this week testing.

It's a network-attached video receiver, that encodes all incoming video feeds into H.264 and pipes them out onto your network, making them accessible through most Web browsers both for desktop and mobile OSes. So with this device, any content that isn't already available in a digital format is encoded live for you.

I've got to say, it's really impressive.

If you're a "cable cutter," you can hook Broadway up directly to an ATSC antenna and pipe your free over-the-air TV channels out onto your Wi-Fi network, and they can be watched on your tablet, smartphone, or PC. Or if you have an unencrypted (ClearQAM) digital cable subscription, you can hook up your cable directly to the Broadway and do the same thing. If you use a satellite or cable set-top-box, it also works, but it requires use of the less popular IR blaster for control when you're away from the box. You can actually hook up pretty much any coaxial or S-Video output (i.e. security cameras) to the Broadway and watch whatever content you want on your tablet, smartphone or PC browser.

Broadway also has three USB 2.0 ports, which it does not talk about in the instruction manual or on the product's site, but it is presumably designed for use with Hauppauge's other products such as the HD PVR or USB TV tuners.

In addition to making your video content available on your home wireless network, Broadway runs Oracle's GoAhead WebServer and makes your content available remotely. Setup for this is incredibly simple. All you need to do is connect to Broadway's local IP address and enter the four digit passcode that you assigned to the box. This act verifies your device for use with the Broadway and pairs it with your home IP address. Then, you open port 80 of your router, and when you navigate to Distan.tv in your browser on any network outside of your home, your always-on Broadway device is available to you. It's remarkably easy.

So with the combination of all of the subscription and pay-per-view streaming services I mentioned above, plus cable or OTA Television available on your PC or Tablet (iPad and Android Honeycomb/Gingerbread both worked in our tests this week), you could really make your device of choice into a perfect TV replacement.

Naturally, there are areas where this makes more sense than others: in a college dorm room, for example, where the dimensions of the room are not generally conducive to viewing televisions over 25" in size. In these cases, a notebook PC and external monitor can serve not only as a learning tool, but also as an entertainment hub for content delivered via streaming and through Distan.tv. Alternatively, iPads and 10" Android tablets in charging docks can be used as TV replacements with a 2.5 foot ideal viewing distance.

With a retail cost of $199, Hauppauge Broadway misses the "magic price" by a hundred dollars. However, connecting TV content to your home network and serving that content out to the Web is so easy and so broadly compatible that it's hard to deny the value that it provides.

Multimedia specialist CyberLink has introduced a new money-saving bundle in its latest media creativity suite, the Video and Photo Creative Collection 1.0.

The suite combines the company’s high-end video editor,PowerDirector 10 Ultra, with its excellent photography workflow package, PhotoDirector 2011.

The lead package here is plainly PowerDirector 10 Ultra. Not only does this deliver all the regular features you’d expect from a modern editor -- powerful import capabilities, lots of effects and options, excellent audio processing tools, direct upload to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, DailyMotion and more -- but it also adds extras like direct AVCHD camcorder import, 64-bit editing, end-to-end 3D editing, full HD preview, and BD, BDXL, AVCHD and 3D disc authoring, amongst other goodies.

PhotoDirector 2011 isn’t exactly short on features, either. It’s a complete photography workflow package to handle everything from importing your images (including many RAW formats), to precisely and quickly editing them, tagging and arranging them in your library, and exporting the results to Flickr, Facebook or YouTube to share them with the world.

What you don’t get here is any form of additional software to unify the two, no front-end menu of anything similar: both program shortcuts will appear in a Video and Photo Creative Collection folder on your Start menu, but that’s about it.

This bundle really is all about the discount, then, but fortunately that’s worth having. Video and Photo Creative Collection 1.0 can be yours for around $99.95, essentially the same as buying PowerDirector 10 Ultra on its own, so you’re getting PhotoDirector 2011 virtually for free.  A trial build is available now.

Amazon is leaning on its strengths in procurement in order to make the Kindle Fire as cheaply as possible, IHS iSuppli says. The firm has begun its teardown of the device and says that the components inside offer little surprises from the virtual teardown it released in September. Each Fire costs Amazon $201.70 to build, meaning the company loses $2.70 on each device.

Previously, IHS guessed that the Fire had cost $209.63 to build, but that was based on what it new of Amazon's suppliers and not an actual teardown of the device.

The most expensive part of the Kindle Fire is the display and touchscreen, with a $87.00 cost. The PC board is the next biggest expense at $64.45, and includes $22.10 in memory, $14.65 in application procurement costs, $4.50 in wireless equipment costs, and $23.20 in various other peripherals.

"Amazon makes its money not on Kindle hardware, but on the paid content and other products it plans to sell the consumer through the Kindle. This is a similar business model to wireless companies such as AT&T or Verizon", senior teardown director Andrew Rassweiler says. "They sell you a phone that costs them $400 to $600 or more to make for a price of only $200. However, they expect to more than make up for that loss with a two-year service contract".

IHS found that Texas Instruments plays a big part in the innards of the Kindle, contributing the applications processor, power management device and the audio codec. It also uses a new touchscreen control from Ilitek and WLAN module from Jorjin. Both supplier's parts cost significantly less than its competitors, allowing Amazon to produce the Fire cheaper.

The company also said the device ships with only 4Gb of low-power DDR2 DRAM memory. It had originally thought the device had 8Gb of memory, also shaving some cost off its initial estimates.

In this depressed economy, the corporate marketing budget is usually one of the first things that is cut back. Proving tangible return on investment (ROI) on marketing efforts can sometimes be a challenge. Marketing initiatives with no tangible ROI often end up on the chopping block during a recession.

With email marketing open rates and ROI steadily diminishing, savvy companies are now turning to a readily available, virtually free resource for email marketing exposure. Many are finding that by using their email signatures in a creative way, they can market upcoming events, product news, and build social media followers, often achieving tangible and measurable marketing results.

Some Quick Math

Think about it. The average employee sends out about 30 emails per day. For a company of 50 employees this equates to 1,500 emails a day. By adding a corporate email signature with your company logo, you can get 7,500 views a week of your logo, branding and any marketing message you include in your email. In a year, this amounts to 390,000 views. Depending on your outgoing message volume, this number can be significantly higher.

What Can Email Signatures Do For Your Company?

Want to increase customer loyalty and build social media followers? What better place to start than the customers and suppliers your company already communicates with every day? By adding email signatures that not only include contact information, but also company branding (such as a corporate logo), social media links, QR codes and a marketing message, you can subtly remind customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders about what your company stands for and invite them to actively participate in your community. Quality, consistent email signatures cannot only be leveraged for customer loyalty and company branding, but can also offer measurable ROI by including clear calls to action that can be tracked.

How Can You Add Company-Wide Email Signatures?

There are a number of email signature products available that allow companies to centrally configure an email signature for all their employees, avoiding the need to configure each individual email client. This means that updating an email signature with the latest marketing promotion or company event is a simple matter of updating a single template.

By pulling sender information from your company directory, such as Microsoft Active Directory, the email signature is automatically personalized for each sender. Whether you are using Google Apps, Office 365 or an on-premise mail server such as Microsoft Exchange Server, several solutions exist that either work at the client level (for example, Microsoft Outlook) or at server level, stamping each outgoing email with a signature before it gets sent out.

Why leave this free marketing opportunity untapped? Like handing out a business card at a lunch or meeting, an email signature reiterates your contact information and leaves the recipient with a memorable sense of your company, but with one important difference: an email signature can be frequently updated, include clear calls to action and as such can generate measurable and tangible ROI.

Deborah Galea is the co-founder and chief operating officer of email management developer Red Earth Software. Galea is an expert in the growing field of corporate email management solutions involving eDiscovery as well as the compliance issues impacting almost every vertical industry, including financial services, legal, healthcare, retail and government. She has extensive knowledge of the legal issues relating to corporate email usage and has worked in the Netherlands, the U.K., the United States and Cyprus.

VMWare has updated its range of virtualization products for Mac, Windows and Linux. The biggest update is VMWare Fusion 4.1 for Mac, which addresses a number of issues raised by users, including poor performance and the loss of certain features such as being able to automatically load virtual machines on application launch.

Also updated are VMWare Workstation 8.0.1 and the free VMWare Player 4.0.1 tool for Windows and Linux.

The most radical improvements are seen in the new VMWare Fusion 4.1. VMWare says the new update --which is free to all version 4.0 users -- comes from listening hard to its customer base, suggesting reaction to its initial release two months ago hasn’t been as universally popular as it might have liked. Some of the changes may also have resulted from unfavorable comparisons made to Parallels Desktop 7.0, which was released around the same time.

As a result, the new update delivers major changes across the board. First, VMWare Fusion 4.1 now supports native full-screen mode in Lion. A short delay has been added when the user rolls the mouse to the top of the screen so the menu bar doesn’t appear immediately, allowing the user to use the full real estate afforded by full-screen mode without worrying about triggering the menu.

One feature dropped from version 4.0 -- the ability to automatically launch a guest OS when VMWare Fusion is loaded -- has been reinstated after a customer outcry. The setting, the “Start automatically when VMWare Fusion launches” tick box, can be found under Settings > General.

Fusion 4.1 also promises better graphics performance, particularly when running Internet Explorer 9 in guest mode (VMWare promises performance up to six times faster in version 4.1). Graphics performance is also improved in OS X 10.7.2, while Windows 7 guest OSes should now start up quicker than before.

Other changes include improved mouse performance in OS X Lion guests and faster screen resizing when switching to and from Unity and Full Screen modes. The update is rounded off by numerous bug fixes -- see the release notes for full details.

In contrast, both VMWare Workstation 8.0.1 and VMWare Player 4.0.1 receive only minor updates. Both updates deliver better graphics performance and compatibility, plus tweaks to improve the creation and use of shared and remote virtual machines. Ubuntu 11.10 is officially supported as a guest OS, while various issues -- some customer-raised and others related to disk and memory management -- have been addressed.

VMWare Fusion 4.1 is available as a free trial download for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and later. Both VMWare Workstation 8.0.1 (trial) and VMWare Player 4.0.1 (freeware) are available for download for PCs running supported versions of Windows or Linux.

It's grand opening weekend for Microsoft's 14th retail store, and first on the East Coast, at Tysons Corner Center in McLean, Va. The company pulled back the curtain yesterday at 9:30 am ET, just down the way from Apple's first-ever retail shop.

I was there when Apple Store opened in May 2001 and regret missing Microsoft Store's debut there. I lived in the Washington, DC area for 23 years before moving to San Diego in October 2007. Tysons Corner is my favorite of the Beltway malls.

Tysons is a good location for Microsoft and demonstrates an aggressive retail strategy. A decade ago, just as Apple opened its first shops, Gateway was in the process of shuttering hundreds of stores. Gateway's retail strategy failed for many reasons, but location tops them. Gateway chose outlying areas to save on real estate costs, and most stores stood isolated. Apple chooses high-traffic malls and urban areas, which cost more but also can generate more sales and, of course, revenues. Likewise, Microsoft picks high-traffic malls.

Microsoft opened the first two stores in Arizona and California in October 2009. The fourth opened here in San Diego in June 2010.

Apple Store provides valuable direct customer feedback that the company can put back into product development. Even with 14 stores, Microsoft sees similar benefits. "It's helping us transition from thinking about our customers to thinking like our customers", COO Kevin Turner says, when announcing store expansion in July. Important: "Direct customer feedback from the stores". Microsoft plans to open 75 stores over the next two to three years. Apple Store tops 330 locations, with continued expansion, mostly internationally, during fiscal 2012. Microsoft has yet to make a big international push.

Apple, Microsoft and Sony operate stores all on the same level at Tysons. Eighteen months ago, I asserted that "Apple and Microsoft stores are the future of technology retailing" -- a shift from large box shops to boutiques. Or perhaps it's a return to the past. Radio Shack helped pioneer tech boutiques decades ago. Cellular carriers have long operated singular, smaller shops. Best Buy Mobile marks the trend. Circuit City and CompUSA are years gone. Sure Best Buy and Fry's remain -- and there will always be Walmart -- but selling much more than gadgets or PCs.

The three company stores -- Apple, Microsoft and Sony -- share similarities relevant to providing products, services and customer service:

• Apple and Microsoft offer in-store training for using hardware, software and services.
• All three provide in-store tech support: Apple Genius Bar, Microsoft Answers and Sony Backstage.
• Apple and Sony sell mostly end-to-end solutions (Sony offers some third-party software -- e.g., Windows on VAIO PCs).
• Product categories are similar: Computing, gaming, home entertainment, mobility, photography and videography, among others.
• Microsoft and Sony provide tools or services for personalizing products, giving them a unique touch, and they're selling points.

But there's something important that sets these company stores apart from other tech shops. Each also sells a distinct lifestyle around their products. The Apple way, Microsoft living and Sony entertainment. Heck, Sony's shops have "style" in the name.

Two days before Christmas last year I contrasted these lifestyles in post "Talking about Microsoft Store", which contrasted the differences between people shopping there and the Apple shop a few doors down in Fashion Valley Mall, San Diego. Apple Store was busier, and the crowd younger, with lots of individuals and couples. I observed about the other shop: "Microsoft Store is where families meet". Microsoft carries that theme foward in its exciting new "It's a great time to be a family" marketing campaign.

Have you shopped in both Apple and Microsoft stores? Please share your experiences in comments or email joe at betanews dot com.

Eight days before Black Friday 2011, Microsoft opens its 14th retail shop -- at Tysons Corner Center, the Washington, DC area's busiest mall.

General Counsel Brad Smith cuts the ribbon on Microsoft Store Tysons Corner. It's symbolic, as Smith also is the company's government liaison.

The first shoppers flood into Microsoft Store Tysons Corner. There is another draw. The first 1,000 people through the door get tickets for Joe Jonas concert on Nov. 19, 2011.

Microsoft Store Tysons Corner is the company's 14th retail shop. About 75 are planned over the next two years.

The future of computing is touch.

A new survey by Nielsen says that 27 percent of kids 6 to 12 want an iPhone for Christmas. Perhaps someone should have asked about Windows Phone.

Everyone gets a T-Shirt on Microsoft Store Tysons Corner's opening day.

The Tysons Corner shop is Microsoft's first East Coast location. It's also in the mall where Apple opened its first-ever store in May 2001.

Photo Credits: Microsoft

The Windows Phone "Mango" upgrade rollout continued last night as users of the the Samsung Focus 1.4 on AT&T began to receive updates. Now nearly complete, this upgrade has taken only two months to finish and includes half of all the Windows Phones across the globe.

Given Microsoft's position of simply being the software provider and licenser, and the fact that these upgrades span multiple OEMs and multiple global carriers, this upgrade has been carried out with remarkable speed.

And the near-complete Mango rollout is being met with yet another widespread update.

"We’re also sending out another wave of firmware updates from our manufacturers to select Windows Phone models," said Eric Hautala, GM of Windows Phone Customer Experience Engineering on Thursday. "Customers of Vodafone, Orange, and Deutsche Telekom in Europe will start seeing notifications for a new Windows Phone service release called 7740 that fixes an issue with new voice mail notifications not appearing for customers on some European and Asian networks under certain conditions. It also fixes an email issue associated with Exchange Server 2003. This service release is being assessed by other mobile operators."

The update fixes an email threading issue related to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. With this fix, the original text in forwarded messages and messages that have been replied to are now included >in the way you'd expect them to be included.

It also fixes a voicemail notification display issue that occured on some European and Asian networks under "certain conditions."

Real Networks has updated the Windows version of its multimedia player, RealPlayer, to version 15. Available in both free and function-enhanced Plus editions, RealPlayer provides a one-stop shop for organizing, sharing and accessing media content, both online and offline.

RealPlayer 15 adds two new features: the ability to instantly access any video posted to Facebook, and a Private Mode that allows you to download and save video to a password-protected secure location. It’s a less radical build than version 14, which introduced social-networking tools alongside a host of other improvements, including a revamped user interface.

Facebook content is accessible by selecting Facebook Videos from the left-hand pane: log into your Facebook account and you’ll be able to browse all the video posted by friends and others into your news feed without being distracted by all the other Facebook content.

Videos can be viewed within RealPlayer itself, or you can comment or like individual videos by clicking the link under the video itself, which opens a new pop-up window for you to provide feedback.

Private Mode is enabled by clicking the RealPlayer button and choosing the feature from the dropdown menu. Enter a PIN (four to 16 digits) and all downloaded videos will be placed in a hidden folder, while individual videos can also be hidden in the RealPlayer library itself. Private Mode also automatically clears your clip history when you’re finished, wiping all trace of your browsing history.

The Plus Edition, which costs $40, improves download, conversion and sync performance, plus supports the transfer of HD video to DVD to watch on TV (using Blu-ray players). Plus users are also entitled to support.

RealPlayer 15 is available now as a free download for PCs running Windows XP SP3 or later. Also available is RealPlayer SP for Mac 12.0, which runs on OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger) or later. A Linux build can also be downloaded from the Real.com website.

Often, during a presentation, you’ll want to highlight a particular area of the screen. The obvious solution is to use the mouse cursor, and sometimes -- if you’re using a large projector, say -- that may be enough.

Mouse cursors are generally unobtrusive, though, which is why you might lose track of yours even when you’re sitting in front of the screen. So if you’d like to make your point rather more obviously, then you may benefit from a new free tool, PointerStick.

Just launch the program and immediately a large virtual pointer stick appears. This doesn’t replace your mouse cursor, but rather runs alongside it, so as you move your mouse, the stick relocates to point at the same thing.

By default the stick is so large that no-one’s going to miss whatever it is you’re highlighting. But if you would prefer something a little more modest, simply clicking the PointerStick system tray icon reveals a useful console where you can tweak its size, colour, style and even transparency.

Usefully, you don’t have to display the stick all the time. It can be toggled off by triple-clicking the mouse, or applying a couple of hotkeys (Ctrl+Alt+Y or Ctrl+Alt+Z), so you need only have this visible when you need to highlight some particularly fine detail.

And perhaps most conveniently, PointerStick is portable, so there’s nothing to install. Just save the executable to a folder somewhere and run it whenever necessary.

The program does have one or two small quirks and annoyances. The stick changes its orientation whenever it approaches the edge of the screen, for instance, which can be a little distracting at first. And the console includes a few non-standard buttons which don’t actually look like buttons at all (to exit the program you’d click the “# Esc” text, for instance).

You’ll soon figure this out, though, and for the most part PointerStick makes a very useful presentation tool, or any time when you need to highlight something (if you’re taking a screen grab of something for a manual, say): it’s well-thought-out and easy to use.

Google's Galaxy Nexus TV spot is simply exceptional. Good advertising is aspirational, and the 60-second commercial is every bit. Something else, and this is particularly true for gadgets: Good marketing emphasizes benefits, not features.

Sales started today in Europe, and I'm feeling oh-so cheated here on the other side of the Atlantic. Where's my Ice Cream Sandwich?

If you've got the Galaxy Nexus, I'd like hear about it. Please share in comments below. Or if interested in writing a review email joe at betanews dot com.

Research In Motion's BlackBerry has lost its long held position as the top smartphone among business users, a new study finds. Mobility services company iPass found that the iPhone is now the most commonly used smartphone in the workplace, with the Android platform also showing impressive growth.

The survey of 2,300 workers found that 45 percent use iPhones, up from 31.1 percent a year ago. BlackBerry usage fell to 32.2 percent from 34.5 percent a year ago. Android now is 21.3 percent of the market, up from 11.3 percent a year ago. Overall, RIM market share isn't collapsing as much as other platforms are gaining acceptance in the workplace.

iPass findings verify those of Enterprise Management Associates, which said in October that 30 percent of enterprise BlackBerry users plan to switch to another platform within the next 12 months. The firm expects a significant decrease in RIM's market share, especially in larger companies where it lays claim to half of the market.

The increase in Apple and Android market share "is reflective of more choice in the enterprise", iPass explains.

Android's clout in the consumer sector is sure to extend to the enterprise eventually, but will likely not happen in the immediate future. iPass found among those receiving or purchasing phones, 18 percent say the iPhone and 11.2 percent Android. Microsoft's Windows Phone platform continues to struggle, with only 3.6 percent of survey respondents saying they will obtain a Windows Phone in 2012.

RIM's troubles in the enterprise are only indicative of its market share erosion in the broader smartphone market. Data from Gartner released this week found Android commanding 52.5 percent of the market in the third quarter of this year, double its share a year ago. iOS essentially treads water at 15 percent, but RIM fell from 15.4 percent a year ago to 11 percent this past quarter.

"Continued pressure is impacting RIM's performance", Gartner says.

Skype’s integration with Facebook is nothing new, but the latest beta version of the cross-platform chat and VoIP tool takes this to a new level. Skype for Windows 5.7 Beta and Skype for Mac 5.4 Beta bring further advantages to connecting your Facebook account with your Skype one. Now, as well as being able to make use of Facebook chat from within the app, it is now also possible to conduct Facebook video chats.

This can all be carried out from within Skype itself without the need to visit the Facebook web site -- just as it has been possible to conduct text-based chats with your Facebook contacts, the same is now possible with face-to-face VoIP calls. Improvements have been made to Skype’s video rendering, which helps to give a smoother overall experience, and there are a number of other new features to explore.

Another improvement in the Facebook arena is better handling of online status. Now, if you indicate that you are away in Skype, this fact will be relayed to not only your Skype contacts, but you’re your Facebook friends. Sticking with the video chat side of things, you now have the ability to share your screen when conducting a group chat.

This means that in addition to sharing your webcam footage, you can choose to share the content of your entire desktop, or just the contents of a single application window -- a great option for remote meetings. Skype is used in a huge number of different ways, and a new push-to-talk feature opens up even further possibilities -- of course, there will be occasions when you want to appear offline in Skype but remain online on Facebook, and this is also possible.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the beta software by paying a visit to theSkype for Windows 5.7 Beta or Skype for Mac 5.4 Beta review page.

Malware aimed at the Android platform has increased five-fold since July, raising questions on the open-door policy Android has in installing apps. IT company Juniper Networks says the reason for this is the Mountain View, Calif. company's own lax attitude when it comes to oversight.

"With no upfront review process, no one checking to see that your application does what it says, just the world’s largest majority of smartphone users skimming past your application’s description page with whatever description of the application the developer chooses to include", it says. Of course, Juniper's description of how the review process works in Android is generalized and somewhat inaccurate.

It's not that no one's watching the hen house: the process is just different. Whereas Apple puts apps through a fair amount of testing before they are approved, Google allows developers to post their work without any interference. The company does review content and removes apps for a variety of reasons, including malicious intent, but only for the Android Market.

Android users have the option to install apps outside of Google's official app repository -- the Android Market. This makes oversight more difficult. "Most of the growth in Android threats comes from applications that are available from sites not associated with Google’s Android Market", spokesperson Danielle Hamel told BetaNews.

Is either way the "right way"? The answer may not be clear cut -- malware has also made it into the App Store. A security researcher has already proven that, and that got him banned from the Cupertino company's developer program as a result.

What may occur soon is Google itself reigning in on who may peddle apps to its users to protect them from malware and hacks. This is something that many Android users will find anathemic to Android's open-source roots.

To put the rapid increase in Android malware in perspective consider these numbers. From 2009 to mid 2010, malicious Android apps increased 400 percent. Compare this with the past six months where malware has increased some 472 percent. Juniper's data shows an increasingly larger problem.

Hamel declined to specify the number of malicious apps it has detected due to competitive reasons. "We are unable to provide more specifics around the baseline malware numbers other than saying we’ve moved from hundreds to the thousands ranges of known Android malware samples", she responds.

The real danger is in the types of apps Juniper is detecting though, Hamel argues. Spyware was the single biggest type "by far", putting users' personal data at risk of transmission to a third party. Almost all Android malware is leveraging one of several platform vulnerabilities that allowed malware to gain root access on the device.

The data may be damning, but Juniper stresses that its findings do not necessarily indicate that Android is less secure. "Across Juniper customers globally, infection rates of between five to six percent are common across a mix of all types of mobile devices," Hamel says.

What are bargain hunters going to be looking for this coming Black Friday and what’s on everyone’s holiday gift wish list? The latest Retrevo Pulse Study asked consumers about what they want for the holidays and what they’re going to be looking for in the bargain bins. For bargain hunters, tablets top the list followed by HDTV sets, laptops and smartphones.

Would you get up at four o’clock in the morning to get a deal on a tablet or laptop computer? Apparently there are plenty of bargain hunters who plan of braving the elements this Black Friday to buy electronic things. Although we don’t expect to see too many doorbuster deals on iPads or even other tablets, it’s at the top of the bargain hunter’s list this year.

It didn’t surprise us that iPads and Kindle Fires beat out other gadgets in this "year of the tablet" however, we were surprised to see digital cameras holding on despite the competition from phones. Meanwhile, Blu-ray players and iPod Touchs finished at the bottom of the list but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t make great gifts.

This is a trend we don’t think anyone will dispute or be very surprised by but this Pulse study found fewer shoppers saying they are only going to a store on Black Friday this year than last while more say they will shop both in a store and online this Black Friday. Although many stores say they don’t put their best deals online, many end up there and some stores like Wal-Mart are offering free shipping on Black Friday.

Which Gadgets appeal most to Whom?

When Retrevo analyzed the data from this Pulse study in relation to certain demographics, we were able to recommend what could be popular gadget gifts for each of these groups. Tablets are at the top of just about everyone’s list but there are other gadgets that would surely make that special someone happy. Here are some suggestions:

Best gadget gifts for women. Actually an iPad would make either a man or woman happy but if you’re thinking of buying a Kindle Fire instead, the iPad just barely beats out the Fire with most woman. However, don’t bother with a 3DTV set for the woman in your life, meanwhile, a new digital camera on the other hand, should be well received.

Best gadget gifts for men. The Kindle Fire edged out the iPad among the men in the group. After a tablet a new HDTV set including 3DTV is the most popular gift for men.

Best gadget gifts for under-25 year-olds. A laptop would be even more appreciated than a tablet for this age group, especially a MacBook Air. An iPhone 4S would also be a popular gift along with a digital camera.

Best gadget gifts for middle-aged adults 45-55. Believe it or not, this age group is very interested in 3DTV as well as HDTV but 3D or not we imagine it’s the middle age lifestyle, sports and reality TV shows that make HDTV so appealing to this age group. Along with the TV why not throw in a Blu-ray player while you’re at it?

Best gadget gifts for iPhone 4 owners. We’ll give you one guess what iPhone 4 owners want the most this holiday season. Ready? It’s an iPad, who would have thought? Yes iPad topped the list but that’s not to say iPhone 4 owners aren’t interested in a Kindle Fire as that followed closely on the list. A lot of iPhone 4 owners said they wouldn’t mind an iPhone 4S while a digital camera also came up high on the list.

Rich or poor, it's nice to get a gadget gift. When we looked at the gadget wish list by income iPads were on top for both lower and upper income brackets while the Kindle Fire was more popular among the very high income group. Laptops were high on the list for low incomes while a digital camera was up there in high income households.

Andrew Eisner is Retrevo's resident gadget enthusiast. The former PC World executive producer helped establish Ziff Davis' premiere test lab, where he led a team testing the latest high-tech gear.

What? You expected something more reasonably priced, given the recession? Bwhahaha. You're gonna be Grinch if you give anything less. Today, Nielsen released its holiday wish survey for kids ages 6 to 12. It's what they want to buy in the next six months, but Santa comes sooner.

Holiday shopping for school-aged pre-teens isn't what it used to be. Bicycles, train sets, Barbies, Hello Kitty goodies aren't good enough for the youngest Millennials. Forty-four percent want iPads, up from 31 percent last holiday. I guess not enough six-to-twelves got Apple tablets last year.

At a starting price of $499, mom and dad will have to really put out to meet the wish list. Say, kids, the economy sucks and Santa laid off half the elves. Perhaps you should go halfsies on that new iPad.

Meanwhile, 30 percent of six-to-twelves want iPod touch and 27 percent iPhone -- like you're going to pay $15 to 25 bucks a month so your second grader can have the mandatory data plan. A year ago, more kiddies wanted new computers (29 percent) than iPhones.

Still, 25 percent want a tablet other than iPad. I'd love to know how Nielsen reasons it can got meaningful data asking six year-olds about non-iPads.

Among old folks, those 13 and older, iPad appeals, too -- not as much but more than a year ago. iPad topped the list, but with 24 percent want-to-haves compared to 18 percent in late 2010. Computer and e-reader tie at 18 percent and TV set and non-iPad tablet at 17 percent.

Well, hell, more kiddies want more Apple stuff than the grups.

Two weeks ago, my colleague Ed Oswald argued that Apple's future is set because the brand is popular among Millennials. Top three items on the 6-to-12 wish list are Apple products.

Among the older group those wanting iPhone or another smartphone are close -- 15 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

What does your kid want this holiday, or you?

Today was the launch of Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the UK, bringing the first flagship Android device running Ice Cream Sandwich, the newest build of Google's mobile operating system to the British Isles.

The device is expected to launch in the United States on Verizon Wireless soon.

But the Galaxy Nexus won't be the only Android smartphone running Ice Cream Sandwich for very long. According to a tweet from Samsung UK, the Galaxy S II will be receiving an update to Ice Cream Sandwich as well. No date for the update was provided.

Google has also confirmed that the flagship Gingerbread device, the Galaxy Nexus S, will too be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich.

Last week, Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC said eight of its current devices will be able to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich as well. This includes the EVO 3D, Design 4G, Vivid, Amaze 4G, Sensation, Sensation XE, Sensation XL, and the new Rezound.

Earlier this month, South Korean smartphone maker LG confirmed in a Facebook message that it was "in the process of planning the ICS OS update" for the LG Optimus 2X and "other LG High-end smartphones."

Sony Ericsson (former joint venture turned division of Sony) has confirmed that its entire 2011 line of Xperia handsets will receive the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade as well, but similarly provided no timeline.

Each new release of Mozilla’s Firefox brings improved performance to this popular open-source web browser. But despite these welcome tweaks, Firefox remains hobbled in one major respect: it’s resolutely 32-bit.

There is an experimental 64-bit build of Firefox Nightly for Windows and Linux, but it’s an extremely early, unstable release and isn’t recommended for the casual user. So how can you enjoy Firefox in 64-bit without major risk? The answer lies with Waterfox 8.0.

As its name implies, Waterfox is a close relative of Firefox. In actual fact, it’s the same source code as found in the latest stable build of Firefox, compiled specifically for 64-bit versions of Windows. That means, name aside, you’re effectively running Firefox 64-bit, complete with all the performance improvements that brings, mostly through the improved handling of large amounts of memory that 64-bit computing brings.

Waterfox hasn’t simply been compiled for 64-bit systems as it is, though; the author has specifically compiled it with a number of optimizations that ensure it runs even more efficiently in 64-bit systems. It’s especially recommended for users of older, less powerful 64-bit systems as it’s known to load quicker and perform more responsively than Firefox in this environment.

Because Waterfox is built from the same source code as Firefox, it’s to all intents and purposes identical, so existing Firefox users should have no problems migrating across; in fact, when you run Waterfox for the first time you’ll find all your Firefox settings are in place as Waterfox -- like other alpha and beta builds of Firefox -- shares these with the main app.

There’s one major requirement before you install Waterfox: the software requires the 64-bit build of Microsoft’s Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable, otherwise you’ll get an error message involving msvcr100.dll. You’ll also need to install dedicated 64-bit builds of Flash, Silverlight and Java, handy links are provided at the Waterfox download page, along with links to other languages and dictionaries (the main software is available in US English only).

Waterfox 8.0 is available now as a free download for PCs running 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Shortmail is now available for iPhone, tapping into capabilities from iOS 5. The service brings Twitter concepts to email, limiting messages to 500 characters (It's 140 for Twitter). Startup 410Labs took the wraps off cloud service Shortmail in June. The iOS app debuted on November 16.

On the web, users can claim their shortmail address by logging into their Twitter account. "Using the Twitter integration in iOS 5 (which is required), we instantly convert your Twitter accounts into Shortmail accounts. No hassle, no signups, no passwords. It 'just works'", says 401Labs CEO Dave Troy.

Twitter account log-in/tie-in simplifies setup -- "no IMAP, no special configuration required", Troy says. Unsurprisingly, Shortmail for iPhone uses iOS push to notify users of new messages.

Shortmail has been available on Android and iOS via the built-in email clients. Different now is the dedicated iOS app.

"Shortmail is all about communicating with people and puts each new message in its proper place", Troy says. "More like text messaging, less like email – still compatible with any email address!"

Shortmail for iOS is free and is available in 16 languages: English, Bokmål, Norwegian, Chinese, Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

Facebook says that it identified those responsible for an attack earlier this week that spammed Facebook users with pornography and violent imagery, and will investigate its options to prosecute those responsible. The attack is believed to have been exploited through a browser vulnerability, BetaNews is told.

"During this spam attack users were tricked into pasting and executing malicious JavaScript in their browser URL bar causing them to unknowingly share this offensive content", spokesperson Andrew Noyes explained. "Our engineers have been working diligently on this self-XSS [cross-site scripting] vulnerability in the browser".

Noyes told BetaNews it had shut down the Facebook pages from which the hackers launched their attack, and offered assistance to those affected on how to protect themselves from future attacks.

The attacks began this past weekend and quickly escalated by Monday and Tuesday, when the amount of offensive images on news feeds appeared to reach their peak. The imagery depicted acts of violence, pornography, mutilation and bestiality. It is believed to be one of the largest coordinated spam attacks on the site in its seven year history.

Sophos senior security researcher Chester Wisniewski explains how the vulnerability that hackers exploited works. "Cross-site scripting essentially allows an attacker to execute JavaScript code in your browser that can access and control the website you are interacting with", he says. "Facebook says that users were being enticed to copy and paste the offending JavaScript into their address/location bar in the affected web browser".

It is not known which browsers were vulnerable to the cross-site scripting flaw. Facebook users are reminded to exercise increased caution when confronted with suspicious offers or links. Additionally, users shouldn't click any links sent by friends, especially those that appear shortened.

Photo Credit: Fer Gregory/Shutterstock

Malware removal is normally an entirely automatic process. Your PC encounters something unpleasant, your antivirus package deletes it, and you carry on as before: easy.

Sometimes, though, life isn’t quite as straightforward. In particular, if you’ve spotted a suspect process that your security suite doesn’t recognize yet, then you’ll probably want to remove it manually. And that can be a real challenge.

You might try to delete the executable, for instance, but find Windows won’t allow it as the file is locked. Or even if you can remove a malware file, or any related Registry keys, another component of the virus may replace them. Which is just a little frustrating, but fortunately help is at hand in the shape of Emsisoft’s portable BlitzBlank.

This interesting tool allows you to specify files, folders, drivers, Registry keys and values, and decide what you’d like to do with them (delete, move, copy, and more). But the key difference is that, when you click Execute Now, the program reboots your system (after a warning, of course). It then processes your commands before Windows loads, and (hopefully) before the malware is running, which greatly improves your chance of success.

BlitzBlank has some interesting twists, too, such as the ability to replace a target file with a dummy (something of the same size and name but without containing any executable code). This could prevent other malware components from realizing you’ve disabled a part of their code, and replacing the missing file.

Of course you do need to use the program with extreme caution. If you delete some critical system file, driver or Registry key, or even if you remove just part of some deeply embedded malware, then you may find your PC won’t boot again (not even in Safe Mode). Don’t even think of trying BlitzBlank unless you’re properly equipped to cope with that kind of situation, preferably with a complete system backup to hand.

If you know what you’re doing, though, BlitzBlank is a useful tool that makes it relatively easy to dispatch stubborn files and Registry keys. It’s also reasonably small (1.09 MB) and portable, making it a worthwhile addition to most people’s security toolkit.

Photo Credit: Albert Ziganshin/Shutterstock

Last in a series. I've got a box full of Microsoft mice cluttering up the living room, and my wife begging please to get rid of them. So with that pressure, I must finally announce winners of our "Five Reasons to Quit Windows XP" contest. My apologies for the delay. Winner for the Windows Phone 7 contest will come quicker.

Before continuing, I offer heartfelt thanks to Microsoft's hardware PR team for providing the mice five lucky winners will receive. In appreciation, let's plug Microsoft's "The Art of Touch" contest. Click the link to create online art, which I can say from trying works better with some kind of touch device. According to Microsoft:

Each week from November 10, 2011 to February 4, 2012, one lucky artist will win an Art of Touch prize package. The prizes change from week to week and include free Touch Mouse products, laptops, and cool swag imprinted with the winner’s artwork. You might see your design on anything from headphones to a skateboard.

Their prizes are better than mine. But, hey, winners, these are great mice. Please enjoy them.

Our panel of judges failed in its quest to balance the most serious reasons with the funny ones, in part because none of the former stood out. We couldn't find one compelling enough among them, which is why gthe delay announcing winners. Our panel wanted to award prizes to both kinds, but the number of humorous responses was too many to ignore.

So, here's what we did. Our panel narrowed down the best answers until we had five reasons we liked more than the others. Among them, we awarded prizes by chance. We used a polyhedral dice from my old Dungeons & Dragons game -- yes, there was role playing before the Internet and Xbox 360 -- to award prizes randomly.

The winners have 7 days -- until 11:59 pm ET, November 23 -- to claim their prizes. I'll mail them within 24 hours of notification. We will need to verify identities so that someone else doesn't step forward and snatch your prize. Unclaimed prizes will go the runners' up. Please email joe at betanews dot com.

Now the five reasons you should give up XP and upgrade to Windows 7:

1. "It's simple math: 2012 is the year to upgrade to 7 (or perhaps 8). Assuming the current version of Windows is twice as good as XP (whether you choose to use performance, security or MS included desktop images as your reason doesn't matter) then 2 x 2012 = 4024. But, of course, you must divide that by the 100 users who will complain forever that you made them learn something new: 4024/100 = 40.24 So, X = 40.24, and P in hex = 50. So the mathematical formula XP, which is simply X times P, is 40.24 x 50, which equals 2012. You've reached EOL. (and that's a whole different equation scenario which will take far too much space to explain)." Winner: TechRon. Prize: Arc Mouse

Members on our awards panel are mathematically challenged. We couldn't figure out what TechRon was communicating, but it sure reads important enough to be reason to dump XP for Windows 7. One judge simplified the reason for the rest of us: "The Mayans predicted the world ends in December 2012. If you wait, you'll miss out on Windows 7" Now that we all understood.

2. "My 5 year-old daughter's notebook at home is Windows 7 and my desktop at work is not". Winner: Isaac Vallee. Prize: Arc Mouse.

The panel chose this reason because we expect so many people can relate. They've moved on to Windows 7 at home, but it's XP all the way at work.

3. "You're finally moving out of your parents' basement, but they want to keep their old PC". Winner: Jason Syth. Prize: Explorer Touch Mouse.

Our panel divided over this one and another from Jason: "You're tired of the neighborhood children thinking that your home is a museum when they try to sneak peeks of your VCR, your rotary dial phone, your CRT monitor, and your decade-old copy of Windows XP". They're both winners, far as I'm concerned, but the policy is one prize per submitter.

4. "I have read the Voynich Manuscript, and it states that using Windows XP will keep you from being admitted into the *real* Secret Society. (Not those fake one's we all know about.). Winner: PC_Tool. Prize: Touch Mouse (which requires Windows 7).

I personally got tingles down my back reading this one and strange feeling of watching a really good "Fringe" episode.

5. "I've been on hold with Windows XP Tech Support since Feb. 14, 2001". Winner: Straspey. Prize: Explorer Touch Mouse.

We'd love to see Straspey's phone bill, and we presume it's a landline. Our panel got two laughs from this one. First: The obvious on hold since 2001. Second: After I pointed out Windows XP didn't officially launch until Oct. 25, 2001. Straspey, if you're still on hold Feb. 14, 2012, let us know. We'll send your partner or spouse flowers for Valentine's Day.

Runners Up

1. "Because on the 7th day God rested". David Paige.

The panel engaged in a fierce discussion about the existence of God, which I silenced. God's existence is immaterial to the reason's validity. For many XP users, moving to Windows 7 is a leap of faith.

2. "You are almost to the end of War and Peace, having read a chapter every time you rebooted after a monthly patch cycle". Torchwood.

Some of us have read the epic novel, but wondered: With that much downtime every second Tuesday, aren't there better things to do -- like see a movie or attend a play?

Adobe is a name associated with design tools, and it has long been associated with desktop software that can be used to create everything from websites and product designs to page layouts and perfect photos. But in recent years there has been a huge interest in mobile devices, and while handheld devices are a little limited when it comes to being used as design tools, the same cannot be said of tablets. The larger screens found on tablets have been put to great use in Adobe’s latest Android apps -- Adobe Photoshop Touch, Adobe Proto and Adobe Debut.

Adobe Photoshop Touch is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a touchscreen compatible version of the company’s flagship image editing tool. The selection tool has been redesigned to make it easier to control with just a fingertip, and the usual raft of filters and effects can be found here to help enhance images on the move. For most people, this app will be the one that appeals most from Adobe’s new range of Touch Apps.

For designers, Adobe Debut can be used to present ideas to clients, while Adobe Proto can be used to draw up design prototypes -- the naming convention could not be accused of being illogical. Each has the feel of being a tool designed specifically with touchscreen mobile devices in mind, rather than just being a knocked together ports of existing software. Debut can be viewed as a presentation tool that can be used to show off designs that have been created on your Mac or PC, while Proto can be used to create wireframe mockups of apps, pages and web sites – these can be interactive so you can get an idea of how things will work as well as how they will look.

Each of the tools can be used in conjunction with Adobe Creative Cloud, which makes it possible to upload files from your desktop to an online storage location and then access them on your tablet -- but this is obviously dependent on being able to pick up an Internet connection on your Android.

Weighing in at $9.99, these are not cheap apps, but they have heritage. Adobe is one of the few companies that can justify charging such an amount for a mobile app, but the software still needs to live up to the price tag. With its foray into the iOS market, Adobe had a chance to test the waters with its mobile apps. The tools that are now available for Android are well evolved apps that are surprisingly developed considering the 1.0 version numbers.

You can find out more about these apps by paying a visit to the review pages -- Adobe Photoshop Touch, Adobe Debut and Adobe Proto.

Late this afternoon, Google Music officially launched in the United States, ending a limited beta that started in May. The service differentiates from others by emphasizing mobile devices and by providing free full song or album plays when shared. Google will sell music from Android Market, where it also offers ebooks and movies. The search and information giant encodes tunes as 320Kbps MP3s, surpassing Apple's iTunes and other digital music sellers.

One million people participated in the invitation-only beta, streaming 2.5 hours of music every day. Google distributed 100 million free songs during the beta. Until today, Google Music was little more than a storage locker for tracks people already owned. Now users can buy tunes, too.

Google Music streams songs to supported devices -- Android phones, Macs and Windows PCs -- running the search giant's software. Users also can "pin" songs, so they download to their phones. Google Music desktop software syncs users' personal music from their Mac or Windows PC to the cloud.

When the music beta debuted six months ago, Google said pricing for online storage would be announced when launched. "The service will continue to be free" -- up to 20,000 songs, Google's Jamie Rosenberg explains. "Other cloud services think you have to pay for music that you already own".

Rosenberg describes Google Music as a "full end-to-end service. It's about the cloud, about the web and about mobile".

Users of the service will typically pay using Google Checkout. T-Mobile subscribers will soon be able to pay through their phone bills. Pricing is comparable to iTunes, for singles, typically 99 cents or $1.29. However, many albums are a little less, like AmazonMP3, at $9.49. That said, prices are variable, similar to competing stores.

Buyers can purchase from computer or Android phone. Google Music Android app is available for immediate download, for people wanting to buy right away. The company will dispatch the updated app to Android 2.2 and above devices over the next few days, also updating Mac and Windows PC software.

The new music service is tightly woven to Google+. It's "social in a deeply-integrated way", Rosenberg says. When Google+ users share music, recipients in that Circle get one free play from their stream. That applies to albums as well as single tracks. Normal preview length is 90 seconds. Sharing is one way to improve music discovery.

Google has obtained rights to 13 million tracks, 8 million of which are currently available. The search and information giant hasn't secured licensing deals with all major labels. However, EMI, Sony and Universal Music Group, plus a bunch of independents, are on board. These include: Matador Records, Merge Records, Naxos, XL Recordings and Warp Records. Google claims songs from 1,000 labels are available.

Google also is working around labels, if you will, by allowing musicians to sell directly through the store via the "Artist hub". Registration is similar to that for Android developers, and like them artists keep 70 percent of revenues. Artists set up their own music page, write the bio, set attributes and metadata for tracks and, of course, upload music. Artists also will be able to sell music alongside videos on YouTube.

The new music service launches with some enticing exclusives. According to Andy Rubin, Google's vice president of mobile:

• The Rolling Stones are offering an exclusive, never-before-released live concert album, Brussels Affair (Live, 1973), including a free single, “Dancing with Mr. D.” This is the first of six in an unreleased concert series that will be made available exclusively through Google Music over the coming months.
• Coldplay fans will find some original music that’s not available anywhere else: a free, live recording of “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall”, a five-track live EP from their recent concert in Madrid and a remix of “Paradise” by Tiësto.
• Busta Rhymes’s first single from his upcoming album, Why Stop Now (feat. Chris Brown), is available for free.
• Shakira’s live EP from her recent concert in Paris and her new studio single, “Je L’Aime à Mourir” are both being offered up free.
• Pearl Jam are releasing a live album from their 9/11/11 concert in Toronto, free to Google Music users.
• Dave Matthews Band are offering up free albums from two live concerts, including new material from Live On Lakeside.
• Tiësto is offering up a new mix, “What Can We Do?” (feat. Anastacia), exclusively to Google Music users.

I have about 12,000 songs uploaded to Google Music and will begin testing the officially launched service tonight. Oh, the sacrifices we make for readers!

Boxee confirms it is working on an USB dongle add-on for its Boxee Box set-top box that allows an antenna to be connected to the device to recieve "over-the-air" HD television signals. Pre-ordering opens Wednesday in the United States and Canada for $49, and the dongle will ship in January.

Those with unenecrypted basic channel service -- called clearQAM -- would also be able to connect the cable to the Boxee Box device. Either way, the set-top box itself still requires an Internet connection in order to use the signature functions of the Boxee service.

"If you are like us then the way you watch TV has changed", CEO and founder Avner Ronen says. "You end up watching less traditional TV, but continually pay more for it, which doesn’t make much sense". Ronen talks up the benefits of OTA digital television, but of course, one needs to be within range of the television transmitters in order to get the maximum benefit.

Users of Boxee's Mac and PC based platforms are currently incompatible with the dongle, Boxee says. The company didn't indicate plans to support it, even though an update for the desktop version is due in the coming months.

Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has a new enemy: Mario. Yes, that lovable overall wearing plumber of Nintendo fame. His crime? Wearing fur in Nintendo's latest Super Mario franchise title for the Nintendo 3DS, Super Mario 3D Land.

To point out Mario's sins, PETA launched a new online campaign called "Mario Kills Tanooki". The Tanooki is a Japanese raccoon dog, and during gameplay in 3D Land Mario dons the coat of a Tanooki, much like he did in Super Mario 3 for the original Nintendo system. The suit allows Mario to fly.

"Tanooki may be just a 'suit' in Mario games, but in real life, tanooki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur", PETA says on a site for the campaign. "By wearing Tanooki, Mario is sending the message that it's OK to wear fur".

PETA's efforts come complete with a game titled Super Tanooki Skin 2D, where the object is to help the Tanooki reclaim his skin from Mario's grip. In what has become typical of PETA's anti-fur campaigns, the site includes graphic imagery of the animals being abused by Japanese fur traders.

Nintendo has not responded directly to PETA's campaign, but stressed that nothing more than entertainment should be read into its games.

The ultrabook. It's a weak name for a compelling notebook design class that has been gaining popularity for a little over two years.

On Wednesday, still-in-the-PC-business Hewlett-Packard announced its contribution to the ultrabook class will be a business-focused model called the HP Folio 13.

According to Intel's definition, ultrabooks measure less than 20 mm (0.8 inches) in thickness and sell for less than $1,000, and the Folio 13 indeed lives up to these guidelines with a thickness of 18 mm and a starting price of $899.99 (when configured with an Intel Core i3 processor.)

The standard display size is 13.3", and storage comes in the form of an 128 GB SSD drive. It also has a backlit chiclet keyboard, RJ-45 ethernet and USB 3.0 ports, SD card slot, webcam and an optional TPM embedded security module.

The consumer-facing model will be released on December 7th, in time for the holiday shopping season, but the business model isn't expected to be released until January.

Besides the TPM chip, however, HP hasn't provided much information about what will make the Folio 13 any more businesslike than Acer's Aspire S3 ultrabook, or Toshiba's Portege Z830 ultrabook, which offer roughly the same specs, screen size, and price as the Folio 13.

Finding out what time it is need not mean relying on Windows’ built in clock, which is functional, but ultimately pretty ugly. Horloger, on the other hand, is a beautiful flip clock that will look great on any desktop. The look may appear familiar to mobile owners as widgets with a similar style are also available for the likes of Android, but this is a take on the genre that has been designed with Windows users in mind.

The stylish clock feels simultaneously old-fashioned and ultra-modern, and there are small and large versions available -- you can also choose from a few other skins, but the default is probably the best looking. Rather than being forced to keep your clock tethered to the lower right hand corner of the screen, Horloger can be placed anywhere on your desktop.

One of the advantages of using Windows’ own clock is the fact that it is tucked out of the way and does not obscure anything you may have open on your screen. If you have decided to position your flip clock somewhere more central, you have the option of making it transparent so that things in the background can still be seen. With the option of displaying the date as well, this is a seriously stylish and useful utility.

You can grab yourself a free copy of the clock app by paying a visit to the Horloger review page. If this clock doesn’t suit your particular tastes, you might want to take a look at Vector Clocks or even the Vector Clock Designer if you’d like to come up with your own.

Ventis Media has overhauled its music management tool to add full support for video. MediaMonkey 4.0, available in free and Gold editions, allows Windows users to manage and organize their media collection with a set of powerful tools.

Version 4.0 also adds support for library sharing to and from UPnP/DLNA devices, improves automatic synchronization capabilities with Android mobiles and introduces a new portable installation option, allowing MediaMonkey to be run from USB drives.

The standout feature in MediaMonkey 4.0 is the fact it now supports video as well as music -- the media manager currently supports AVI, MP4 and WMV videos only, with support for MKV promised at a later date. Video support is exactly the same as music support, allowing the user to quickly play, sync, tag and update video art and metadata over the Internet.

As with music files, video files will also be capable of being quickly renamed and organized according to their metadata, and there are video-conversion capabilities too. Additionally, video libraries can be segmented into separate collections, allowing the user to organize video into various categories such as recorded TV, movies and home video.

Version 4.0 also adds support for library sharing with UPnP/DLNA devices such as xBox, PS3 or compatible televisions and media streaming boxes. Automatic sync support allows you to sync with a wide range of compatible devices via profiles, which can be fine-tuned as required.

Other changes in version 4.0 include a new "secure ripping" system, that aims to improve CD ripping accuracy by slowing down the disc’s rotational speed whenever inaccuracies have been detected. The software also reportedly improves audio quality via the Windows Session Audio API.

The app’s user interface has also been tweaked to make it simpler to use, with a number of improvements that start with a setup wizard after installation and include a new tabbed interface and integrated file monitoring features. Version 4.0 also includes a wide number of bug fixes that resolve a number of issues.

MediaMonkey 4.0 is available now as a free download for PCs running Windows XP or later. A Gold license, which includes a number of additional features and performance improvements, is also available, with prices starting from $24.95. The upgrade can be performed within the Free edition of the software.

Network capture tools can be useful for all kinds of reasons: troubleshooting, security, system optimization, or just to keep a better record of your online activities.

Setting them up and making sense of their reports can often be tricky, of course, but it doesn’t have to be this way. York, while far from perfect, offers easier than usual setup and in-depth logging of your traffic, and so could be very useful as a first network capture tool.

As with many similar programs, for instance, York uses WinPcap to handle the traffic logging basics. But you don’t have to worry about finding or downloading this: York will install it for you.

This good first impression is spoiled a little because York doesn’t intelligently decide which network adapter to monitor. And so you may not see any logged data until you choose this manually (click Options, Network Adapter, click the adapter to be monitored). But with that done, you should immediately be able to see the details of any captured network traffic.

The Packets tab displays the basic details, for instance: date and time of a connection, local and remote IP addresses, ports and traffic size.

The Passwords tab sniffs out HTTP, FTP, POP3, SMTP, SMB, VNC and AIM passwords. So if you need to know an email account password, say, and your email client has it stored but won’t otherwise tell you what it is, then just run the program, collect any new messages, and York will capture and display all your user names and passwords.

The program can also sniff out and save copies of the images you view, and the files you access. Which could be useful both as a backup record of some web research (you won’t have to remember to save copies of everything as you go along), or as a way to see exactly what others might be doing on your PC. (This isn’t enabled by default, though: click Options, Logging and check “Log & Save HTTP/FTP files…” to turn the feature on.)

And if you’re a network guru then there are plenty of other settings you’ll appreciate here. York can log UDP, ICMP and NetBIOS packets, for instance, as well as TCP traffic. You’re able to save captured traffic in a PCAP file for analysis elsewhere, or open an existing PCAP file to find out more about any logged activities.

The program still has its problems. The interface doesn’t always work as you expect, for instance, and occasionally you’ll need to explore the Options dialog to try and find out how to modify its behaviour accordingly. It’s compact, free and generally easy to use, though, so if you’re interested in network capture but have been put off by the complexity of other tools, then York may be worth a closer look.

Photo Credit: olly/Shutterstock

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on Wednesday published its first two drafts for online privacy and tracking standards: the Tracking Preference Expression, which is a definition of the HTTP request header field "DNT" for expressing tracking on the Web; and Tracking Compliance and Scope, which defines the terminology of tracking preferences and scope in the DNT expression, and lays out ways that websites can comply with it.

These standards will let users set more universal preferences about whether or not their browsing data can be collected for tracking and advertising purposes. The W3C says this will help to re-establish trust between users and service providers in the marketplace.

They also will define new mechanisms for sites to disclose how they are honoring the users' preferences, and new ways for users to grant exceptions for specific sites with which they're comfortable sharing their data.

"None of the participants in this Web of customization and targeted advertising want to offend the user. For advertisers, it is counterproductive. For Web site owners, it drives away their audience and income. For advertising networks, it leads to blocking and lost advertisers," the DNT draft says. "Therefore, we need a mechanism for the user to express their own preference regarding cross-site tracking that is both simple to configure and efficient when implemented. Likewise, since some Web sites may be dependent on the revenue obtained from targeted advertising and unwilling (or unable) to permit use of their content without cross-site data collection, we need a mechanism for sites to alert the user to those requirements and allow the user to configure an exception to DNT for specific sites."

These draft standards are being edited by representatives from Adobe, Google, and the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Tracking Protection Working Group includes 23 companies such as Alcatel-Lucent, Apple Inc, BlueCava, Deutsche Telekom AG, Effective Measure International, ESOMAR World Association for Social, Market and Opinion Research, Facebook, Future of Privacy Forum, IAB Europe, IBM, Microsoft, Mozilla Foundation, The Nielsen Company, Online Publishers Association, Opera Software, Stanford University, TRUSTe, The Walt Disney Company, W3C and Yahoo! Inc.

These preferences are broadly based upon privacy mechanisms from IE9 that Microsoft submitted to the W3C last February.

Image: Kentoh/Shutterstock

This morning, as I write, the US House of Representatives is conducting a hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act. Senate version of the bill is PROTECT IP. Either bill would dramatically change how Americans use the Internet, by granting power to shut down sites for many reasons -- in the case of SOPA simply for linking to another site or content that may be pirated.

I'll probably write a commentary about the bills, which their critics claim will undermine free speech that made the World Wide Web an enabler of communications, commerce and transparency. Many opponents of both bills express greater concern about the House version, SOPA, which was introduced in late October. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced the Senate version, PROTECT IP, in May. The bills' motivations are simple: To extend copyright protections to the Internet.

But the means are aggressive, leading to outcries of censorship. Mozilla calls SOPA the "first American Internet censorship system. This bill can pass. If it does, the Internet and free speech will never be the same. Join us to stop this bill...Help us stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation". The open-source developer directs supporters via a "Take Action Now" button to Electronic Frontier Foundation, which fiercely opposes the bills.

As law, PROTECT IP would empower government law enforcement to:

• Seize domains of sites involved in the distribution of illegally obtained copyrighted material.
• Compel ISPs to block access to seized domains (such as from cached servers).
• Compel credit card companies to block access to infringing sites.
• Prevent advertising companies from selling or carrying ads for infringing sites.
• Require search engines like Bing and Google to block access to infringing sites.

SOPA's objectives, many of which overlap PROTECT IP's, are simply stated in this House synopsis:

H.R. 3261 allows the Attorney General to seek injunctions against foreign websites that steal and sell American innovations and products. The bill increases criminal penalties for individuals who traffic in counterfeit medicine and military goods, which put innocent civilians and American soldiers at risk. And it improves coordination between IP enforcement agencies in the U.S.

EFF claims:

Under SOPA's provisions, service providers (including hosting services) would be under new pressure to monitor and police their users’ activities. While PROTECT-IP targeted sites 'dedicated to infringing activities', SOPA targets websites that simply don’t do enough to track and police infringement (and it is not at all clear what would be enough). And it creates new powers to shut down folks who provide tools to help users get access to the Internet the rest of the world sees (not just the 'US. authorized version').

US Congress is considering two new copyright bills: PROTECT IP and Stop Online Piracy Act. Do you support them?

The bill's supporters brush aside such criticisms. In a letter to the US House of Representatives, Floyd Abrams, a constitutional attorney with law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel, writes:

Copyright violations have never been protected by the First Amendment and have been routinely punished wherever they occur, including the Internet. This proposed legislation is not inconsistent with the First Amendment; it would protect creators of speech, as Congress has done since this Nation was founded, by combating its theft.

Do you support either bill? Please answer in comments below and poll above. I will include some of your comments in my followup commentary.

Photo Credit: JustASC/Shutterstock

People die. There is a period of mourning. Business goes on. So it is that today, more than 45 days after Steve Jobs' death, Apple replaced him as chairman of the board. If there is a day to truly mark the end of the Steve Jobs era, this is it.

Arthur Levinson, an Apple board member since 2000 and co-lead director since 2005, is the new chairman. Jobs was chairman and CEO. His successor, Tim Cook is chief executive only.

"Art has made enormous contributions to Apple since he joined the board in 2000", Cook says. "He has been our longest serving co-lead director, and his insight and leadership are incredibly valuable to Apple, our employees and our shareholders".

"I am honored to be named chairman of Apple’s board and welcome Bob to our team", Levinson says. "Apple is always focused on out-innovating itself through the delivery of truly innovative products that simplify and improve our lives, and that is something I am very proud to be a part of".

Apple also appointed Disney Robert Iger to its board of directors, where he will serve on the audit board.

"Bob and I have gotten to know one another very well over the past few years and on behalf of the entire board, we think he is going to make an extraordinary addition to our already very strong board", Cook says. "His strategic vision for Disney is based on three fundamentals: generating the best creative content possible, fostering innovation and utilizing the latest technology, and expanding into new markets around the world which makes him a great fit for Apple".

Iger comes to Apple as Jobs leaves vacancies at both companies. Apple's cofounder joined Disney's board in 2006, following the media company's acquisition of Pixar.

"Apple has achieved unprecedented success by consistently creating high quality, truly innovative products, and I am extremely pleased to join the board of such a wonderful company", Iger says. "Over the years, I have come to know and admire the management team, now ably led by Tim Cook, and I am confident they have the leadership and vision to ensure Apple’s continued momentum and success".

Apple shares dipped slightly in after-hours trading, on news of the board changes, down about 1 percent. Shares closed at $388.83 per share.

Photo Credit: 1000 Words / Shutterstock

IObit has launched version 5 of its all-encompassing PC maintenance, optimization and security suite. Advanced SystemCare 5 sees the debut of ActiveBoost technology, a background process that aims to keep the computer running smoothly through intelligent management of system resources.

Advanced SystemCare features a new cloud-based database for up-to-the-minute updates, redesigned user interface and enhanced Quick and Deep Care modules. The system tool has also been rewritten with a brand new architecture and source code to extend compatibility to both 32- and 64-bit operating systems.

Advanced SystemCare 5, which comes as a cut-down Free version as well as fully functional Pro version for $19.95, features a raft of new features and optimizations.

ActiveBoost technology works in the background as you use your PC, intelligently managing memory and application processes to ensure the system is running as efficiently as possible. While this won’t have much effect on day-to-day use, it may prove useful in situations where your PC would normally become sluggish after being overloaded by too many resource-intensive processes competing for resources.

A number of new features have been added to the program’s Quick and Deep Care modules to provide additional deep-cleaning and optimization functions. The malware detection and removal module is now kept up-to-date via cloud-based updates, ensuring it’s capable of responding more quickly to the latest threats.

The Turbo Boost mode has also been overhauled to provide two separate, and configurable, presets covering work and game use, ensuring the computer is optimized for both day-to-day use as well as for more resource-intensive gaming.

Version 5.0 has also been recoded to allow compatibility with both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows, and IObit claims that this also translates into faster launch times and less resource usage, which is important seeing the role ActiveBoost is playing in managing your PC’s resources. Rounding things off is a slightly tweaked user interface, designed to make certain functions easier to find.

Advanced SystemCare 5 Free is available as a free download for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. Certain features, including “complete” malware removal and deep system cleaning, are only available through the purchase of a Pro license, which retails at $19.95.

I ask you to remain seated for what you are about to read, for I fear you may fall over and injure yourself from shock (BetaNews assumes no responsibility for injuries that occur while reading our stories). The spec is dead. No more gigahertz or dual-core comparisons. No more comparing LTE to HSPA+ to 3G. If you read TechCrunch today, that's exactly what MG Seigler argues. Who's leading us to this spec-free world? Apple.

"Apple is the company which has ushered in this post-spec era", Seigler insists. "We’re starting to see backlash against reviews of products that just do spec-by-spec rundown. Because really, who cares how the device sounds on paper? It’s how it feels that matters".

That's right, we don't care about how powerful our computers, smartphones and tablets are: all that matters is a name. How it feels. Pay no attention to the fact that those feelings are completely driven by the specifications itself, and you realize how ludicrous this argument is.

You have got to be kidding me. To Mr. Seigler -- from one 'Apple apologist' to another -- you are off your damn rocker.

Apple Does Care about Specifications

His claims on Apple are the most off base. In his own words: "They’ve flourished in recent years despite (and maybe because of) being cagey with most spec information on their newer devices". Not true at all. "Apple is more traditional with the Mac when it comes to specs (undoubtedly due to legacy), but they still mostly bury that information". That's not accurate, either.

If Apple truly did not care about specs, I might still be writing this on a PowerPC iMac. That switch was all about what was on the inside.

Yes, part of Apple's reason in moving to Intel had to do with issues in keeping PowerPC chips cool in the company's ever-shrinking form factors. But the reasons for the switch also had to do with performance. Bottom line: the PC was killing the Mac in this department, and Apple was forced by the market and consumers to build a computer with better (you guessed it!) specifications.

Specifications still do rule the day in Cupertino. What's left out of Seigler's argument is Apple's keynotes themselves. Find me one presentation on hardware where Apple doesn't make a big deal about how much faster their new iMac is or how much better iPhone does versus the competition: there's not many. Apple knows consumers are very much interested in what's on the inside. His claims of Apple being cagey does not match with the facts.

Oh and by the way, Apple doesn't bury the information either: Here are iPhone 4S specs, just two clicks in from the front page, and look at all that talk about specs on the page for the MacBook Air.

iPhone 4S Just isn't That Great

Seigler moves on to Consumer Reports. With little in the way of solid evidence other than the fact that they like Android devices more, he slams them for being irrelevant. "Why? Specs", he complains.

A total misread of what Consumer Reports attempts to do in its reviews -- looking at the whole picture -- and contradictory, too.

"For example, they love the LG Thrill’s ability to capture stills and videos in 3D", he complains. "This is one step short of knocking the iPhone 4S because it doesn’t have frickin’ laser beams mounted on the top of the device. And such comparisons show just how clueless Consumer Reports has become".

"Consumer Reports now matters just as much as specs do. Which is to say, not at all", he says. His beef with the publication seems to stem over Antennagate -- which he blames for starting that mess. But wouldn't an issue like that be important to an overall review and recommendation? He goes on to state: "Does anyone really think that the LG Thrill is going to outsell the iPhone 4S this quarter? What about the Motorola Droid Bionic? Maybe the Samsung Galaxy S II?"

I understand Seigler is trying to be funny, but in his attempt at a joke he misses what's obvious to most of us. The iPhone 4S is not the best phone out there, and you could argue it is still behind competitors in a number of respects. RAM, screen size, and battery life are just some of its shortfalls -- oh, yeah, specs. Earlier today, Gartner reported third-quarter smartphone sales. Samsung easily eclipsed Apple, selling (not shipping) 24 million smartphones to Apple's 17 million. Gartner gave credit to Galaxy S II. Consumer Reports isn't alone putting the S2 above iPhone 4S. Maybe Seigler would care more about specs, if iPhone 4S could compete on them.

I may be considered an Apple apologist by some here at BetaNews, but I sure don't have blinders on. The iPhone 4S will sell well. But there's one caveat: it will sell predominantly to Apple's fiercely loyal consumers. Cupertino's continuing stranglehold on distribution, the device's well-publicized faults, and a design and specification list that is behind the curve among others in its class will keep it from being a blockbuster device. Like the 3GS, it is a placeholder for something better.

A recent survey of iPhone 4S buyers by Piper Jaffray found a staggering 73 percent of purchasers upgrading from a previous iPhone model. That's a huge number, and shows the device likely has little traction at the moment outside of Apple's core consumer base. These consumers are opting for better phones.

No Understanding of Modern Consumers

I applaud Seigler for pointing out (albeit at the end) that the consumer does choose a product these days on a wider array of factors: "What matters is how the device performs, the ecosystem, and the price", he says. But the rest of his piece says little as to why this is occurring.

As James Carville famously said, "It's the economy, stupid". We have very little discretionary income to play with these days, thus purchase decisions are better thought out. It's not that we're blind to specifications, it's a perception of value. Some devices just don't have that.

You can have some great new device have top-notch specs, yet a crappy support system -- either by the company or in content. Consumers won't touch it. Inversely, a crappy device is not going to sell even if it has great content and services behind it. We look at the whole picture these days rather than just the name on the box. If there's anything good about this recession, I'd argue it's that.

There is no evidence that what we're buying these days has nothing to do with a perception of quality or value. It seems like some people read a bit too much into marketing, and in turn think consumers are not smart enough to make educated decisions on their own. That couldn't be further from the truth.

In `80s classic movie "Back to the Future", young George McFly approaches Lorraine Baines and flubs his introduction. Meaning to say "I'm your destiny", McFly nervously utters: "I'm your density". For business of all sizes, density is their destiny as they look ahead to the post-PC era and either acquiring or outsourcing massive datacenter capacity.

The three years ahead will be tumultuous, as businesses look to balance converging and contradictory priorities as they rush to the cloud, or sometimes not. Any organization offering connected services -- whether to employees, business to business or business to consumer -- must think about expanding density as their destiny. Should they consolidate server capacity through virtualization, build datacenters or outsource capacity to cloud providers such as Amazon and Microsoft? There is no stock answer, because businesses' different sizes, global or local reach, IT budgets or operational needs vary so vastly. But there are trends that will hugely affect decision-making.

According to Gartner, datacenter hardware spending will reach $98.9 billion this year -- that's up 12 percent from 2010. The analyst firm predicts datacenter hardware spending to reach $106.4 billion next year and $126.2 billion in 2015.

"Worldwide data center hardware spending will finally reach and surpass 2008 levels", Jon Hardcastle, Gartner research director, says. "Storage is the main driver for growth. Although only a quarter of data center hardware spending is on storage, almost half of the growth in spending will be from the storage market".

Virtualization and server consolidation are inhibiting overall spending, which is good for IT organizations. Additionally, "data centers are getting more efficient, leading to higher system deployment densities and inhibiting demand for floor space", Hardcastle says.

Future Now

Four converging trends will affect decisions businesses of all sizes must consider when designing datacenter strategies, whether in-house, outsourced or a combination of both.

1. Lingering global economic problems. The European Union's ongoing sovereign debt crisis is destabilizing stock markets and economies across the globe. Greece's plight has nominal impact on US banks. However, according to the Federal Reserve, US banks hold about $34 billion in Italian and Spanish bonds. Default could set off a new debt crisis, with banks once again holding bad paper -- as they did during mortgage debt debacle.

On November 14, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco warned:

Gathering storms across the Atlantic threaten a US economy not yet recovered from the last recession. The US economy is fragile with limited ability to withstand shocks...The odds are greater than 50 percent that we will experience a recession sometime early in 2012...Prudence suggests that the fragile state of the US economy would not easily withstand turbulence coming across the Atlantic. A European sovereign debt default may well sink the United States back into recession.

Economic uncertainty, and even return to recession, puts pressure on IT organizations to cut budgets and re-evaluate investments. Many organizations curtailed expansion starting in 2008; for reasons stated below they can't afford to put off cloud and datacenter expansion again and may benefit long term from new investments. Datcenter spending is greatest among BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), according to Gartner, and that's not surprising given the European debt crisis.

2. Changing worker lifestyles. The lingering economic uncertainty is posed to regain intensity, going from hurricane in 2008 to tropical storm in 2009 and, if there is government bond default in Europe, hurricane again in 2012. Many companies already cut staffs to the bone during the last recession, accelerating another trend already underway: Commingling of worker behavior and personal and professional data.

Gone are the days when knowledge workers, as some vendors refer to them, clock 9-to-5 jobs. There was the work role in the office that was separate from the home role. But now, with laptops, smartphones and other mobile devices, roles and data converge and commingle. The worker at home might go from parent role to office manager role with a single email, text message or phone call. Staff reductions accelerate this trend.

Businesses evaluating datacenter options should consider how to maximize worker productivity in the continuing downturn while protecting sensitive data. Too much business data leaves corporate confines, creating privacy and security risks should mobile devices be lost or stolen. Cloud services, whether from in-house or outsourced datacenters, can pull data back inside the firewall and better separate personal and professional roles.

3. Smartphone and tablets. The so-called post-PC era is here, as connected mobile devices displace personal computers. There are nearly 6 billion cell phone subscribers across the globe, according to the United Nations. IDC forecast 1 billion smartphone shipments annually by 2015 -- that's larger than the current PC install base.

"Customers are clamoring for new and easy ways to interact with the organizations they deal with, and no company should think itself immune to this new business dynamic," Gene Alvarez, Gartner research vice president, says. "As more people use smartphones, they will expect an extension of their customer experience to be supported by this kind of device".

Businesses must contend with increasing numbers of mobile workers, customers and partners. In October, Apple launched iCloud, which immediately collapsed under the weight of user demand -- much of it from mobile devices. Apple planned for the launch for at least most of 2011 and still couldn't meet demand, despite having increased datacenter capacity.

This trend demands increased datacenter and storage capacity, particularly as cellular carriers deploy 4G networks capable of delivering bandwidth in the double digits to smartphones and tablets. These devices are go-everywhere, unlike PCs.

4. Social media and collaboration. Dramatic changes confront businesses that once used collaboration tools from Microsoft and other vendors in the mid-Noughties to improve worker productivity. Cloud services that didn't exist before 2006, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube connect people and businesses in ways unimaginable half a decade ago. They create demand for increased cloud and datacenter capacity seemingly everywhere.

This also ties into increased use of mobile devices. Smartphone users will demand "that social aspects of the Web be intertwined with this experience", Alvarez says.

Smart businesses can use social media interaction to compensate for sagging workforces and cutbacks in R&D, customer service, partner outreach and other areas that are vital to future growth. Increased customer interaction via social media tools can increase their loyalty and leverage them to fill in organizational gaps via mechanisms like "crowd sourcing".

Social media and increased mobility drive other trends. According to Gartner research vice president Brian Burke:

Gamification could become as important as Facebook, eBay or Amazon. During 2012, 20 percent of Global 2000 organizations will deploy a gamified application. IT leaders must start exploring opportunities to use gamification to increase engagement with customers and employees, with the aim of deploying a gamified application next year. Understanding how to apply game mechanics to motivate positive behavioral change is critical to success

The trend could be as transforming in three years as social networks are today. It all requires increased datacenter density to meet the destiny.

Photo Credit: Eugene Kouzmenok/Shutterstock

We would like to thank Juniper Networks for sponsoring this article. BetaNews maintains full editorial control over sponsored posts, which aren't reviewed or approved by outsiders.

The answer depends on how third quarter sales are interpreted. By one perspective, gangbuster smartphone growth is over, as mature markets saturate and economic woes in Europe zap consumer budgets. By another viewpoint, a slowdown in iPhones sales -- ahead of a product transition -- pulled down the entire market. If the latter is right, iPhone sales could be considerably larger during fourth quarter than even the fiercest Apple apologist's or investor's dreams.

Today, Gartner released Q3 smartphone sales, with emphasis on sales. Most other analyst firms report shipments, which are those going into retail channels. Gartner reports actual sales to end users, which offer more realistic perspective about the smartphone market. Two data points differentiate third quarter sales from recent others: Smartphone growth slowed sequentially and iPhone/iOS market share declined. The question: Are these two sales changes related or coincidental?

iPhone Cracks

Smartphone sales reached 115 million units during Q3, up 42 percent year over year. However, as stated above, sales growth slowed to 7 percent sequentially. Slowing sales also affected smartphones' cut of the overall handset market -- 26 percent, up just 1 percent a quarter earlier. Meanwhile, iPhone fell by 3 million units quarter on quarter, pulling its market share down 1.6 points to 15 percent year over year.

Gartner, like other analyst firms, attributes iPhone's sales slowdown to rumors ahead of the 4S' launch. "Apple's iOS market share suffered from delayed purchases as consumers waited for the new iPhone", Roberta Cozza, Gartner principal research analyst, says. Apple CEO Tim Cook made similar assertion in October.

But there is more than just iPhone to consider. "Demand for smartphones stalled in advanced markets such as Western Europe and the US, as many users waited for new flagship devices featuring new versions of the key operating systems", Cozza says. "Slowdowns also occurred in Latin America and the Middle East and Africa". Strong sales in China and Russia offset some of the overall slowdown.

Samsung Soars

There's another way to look at the data and possible holiday quarter sales that is based more on actual performance and less on speculation about why iPhone share declined sequentially and year over year. Competitors produce better phones. Samsung rose to No. 1 in smartphone sales during third quarter, selling -- not shipping -- 24 million units. Apple apologists have criticized Samsung sales figures as deceptive, referring to shipments into the channel as sales. Gartner reports 24 million smartphone sales, triple those a year earlier. That puts Samsung's market share at 20.9 percent -- 14.8 percent for iPhone.

"Gartner attributes this to the strong performance of Samsung's Galaxy smartphones, which now cover a broad range of prices, and a weaker competitive market". The weaker market meaning less iPhone competition, which the firm asserts will rebound fourth quarter. Perhaps.

But Android smartphone OS share is 52.5 percent, more than double Q3 2010, while sales nearly tripled. Based on actual performance Android overall and Samsung with three operating systems (Android, Bada and Windows Phone) pushed well ahead, while iPhone and iOS fell behind.

Wait and See

Some of the strongest competing smartphones launched this quarter, including various Galaxy S II models, new HTC and Samsung Windows Phones and a swath of 4G LTE models from AT&T and Verizon. The latter carrier now offers eight LTE models, with, another, the highly-anticipated Galaxy Nexus coming soon. There's no LTE iPhone.

"Some consumers held off upgrading in the third quarter because they were waiting for promotions on other new high-end models that were launched in the run-up to the fourth quarter holiday season", Cozza continues. Other people waited for rumored "price cuts on older iPhone models; this affected US sales particularly".

With respect to fourth quarter, price cuts on iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 are wild cards that could dramatically affect sales. The 3GS is free and iPhone 4 $99 with carrier contractual commitment. In May, I recommended a similar strategy of offering cheaper, iPhone 4 everywhere. It's how Apple can boost sales in emerging markets and slow the Android Army's advances. Emerging markets like Brazil, China, Mexico and Russia are "becoming more important to Apple", according to Gartner, accounting for 16 percent of sales. The firm asserts that when weighing in price cuts on older models "iPhone has a place in emerging markets".

Gartner may be right about an iPhone rebound in fourth quarter -- or not. Regardless, increased competition should be good for consumers looking for bargains during the holidays. Pardon me, I can't resist: Android and Windows Phone deals will be available on current models. For example, leaked Radio Shack ads show the Galaxy S II Skyrocket selling for $50 on Black Friday. To save on iPhone, you pay for older models.

A former employee of Chinese telecommunications hardware company Huawei is taking the company to court in the UK on charges of racial discrimination. The former fiber optics specialist claims Huawei has unfairly replaced British employees with Chinese.

According to the UK Daily Mail, Judeson Peter, a Sri Lankan expatriate, was cut from his job in a massive round of layoffs in 2009, which occurred contemporaneously with a large influx of Chinese employees at Huawei's UK division.

Peter said the company's Human Resources department sent an email on April 21, 2009 which claimed that all expat employees would be safe from redundancy layoffs.

But Peter was still let go.

"This is a clear racial discrimination against non-Chinese employees as most expats are Chinese," Peter told the Daily Mail.

At the time, Huawei laid off 25 percent of its British workers and 32 percent of its Chinese workers because growth had slowed so significantly from the previous year. In 2008, the company's revenue grew by 43%, in 2009 it grew by just 17%.

Huawei has denied Peter's claims, and said that its redundancies were in no way structured to favor Chinese employees.

The tribunal investigating Peter's claims is still under way.

It’s fair to say that a disc burning tool is one thing hardly in short supply, so it would be natural to wonder why another might be needed. While there are all manner of advanced burning suite available, anyone starting out in disc burning for the first time tends to get forgotten. This is something that Hamster Free Burning Studio aims to address, bringing the option to create and copy discs to everyone.

The interface is the first thing you will notice about the app -- it is far from being the complex and often confusing beast that Nero has become; Hamster Fre is just delightfully simple. Despite this apparent simplicity, you can use the program to create CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays using your own files or ISO images, or you can create direct copies of discs.

Switch to ‘compact mode’ and this is just about as simple as you could expect them to get. A disc shaped window appears and lets you know what type and capacity of disc you are working with, and you can then simply drag and drop files into place. Hit the burn button when you’re ready and everything is taken care of for you.

There are five different color themes to choose from, and while this may not be adeal-breaking for many people looking for a disc burning tool, for those taking their first tentative steps into disc creation, this is one extra touch that helps to make Hamster Free Burning Studio that little bit more appealing.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the program by paying a visit to the Hamster Free Burning Studio review page.

There is no shortage of cloud file sharing and sync services today, and most of them focus on mobile accessibility: Dropbox with Dropsync, Box.net, SugarSync, YouSendIt…there are tons of options.

As a user, strong competition among service providers is a wonderful thing, so it's a great time to be a user of cloud file management systems.

Today, Cloud-based solutions company Syncplicity launched the Android version of its Syncplicity app for file sharing, syncing, backup, and accessibility, further broadening the competitive playing field for cloud sync for Android devices.

Like some of its competitors, Syncplicity is aimed at both business users and individuals, and offers both free and subscription tiers for its users.

For personal users, the free tier offers instant file sync for up to 2 computers and mobile devices, and comes with 2 GB of free storage, with upgrade options available. It automatically backs up content with versioning and instant restore, and includes military-grade encryption and security.

The subscription tier for business users costs $45 per month and includes unlimited users, storage and file sizes, and includes instant file syncing across desktops, laptops, mobile devices, Google Docs, SalesForce, SharePoint and file servers.

Security is one of the major selling points for Syncplicity, and all cached files are encrypted with enterprise-grade AES-256 encryption. But that's only the beginning of it, the app also lets users or IT administrators remotely wipe downloaded data and credentials from lost or stolen mobile devices. In Syncplicity Business Edition, organizational controls, permissions and policies for information security and corporate data compliance are extended down to the local device level.

Syncplicity for Android is available in the Android Market today and works on Android 2.X devices.

Facebook users report seeing large amounts of image spam in their news feeds, depicting acts of violence, pornography, mutilation and bestiality. The site says it is investigating the issue, but did not give any possible cause for the problem.

BetaNews has received reports of spam messages typically sent with the word "YUKKY" and including a shortened link, although it is not immediately clear whether this has anything to do with the graphic imagery. The images show up in victims profiles as being "liked".

The imagery is disturbing. "It looks like I am boycotting Facebook till they get this hacking worked out", actress Courtney Zito tweets. "The images I have seen today were enough to make me ill".

BetaNews has seen some of this imagery firsthand. One image that was sexual in nature portrayed an act of gross mutilation; several others included various sex acts.

A check Tuesday morning by BetaNews of known victims found the images removed from their profiles, indicating Facebook is acting swiftly. This week's attack appears to be one of the largest and most coordinated in the site's history, however.

"It's precisely this kind of problem which is likely to drive people away from the site", Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley says. "Facebook needs to get a handle on this problem quickly, and prevent it from happening on such a scale again".

Facebook was the target of click spam attacks in the past, but this event seems far larger in scale. No group has taken responsibility for the attack, although some people blame Anonymous. The hacktivist collective was rumored to be planning an attack on the social networking site for November 5, however, it never occurred.

Until Facebook assures users that the issue is under control, users should exercise increased caution. Additionally, users shouldn't click any links sent by friends, especially those that appear shortened. At this time, that appears to be the most likely vector for the spread of the attack.

Photo Credit: 1000 Words/Shutterstock

Palringo is a cross-platform chat client that supports all the major networks plus its own group chat rooms. Whether you use Windows, Mac or most popular smartphones, Palringo has a client for you.

Sadly Blackberry owners are going to be disappointed because the Palringo client for their phone has been discontinued, but there are free versions of the application for Android, iOS and Symbian. You can also use it on your desktop be it a Mac or a Windows PC and you can even run it in Linux under WINE.

Before you can add one of the instant messaging services, you need to sign up for a Palringo account. You can do this right after you install the application. Once you’ve set up a new account, you can check into any existing groups on the Palringo network that you like. You can create a new group or sign into another local one near your current location. Palringo uses smartphone location services to help you interact with nearby users.

To add an instant messaging service, click Add Service from the menu and then supply your username and password for the selected service. You can use AOL, Google chat, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook or one of many other chat or networking services. You can sign into multiple networks or use them one by one. To sign out of everywhere, simply sign out of Palringo.

Groups enable you to share status updates with multiple people. You can create your own group with different friends and family members or you can connect to an existing group. These work in a similar way to chat rooms, where you can message with every member at the same time without worrying about addressing messages individually.

Palringo is available as a freeware download for Windows and Mac, while Linux users can install the Windows version through WINE. Palringo Mobile is a free app download for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile.

Google has made the source code and software stack for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) available for download on the Android Open-Source Project git servers. This means companies and developers who are working on their own devices based on the new version of Android can officially get to work.

"This is actually the source code for version 4.0.1 of Android, which is the specific version that will ship on the Galaxy Nexus, the first Android 4.0 device," said Android Open-Source Project software engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru said on Monday. "In the source tree, you will find a device build target named 'full_maguro' that you can use to build a system image for Galaxy Nexus. Build configurations for other devices will come later."

This release also includes the full history of the Android source code tree, and therefore includes the source code for the Honeycomb tablet-only builds.

Honeycomb deviated from Google's culture of releasing an open source version of Android's code and stack, and then releasing the "with Google" version, and was never really released as a standalone open source image.

Queru said "Since Honeycomb was a little incomplete, we want everyone to focus on Ice Cream Sandwich. So, we haven't created any tags that correspond to the Honeycomb releases (even though the
changes are present in the history.)"

On September 30, I asked: "Will you buy Kindle Fire?" Based on responses to our survey, your comments and a study showing some people putting off iPad 2 purchases for Kindle Fire, the question could have been: "Why won't you buy Kindle Fire?" Many people plan to, and Amazon will make it easy. Unlike the original Kindle's debut, exclusively through Amazon, Fire sells in stores like Best Buy. Actually, Amazon plans broad retail availability, giving Kindle Fire the kind of distribution needed to take on other Android tablets and, of course, iPad 2.

Among the 1,156 BetaNews survey respondents, 31.66 percent already preordered Kindle Fire -- another 23.26 percent plan to purchase within 3 months. I'll skip to the punchline: Only 28.89 percent of respondents "have no plans" to buy Amazon's Android tablet. I've embedded the survey below for some fresh responses and expect the numbers to go up. The responders aren't qualified, meaning we don't know who they are but assume many are techies like you.

Kindle Fire is scheduled to ship tomorrow, but Amazon's website says "ships today". "We’re thrilled to be able to ship Kindle Fire to our customers earlier than we expected", Dave Limp, Kindle vice president, says. That's good marketing -- deliver more than promised.

"Kindle Fire quickly became the bestselling item across all of Amazon.com, and based on customer response we’re building millions more than we’d planned", he continues.

Among Fire's most appealing attributes is price -- $199. According to a different BetaNews survey, $199 is the selling sweet spot. We asked: "What price would be low enough for you to buy a media tablet?" The majority, 30.53 percent, answered $199. For more than 60 percent of respondents, it's $199 or less.

That price puts Fire at half the cost of iPad 2, and with similar supporting benefits. Amazon is creating a curated experience. Like Apple, the online retailer takes complete control over the entire stack -- software, hardware, cloud services, retail sales and customer support. Fire features an Amazon-customized version of Android 2.x, its own Android app store, music and movie stores, ebook store, web browser and customized media consumption software and services. Amazon also brings to bear a popular brand, and loads of extras, such as free movies and TV shows and book lending for Prime members. Amazon Prime is a $79/year service that provides free two-day shipping for up to four accounts in the same residence/family.

Today, IDC released a study finding that Kindle Fire is now the most popular Android tablet among developers. So what about you?

Buyers and Naysayers

I preordered, for my wife, as an early Christmas present. Amazon charged my credit card today but hasn't yet shipped Fire. Commenter Darell did likewise -- "for my son who just started college. We have three Kindles in our family and love them. I'm betting the Fire will be as enjoyable. the other thing I consider is, at $199, I can always afford to buy the upgrade in 6 months".

Do you plan to buy Amazon's $199 tablet -- Kindle Fire?

iPad comparisons irk some Betanews readers. "It's a 7-inch ereader with some bells and whistles", writes geomarks. "It's not in the same league as the iPad -- totally different devices with arguably different markets". RCS_hkt responds:

Exactly. It is designed to provide the same basic functionality at a much lower price. When people shop for gifts they buy based on price points, not specs. It will sell like crazy this Xmas and beyond that will sell well because many mass market consumers are more concerned with price than with having absolutely the highest spec device on the planet. Two completely different markets. That's why companies like Walmart can exist.

According to a study Retrevo published last week, 27 percent of existing tablet owners plan to buy Fire this holiday, compared to 20 percent for iPad 2. The markets may be different, but Retrevo's study shows potential sales pull away: 44 percent of respondents are interested in buying Fire instead of Apple's tablet.

internetworld7: "I'll buy a Kindle Fire when it runs iOS and is MADE BY APPLE". Good luck with that. dougau: "Yeah sure, I'm going to buy one of everything, let the bank take my house and go protest on Wall Street!!" Excellent, when cops jail all the Occupy Wall Street protesters, you'll have something to read in the slammer.

Commenter Defunct Online represents the kind of user who might have moved up from Kindle to iPad 2 but plans on Kindle Fire instead:

To be bluntly honest, the Kindle Fire really doesn't have the specs that a lot of people demand from their Tablets. However, I am going to buy one- and this is why. I have been a Kindle owner for 3 years now. I absolutely love my Kindle. But more than that, when I have run into issues with my Kindle, Amazon's support has been utterly and completely fantastic. So, for $199, I see no reason why I shouldn't eventually upgrade to the Kindle Fire. No, I am not preordering, but I know I will eventually get it. After all, I can still read my Kindle books and do a lot more than I can currently do with my Kindle.

Did you buy? Will you? Please answer in comments below and the poll above.

Amazon's Kindle Fire is just starting to ship today, but it already is the most popular Android tablet among developers. IDC and Appcelerator say the Fire edges out the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and interest in the device is similar to that seen before the launch of Apple's iPad in April 2010.

IDC's study confirms BlackBerry's continuing fall from grace, as Windows Phone moved into the third spot among most popular mobile operating systems for development. Nokia's new lineup of Windows-powered phones are the reason, as developers expect market share for the platform to rise as a result. Half of those who expressed interest in Windows Phone cited the Microsoft/Nokia partnership as the reason.

"Amazon has shown exceptional early success in appealing to developers with the Kindle Fire showing that price and differentiation are keys to competing in the crowded Android tablet space, rather than simply chasing the iPad market", says IDC mobile and connected consumer platforms research head Scott Ellison.

Forty-nine percent of developers say they are "very interested" in developing for the Fire, four points shy of the iPad's mark pre-launch. Kindle Fire's low price is a factor and one that has brought Android development into focus in recent months.

In positive news for Microsoft, 38 percent of developers say they were very interested in developing for Windows Phone. IDC says this is a record for the platform and could help the Redmond, Wash.-based company's Nokia gamble pay off. Oftentimes consumers will look to application support in making decisions, and for a large part of Windows Phone's existence, it just has not been there.

Developers are not concern-free though when it comes to Android or the Kindle Fire. Fragmentation was cited as a concern, IDC finds. That should in turn concern Google and those partial to Android, who at times have argued that so many different versions of Android running on various devices is a non-issue. Fragmentation presents an issue to developers in that they must consider not only the capabilities of the device but also issues surrounding a particular version of an OS.

In terms of platforms themselves, iPhone continues to garner the most interest among developers, with 91 percent citing they are very interested in development for the device. This is followed by the iPad at 88 percent, Android phones at 83 percent and Android tablets at 68 percent.

IDC notes that interest in development for Android phones and tablets fell four and six points, respectively, but surmised it had to do with renewed interest in iOS coinciding with the release of iOS 5.

Apple has pushed out the latest version of its media player and management software -- iTunes 10.5.1. The latest version of the app is not big news in itself, but the release coincides with the much anticipated launch of iTunes Match, in the US market at least. The service has been expected for some time, but a series of delays pushed the release date back slightly. Now, at long last, iTunes Match is here.

The subscription service will set you back $25 per year and enables you to access your entire music collection in the cloud. The latest version of iOS has seen Apple expressing a greater interest than ever before in life in the cloud and this foray means that it will now be possible for those willing to stump up the annual fee to access their music collection from any internet connected device without the need for manually copying of files.

However, Apple's cloud servers are failing to meet demand, with widespread reports iTunes Match isn't available (we've had troubles, too).

All of the music available from iCloud is provided in 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free format. It does not matter if your original files were of a lower quality, anything you download with iTunes Match will be upscaled for you.  For the time being, iTunes Match is only available in the United States, and you will need to upgrade to the latest version of iTunes in order to use the service.

You can wait for your copy of the software to offer you an update at some point in the next few hours or days, or you can manually download the latest version. Head over to the Apple iTunes 10.5.1 (32-bit) or Apple iTunes 10.5.1 (64-bit) to grab yourself a copy.

The folks at angel-backed startup Tout know that e-mail has still got a long future ahead of it, so they're trying to improve it by equipping individuals and small businesses with the powerful template-based messaging capabilities big enterprise would pay lots of money to get.

It's an "email-as-a-service" product not unlike Amazon Simple Email Service (SES.)

Users can access their email accounts through Tout's web interface to compose and send messages. It's not designed for informal personal communications, but instead for efficient, targeted business communications, so Tout lets users create and save templates of messages and organize them into categories (broadly analogous to campaigns.)

Once sent, users can track the status of their messages and gauge the effectiveness of their emails by seeing if messages were received, viewed, and clicked through. Tout tells users which links were clicked, what time and date they were clicked, and how many times each link was clicked.

In this way, it helps users isolate their most effective email marketing and communications.

Based upon this open/clickthrough information, users are given analytics for each of their email categories, showing the overall success of each. This data can be shared with team members if team templates are being used, and the data can be tied into CRM systems such as Highrise, Batchbook, and Capsule CRM.

Tout has 5 main subscription tiers: free, premium, small team, medium team, and large team, and also establishes SLA's with bigger enterprises.

Free users can send 25 emails a day, save 10 email templates, and make 3 Tout Groups. The first pay tier, "Premium," costs $30 per month, and bumps gives users a 100 email per day quota, and lets them save an unlimited number of templates and groups.

The Small Team tier bumps up the price to $49 per month for 3 team members, shared templates and team-wide analytics. The $99 per month Medium Team tier increases that to 10 members, and the Large Team tier includes 25 team members.

Intel pushed the speed envelope on its Sandy Bridge-based Core processor line Monday, debuting its new six-core Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition flagship CPU. The chip runs at a speed of 3.3GHz, although using less cores through Intel Turbo Boost technology can clock as high as 3.9GHz. In tandem with the announcement, Maingear updated its Shift and F131 systems to use the chips.

Intel markets the 'Extreme' lineup of chips to enthusiasts: hardcore gamers, programmers and the like. These consumers will pay a premium for their hardware and expect flexibility. Intel provides it through unlocking, allowing the enthusiast to overclock.

The 3960X requires a X79 chipset-compatible motherboard with an LGA2011 socket. Those motherboards cost between $250 and $450 depending on manufacturer, adding considerable cost to what is an already pricey chip at $1,050. Intel is offering a slower model -- the Core i7-3930K -- at 3.2GHz with 12MB of cache (the 3960X has 15MB). That model retails for $550.

Users will also need some type of cooling system, as Intel is not shipping any integrated cooling system with the chip. It recommends its in-house liquid cooling solution, the RTS2011LC, which retails for about $100. In other words? If you want power, be ready to pay for it.

"Remember these numbers: 3930K, 3960X and X79 because if you are a serious gamer and/or computer enthusiast into photo, video or music creation you are gonna want one", Intel senior technical marketing engineer Donald Bowden says.

The first manufacturer to use the new 3960X in a commercial system is Maingear. The company said Monday that it is updating its Shift and F131 systems to use the new processor. The cheapest option is the F131, retailing for $2,712. It includes the 3960X processor, 8GB of DDR3-1600 memory, NVIDIA GeForce GT 440 1GB GDDR3 graphics card, and 1TB hard drive.

The processors are available through retailers such as Newegg.

Only a few days have passed since Firefox 8.0 arrived, with new additions including an option to speed up launch time in some situations. If the browser still isn’t quite as fast as before, though, you could always try Pale Moon 8.0, released today.

This spin-off project starts with the same code base, so for the most part looks and behaves just like regular Firefox -- but it’s been carefully optimized to deliver even better performance.

As with previous editions, Pale Moon is compiled to take better advantage of modern CPUs, and that gives it a notable speed advantage in some areas. When we benchmarked the browser using SunSpider 0.9.1, for instance, it ran the Cordic element of the math test 29 percent faster than Firefox 8.0, while Dromaeo gave Pale Moon a 19 percent advantage on the "Bitwise And" test.

Most areas show nothing like as significant an improvement, of course, and so the overall performance lead is much smaller (5.8 percent in Dromaeo, only 1.6 percent in SunSpider). Benchmarks don’t tell the whole story, though, and this release in particular includes a couple of new tweaks that should help to accelerate your browsing.

Perhaps the most significant is that Pale Moon 8.0 now makes use of small network buffers, potentially a very useful optimization when you’re trying to access complex sites that fetch their content from many different servers. Exactly how this might benefit you will vary depending on what you’re doing online; however, Pale Moon’s developer reports that, in previous testing of this change he found that "overall page load time was improved dramatically".

The other major tweak in this release is a change to Pale Moon’s cache management, which essentially will reduce both the overall cache sizes and the maximum size of the elements they can store. Again, results will vary depending on how you use the web, but the majority of people should benefit from reduced RAM consumption, and more efficient cache use, as well as reducing the chance of annoying pauses whenever the browser tries to clean the disk cache.

Pale Moon 8.0 is a notable upgrade, then, that could make a real difference to its browsing performance. If you’d like to give it a try then this new release is available now. There is also a separate 64-bit optimized edition of Pale Moon 8, as well as a Portable version which you can take on the road.

Piriform Software has updated its free defragging tool, Defraggler to version 2.08.373. The new build adds a new disk and file benchmarking feature alongside a new VSS (Volume Shadow Service) compatible mode, plus promises better SSD detection and minor bug fixes alongside improvements to the Disk Health tab.

Defraggler made its name as one of the first tools to allow users to defrag individual files as well as entire hard drives. This latest build continues its path to become a more fully rounded defrag tool.

Benchmarking an entire drive is done from the Drive tab of the selected disk or drive in question, and returns a "Random read performance" result. Individual files can also be benchmarked from the File list tab -- just right-click the file in question to benchmark it.

The new VSS-compatible mode allows the service to be stopped while defragmenting a NTFS volume -- configure this from the Advanced tab of the Settings > Options dialog box. Also improved is the Health tab, which provides a comprehensive look at the selected drive’s physical health, giving the user fair warning of drive failure – temperatures can now be displayed in Fahrenheit as well as Celsius, while "Real Value" information has been added to the SMART data displayed.

Version 2.08 promises better SSD detection -- these drives are clearly labelled as such, and defragging is not recommended because it reduces the drive’s lifespan without improving performance. The update is rounded off with minor fixes and tiny tweaks to the defrag algorithm.

Defraggler 2.08.373 is available now as a freeware download for PCs running Windows XP or later. A portable version is also available for those who happy to use the app on a manual basis.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) on Monday officially opened a 30-day contest called the “The Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Challenge: New Uses for Recycled Glass.” The CEA and EDF are looking for an environmentally friendly and financially viable way to recycle the tons of obsolete CRTs that have piled up in junkyards as the world moved on to flat panel display technology.

In the next ten years, the EDF says more than a billion pounds of old CRT televisions and monitors are expected to enter the United States recycling system alone, and the problem is that the glass used in CRTs contains lead, and that makes them unsuitable for glass-to-glass recycling and unsuitable for disposal in landfills.

This leaded glass is actually banned from landfills in many states because it rapidly leaches into the groundwater supply, which could cause harm to humans.

Some CRT glass can have lead content as high as 20%.

"The consumer electronics industry is committed to the mission of eCycling and this challenge has the potential for electronics recycling to take a giant step forward," said Walter Alcorn, vice president of environmental affairs and industry sustainability, CEA. "We’re very excited about this Challenge and the innovative solutions it could yield."

This challenge is open for the next 30 days, and the the first prize winner will be awarded $5,000, and up to four runners up will be selected for awards of $1,000 or more each.

The two groups will then publish and share the winning solutions with manufacturers, retailers and recyclers in an effort to transform how lead-heavy glass is recycled or reused.

Photo: David Maska/Shutterstock

Last night, my colleague Ed Oswald made the most ridiculous statement in defense of iPhone 4S: "Battery life is not a showstopping defect", and he put it in italics! I disagree and told him so in group chat: "It's a real apologist post. Battery life is a showstopping defect". Ed's commentary responds to so called "Batterygate", where for many iPhone 4Ses the charge drains too fast. On Thursday, Apple released an update that fixes the problem for some, but not for many others. Meanwhile, the company issued a statement that: "We continue to investigate a few remaining issues".

Absolutely, smartphone battery life matters, and, yes, it's a "showstopping defect". In a survey of 23,000 phone and tablet users, conducted by SwiftKey developer and retailer/accessory maker Smartphone Experts, battery life ranked third as "essential" feature when answering "What's important when buying a new smartphone". When adding "quite important", battery life tops the list, which includes screen size, ease of typing and app availability.

Battery life is important enough that Apple fairly quickly released an iOS 5 update to fix a problem previously stated as affecting a small number of users, and afterwards acknowledging there are "remaining issues".

According to a survey conducted by ad network inMobi, days before Apple announced iPhone 4S, "consumers are most hopeful for improved battery life; increased processing speed; higher-quality screen resolution; and stronger phone service in the rumored Apple smartphone". Clearly battery life matters to somebody looking to buy iPhone 4S, or owning one already.

Smartphone charging habits also reveal something about battery life. Study "Understanding Human-Smartphone Concerns: A Study of Battery Life" by Denzil Ferreira, Anind Dey and Vassilis Kostakos is an excellent primer on consumer habits. The researchers measured battery usage and charging on more than 17,000 smartphones -- 4,035 opted in to the study. "Users mostly avoided lower battery levels, with the daily average of the lowest battery percentage values being 30 percent". Battery life mattered enough that many participants didn't wait for zero or even close to it. However, the researchers attributed some of this behavior to notification: "The Android devices’ battery icon turns yellow at 30 percent".

'Them, Too' is No Excuse

Ed excuses iPhone 4S battery problems using the 'them, too' argument: "iPhone 4S is nothing different from any smartphone, and if you're going to return it, then you should return them all. It's an issue the industry needs to address overall, and without a breakthrough will only get worse as Newman says". Ed refers to Jared Newman's PC World post claiming smartphone battery life problems are industrywide.

In group chat last night I chided Ed:

It's absolutely insane to excuse Apple by saying that iPhone 4S is no worse than other smartphones, because:

• Apple aspires to be better
• Many buyers expect Apple products to be better
• Poor battery life is a showstopping defect

That's a major reason it comes across as Apple apology, excuses like this.

There's mystique around Apple being more innovative than everyone else. Oh yeah? So why excuse Apple for being the same as everyone else.

The measure of sameness isn't what either my colleague or Newman states. Smartphone battery life is hugely improved today compared to 18 months ago. I can only personally speak about Apple and Samsung. I've used two different iPhone 4 models, purchased about eight months apart. Battery life was exceptional for both. I typically recharged every other day and about every 24 hours with heavy use (or what it is for me). The Samsung-manufactured, Google-branded Nexus offered about 80 percent the performance and the same or better than iPhone 4 when keeping off Bluetooth and turning on WiFi.

My smartphone battery-saving tip: Only use Bluetooth when you must -- where hands-free usage is absolutely necessary -- because it's a battery-life sucker. Turning on WiFi can actually improve battery life, as counter-intuitive as that may seem. Cellular connection is flaky in my area. By turning on WiFi, the smartphone consumes considerably less juice trying to maintain data connection to the 3G network for routine tasks, more than offsetting what WiFi consumes.

Back to actual battery life, I recently owned Samsung Galaxy S II and last week replaced it with Galaxy S II Skyrocket. Standard S II battery life was better than iPhone 4 and Skyrocket is about the same. Caveat: There's no LTE in my area, so I can't measure its impact on battery life.

It's Not Bad Press

Ed also excuses Apple by blaming the news media:

The tech press shares some responsibility here in reporting this story accurately. While there is a battery life issue, there is nothing but anecdotal evidence to understand its extent. Like Antennagate before Batterygate -- which required phones to be held in a certain manner that most do not -- we have a tendency to overdo it.

Considering how overly positive blog posts or news stories about Apple tend to be, that's quite the assertion to make. Here's a thought: What if there's so much online about iPhone 4S battery life because the function really does matter to people -- and, gasp, it is a "showstopping defect" for many?

Last week, I asked: "Why can't Apple get iPhone's design right?" That Ed calls the battery life problem a "defect" at all deflates much of the Apple apology. It's acknowledgment of a real problem.

Betanews commenter Michael C expresses the situation of many: "So far the update has been pretty much useless on my 4s. I am turning off features to save battery life, which were kind of the point in purchasing a 4s to begin with. Sooooo, less features to save power means my phone is not the phone I thought I was getting".

That doesn't matter?

There is no denying that the iPhone 4S has battery issues. Despite Apple claims to the contrary, there is a significant number of users with problems, based on what I have seen in both my own experience and across the web. It is an issue that deserves Cupertino's full attention.

Is it really as bad as it seems? Has 'Batterygate' taken on a life of its own, far surpassing the true weight of the situation? There is tendency in this era of the 24-hour news cycle to overhype, and Apple's battery woes are no exception.

I experienced iPhone 4S' poor battery life firsthand. What started as a full charge in the morning had me running to the charger by bedtime. If I didn't charge the phone before hitting the hay, I woke up to a dead phone. It was an annoyance that needed fixing.

Apple did so, at least for me, when releasing iOS 5.0.1 on Thursday. The difference was clear within hours. Battery life is much improved, dramatically so in fact. Now with three full days on 5.0.1, I can report at least a 40 percent improvement in battery life overall. Whereas I got maybe 20-24 hours before -- now around 36 hours. My iPad 2 (which had no battery life issues under iOS 5) maintains its battery life in iOS 5.0.1.

Apple gets passing marks from me in the "fix my battery life" department. Could Apple do better? Of course, but after my initial experiences, I will take that extra 12 hours.

Read Joe Wilcox rebuttal "Of course iPhone 4S battery life matters"

Not everyone is so lucky. The update receives mixed results depending on who you talk to. Some say the update is a godsend, like myself. Others say that they see no change at all. A vocal contingent complains 5.0.1 makes things worse.

What happened here? The fact that some see dramatic improvements in battery life -- or the inverse -- lends credence to Apple's explanation of the issues as a "bug" within iOS 5.

You cannot mask a hardware problem with a software update without affecting performance, and that has not occurred. What is the evidence of this? I don't know if you truly can prove that without a good deal of supposition. The only hardware-related explanation that is plausible are variations in component manufacturers. Some phones may have parts sourced from a different supplier. Again a software update won't mask a hardware problem, so is this a likely cause?

PCWorld's Jared Newman writes an excellent analysis on battery life. He points out that the iPhone 4S is not the first smart device to suffer from battery life problems, because smartphone batteries "suck" in general. Look at the HTC Evo 4G. The Droid Charge. Any LTE phone. Battery life is not a selling point with these devices!

Furthering my point: the Droid Incredible is known for battery life issues following an update to Android OS 2.2 "Froyo". I had a friend who experienced that one first hand. She is not a happy camper. That just proves the point that software can be everything.

Hardware problems? Come on.

iPhone 4S is nothing different from any smartphone , and if you're going to return it, then you should return them all. Battery life is not a showstopping defect. It's an issue the industry needs to address overall, and without a breakthrough will only get worse as Newman says.

The tech press shares some responsibility here in reporting this story accurately. While there is a battery life issue, there is nothing but anecdotal evidence to understand its extent. Like Antennagate before Batterygate -- which required phones to be held in a certain manner that most do not -- we have a tendency to overdo it.

Photo Credit: Oleksiy Mark/Shutterstock

Good small business websites build brands and bring in customers. In order for this to happen, people to actually visit, and for that to happen, a website needs to be designed around the principles of SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.

SEO, put simply, is how to make it easier for web users to come across your website when searching on Google, Bing, or any popular search engine. We’re not talking about Googling "Jerry’s Taco Kingdom" and seeing if you actually find Jerry’s website (if that’s not happening, then Jerry has other problems to worry about). If Jerry has effective SEO, then a web search for simply "tacos", "Mexican food" or "restaurants with tortillas" ought to bring up his site as an early result, thus bringing hungry new visitors to his page.

Why is SEO so crucial for a new, small business? With the right design, a SEO-friendly page can become more than just a helpful information source about your company; it can be a cost-effective, precisely targeted marketing tool, able to generate as much (or more) brand awareness as a mailing campaign or a television ad. Traditional advertising can certainly be effective, but it’s a blanket approach. For all of the eyeballs you’re paying to reach, you’re very likely spending money communicating with people who have no interest in your product. By comparison, anybody who arrives at Jerry’s Taco Kingdom by searching for "tacos" online is almost definitely already interested in them.

There are a number of potential ways to boost your site’s SEO -- caveat being "potential". Google, Bing, and Yahoo securely guard their search algorithms, so nobody knows just exactly what factors will boost you to the top of the results page. That being said, there are a number of tactics that can certainly knock you down several steps, which leads us to a list of do’s and don’ts:

Do:

1. Design for your target customer. When putting together the actual meat and potatoes of your site, you’ll want to make sure you’ve checked off a number of basic tasks -- ensuring the site appears properly in different browsers and complies with modern W3C standards, making sure all your images are linked properly, double-checking that viewing your site doesn’t lead to seizures in small children, etc.

When populating the body and tags with SEO-geared keywords, though, you may want to try being more specific than usual. To return to the above example with Jerry’s Taco Kingdom, the obvious keyword to include would be "taco". Even with tacos being as delicious as they are, Jerry will be competing with thousands of other sites in the always popular taco market, and his page may have a tough time getting bites -- yes, we went there.

So, what if Jerry tries to cast a narrower net? Perhaps the Taco Kingdom is one of only a few taco joints in his hometown of Wichita. Jerry might include keywords like "Kansas Tacos" or "Wichita Mexican Food". He’ll face less competition in those searches, and he is also more likely to get customers searching from the area his business serves.

2. Earn the Internet’s trust. It may sound like a Catch-22, but in order to get visitors to your site, you’ll want to prove you’ve been getting visitors to your site. As unfair as it might seem, SEO experts agree that a large portion of your SEO is based on things that occur outside of your website. It’s one thing for Jerry to claim that his site is the premier source for taco-based news and gossip, but if everyone else starts saying it by linking to his site, visiting his site and including his site in their social networks, the search engines will take notice.

The important factor in this step is patience: you can have your own content optimized perfectly on day one, but boosting your site’s trustworthiness will take at least a few months. Don’t try to jump the queue by paying sites to link back to you, either (see Don't suggestion #1).

3. Consider a blogging approach. You might think writing a blog might take far more effort than you’re prepared to devote to your website, but it’s no secret that writing fresh content is powerful for your SEO. Before you start putting together a plan for dozens of blog posts, it’s important to consider your approach. Do you want to run your own blog or would you rather contribute an article to another blog?

Doing the former will help you build up keyword-rich content that your users might find your site through. Be sure to use keywords effectively if you do that. When you contribute to other blogs with your unique expertise, the backlinks generated through those posts can be even more effective in building your SEO "juice". Of course, if you’re ambitious, you can do both and cover all your blogging bases. The important thing is to decide what you can handle and stick to your plan.

Don’t:

1. Don’t try to game the system. Your website needs to be genuine, full of user-friendly, original, and honest content. The general rule of thumb is to create your site for your visitors, not the search engines. Have you ever browsed a site and discovered, hidden at the bottom via invisible text, several paragraphs full of nothing but keywords? This is done in an effort to catch the eye of automated sitecrawling programs, which regularly scan the web on behalf of the major search engines to try and catalog the millions of sites that make up the Internet.

However, getting caught at this kind of tactic is a surefire way to get your site yanked out of the search listings altogether. The same goes for plagiarized content, inaccurate content or other methods meant to appeal to robots and not users. Fill your page with valuable content that an actual human would want to read, and you’re well on your way.

2. Don’t forget to track your progress. Like anything you want to see change. You need to track your progress and see if you’re getting closer to reaching your goals. With websites, this means setting up a package like Google Analytics and monitoring how people get to your site and if it’s happening how you expected.

3. Don’t set your expectations too high. Doing your own SEO strategy is a learning process. Unfortunately, you can’t see your results right away. It can take weeks or months for your tactics to play out and earn you the results you’re looking for. The good news is that with patience and practice with the items shown above, you’ll get to where you want to get with SEO.

Photo Credit: Marynchenko Oleksandr/Shutterstock

Matt Shampine is co-founder of New York-based startup Onepager. Prior to Onepager, Shampine co-founded design agency Simande, where his responsibilities included business development, client relations and project management. He is also co-founded and currently runs website We Are NY Tech, where he profiles one person a day from the New York tech community and moderates the job board.

Microsoft has a perception problem: It's the new IBM -- the stodgy has-been that built an empire on a now declining market. Meanwhile, Apple is the amazing innovator that drives the new era of computing, propelled by the cunning genius of Steve Jobs. That story is repeated every day, particularly now that Jobs has left this world, his biography is fresh off the presses and Apple and its fanclub of bloggers and journalists have in his passing new praise to heap. But it's fiction, and something those of you who have used Windows Phone understand.

Six days ago I asked: "Will you buy the Samsung Focus S Windows Phone?" Many of you answered yes or proudly told how you already have. Your responses say much about what's right with Windows Phone and what's wrong with perceptions about it.

As I've oft harped: In business, perception is everything. Apple is among the world's best marketers, able to make the simplest new feature seem like the company invented it. Apple's marketers have an amazing knack for making small things look larger than life. So Apple adds voice commands and questions to iPhone 4S, and suddenly it's magic. But voice-feature Siri obscures the truth about iOS: It's a tired, desktop PC-like user interface that has changed little since the first iPhone shipped in June 2007. By comparison, Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" is fresh and uses the touchscreen more sensibly -- to accomplish meaningful tasks rather than launch applications.

But there is the perception problem, and much of it Microsoft's creation -- mishandling Windows Mobile development and marketing, starting around v5 in 2005. Microsoft lost its mobile mojo, which it only started recovering with Windows Phone 7's launch a year ago and seriously regained with Mango's release in late September. Windows Phone looks and feels nothing like Android or iOS, and it's better suited to touchscreens because it is task oriented. The most natural user interface is you, something Microsoft demonstrates it gets with Windows Phone. But the perception of innovation belongs to Apple and iPhone and, to a lesser degree, Android and Google.

BetaNews reader mtnrunner comments four days ago:

I got the Focus S last night and love it. Don't understand why it's considered a red-headed stepchild when everything about it -- the OS, build quality, responsiveness, etc. -- is the best I've seen. Just need to finish it off with Skype but all my major apps are there. Zune is also a must-have and TellMe speech recognition does what I need, where I need it. What WP has is the best, hands down, no argument: Social integration and that’s what a smartphone needs to be 1st a foremost for me. It’s about connecting and not about weeding through one-half-a-million crappy app$.

Reader Richard Hoffman, who plans to buy the Focus S, agrees. "Windows OS and the Focus are simply the best OS/Phone combination I have owned. You have no idea how much you will love Live Tiles until you try them, and then you will curse everytime you have to use a phone without them".

"When you pin a contact as a live tile it is literally that: When there is new email from that person, a new update from his Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. account or when I have message from him, the Live Tile flips to inform me", arcana112 comments. "Android does NOT have this" -- nor iOS 5, I might add.

Microsoft's design and marketing approach to Windows Phone is "glance and go", for which Live Titles are core feature. The idea is simple: Get what you need from the phone to live rather than be consumed by the device.

John Megert: "Yes. Will buy either the Focus S or the coming HTC Titan. Love the Windows Phone".

"Yes, everything I need from smartphone, and yes I also work in IT office so I need a phone that actually doesn't crash or freeze, like every Android I've previously had. Buying this phone from AT&T online as I type this! ;D", commenter Gromanon writes five days ago. Well, did you get it? How about sharing some first impressions.

There's a common thread among most of the comments. I asked a question specifically about one Windows Phone, but the majority of comments are about the operating system.

Philip Gould: "You betcha I will, when they are available in the UK that is". That's where Microsoft and its partners have gone wrong -- international distribution. Jeremy Moses laments:

I'd buy the Samsung Focus Flash in a heartbeat -- that is if Microsoft would start supporting more than a handful of countries. I recently moved to Kenya and, well, there goes any chance of WP7 Marketplace support for at least a few years cause of how slow MS is rolling out international support. But lo & behold, Android is everywhere with amazing support for all their services here. I'm begrudgingly heading off to buy an android (Galaxy S Plus, or S2) this week sadly.

However, the first Nokia Windows Phones, Lumia 710 and 800, may broaden the operating system's availability and supporting services. Nokia has huge global reach and brings Lumia Windows Phones to international markets first. Still iPhone is available in more countries and more carriers than is Windows Phone today.

"I had a Windows HD7 for the last year and switched to the [iPhone] 4s the day it came out", Matt Gruber comments. "Even with its pre Mango shortcomings I still miss my Windows Phone, and if I could I would probably jump back to a Windows Phone. There is a lot to like about the iPhone but there will be things that I will always miss. For some reason I don't think I will say the same when I eventually replace my iPhone. Maybe Siri will change that but at this point I don't see it. In my opinion the UI for Windows offers the best experience I have ever had with a smartphone".

Well, Matt, you can still go back. For people who preordered iPhone 4S or bought on launch day, the 30-day return period ends tomorrow.

Baard Williams went the other way. He owned iPhone from first model through 4S:

I bought the Windows Phone out of [disappointment] of not getting iPhone 5. So I tried something different. I gotta tell you, [Microsoft] is on to something. I am extremely satisfied. For me that uses social media a lot, Windows [Phone] is a gem and far superior to iPhone in that regards. I have never been a Windows fan -- I always hated their software and everything lagg and buggy. But I gotta give them thumbs up this time. It's far better than Android and closing in fast on iPhone. I never thought I would say this!!

But for all this enthusiasm or my praising Windows Phone UI as being innovative and better-suited to touchscreens than either Android or iOS: People still have to buy. Will you? Have you?

The nights are drawing in, but the pace of software release shows no sign of slowing down. It has been another busy week in the app world with a number of important releases including Uniblue PowerSuite 2012. This handy suite of tools includes everything you need to boost the performance of your computer, and if you don’t feel the need for quite such an extensive selection of utilities, you can pick and choose which you would like to use as there are also individual releases available. Uniblue RegistryBooster 2012 takes care of optimizing the registry, while Uniblue DriverScanner 2012 ensures that all of your drivers are up to date and Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2012 includes a huge range of options for boosting the performance of Windows.

If you like to get hands on with your computer, creating partitions is a great way to help keep different types of data separate from each other, and this is something that Parted Magic 11.11.11 can help with. This bootable Linux-based disc can be used to create and manage partitions in a range of file systems, and could be used to configure a dual boot system. Going down this route is not something that suites everyone though, and if you’d like to try out some of the new features of Windows 8, the Windows 8 Simulator Beta 1.0 enables you to do so without having to install a new operating system. You may prefer to simply get the look of Windows 8 without having to go to too much trouble, and this is something that you can do with Pulmon 2.0. This transformation pack gives you a take on the Metro interface of Windows 8. Should you decide that you would prefer to actually install the developer version of Windows 8, you will need to burn the image file to disc, and this can be achieved with the updated BurnAware Free 4.1.1.

Almost everyone has need for an office suite and if you don’t fancy shelling out on the likes of Microsoft Office, LibreOffice Productivity Suite 3.4.4 is available free of charge to cater for your word processing, spreadsheet and database needs. It may be the case that your writing requires a more powerful tool than a standard word processor and this is where Scrivener for Windows 1.0.1 FINAL can help, proving you with advanced word organization options that are ideal for lengthier documents including books.

Apple Store 2.0 for iOS has been updated to allow for in-store reservations as well as adding the ability to pay for good in an Apple store using your Apple account. If you use iTunes but don’t have a lot of love for Apple’s software, iTuner – The iTunes Companion can help to make it easier to use by providing access to common options from the system tray. Streaming media can be downloaded using URL Snooper 2.30.01 which reveals the web addresses you need to grab music and video files, and the updated Trillian 5.1 enables you to chat with friends on multiple platforms with newly added support for Skype. When you’re online with your iOS device, look no further than Hotspot Shield VPN 1.0.1, which compresses data to reduce data uses and also encrypts your data to help protect your privacy.

It has been a busy week for updates to web browsers, with Google releasing the latest version of Chrome -- Google Chrome 15.0.874.120 FINAL and Google Chrome Portable 15.0.874.120. New versions of the next version of the web browser, including a portable version were also released – Google Chrome 16.0.912.36 Beta and Google Chrome Portable 16.0.912.36 Beta – while anyone looking to peak further into the future can do so by installing Google Chrome Portable 17.0.932.0 Dev. To slightly less fanfare, Opera 11.60 (Tunny) Beta 1 was also released.

Not to be left out, Mozilla has unleashed a raft of releases including the all new Firefox 8 FINAL which is also available as a portable app – Firefox Portable 8.0.Firefox 9 Beta was also updated with more speed improvements, while Firefox Aurora 10.0a2 starts to see the introduction of interface changes. For those who like to be right on the cutting edge of browser development, there is Firefox 11.0a1 32-bit (Nightly) and Firefox 11.0a1 64-bit (Nightly) to test out, as well as Firefox 11.0a1 UX and Firefox 11.0a1 64-bit UX for those that are feeling even more adventurous.

But it is about more than web browser updates for Mozilla, and the latest version of the accompanying email client was also unveiled. Mozilla Thunderbird 8.0 FINAL does not have many new features worthy of note but there is also a portable version available in the form of Mozilla Thunderbird Portable 8. Rounding off this week’s well-rounded roundup is Mozilla Lightning 1.0 FINALwhich is a Thunderbird extension that adds a calendar option to Thunderbird to transform it into more of an Outlook-style PIM.

It's all up to Sony now.

Two weeks ago I started puzzling about my Logitech Revue's future. On October 28, Google announced that its next-generation TV set-top software would be available in just a few days -- from Sony, but Revue would come later. There was no date given. Then, on September 9, during its annual analysts meeting, Logitech made clear that Revue is finished. There will be no more Google TV devices from the peripherals maker.

Logitech first revealed its Google TV misfortunes during a disastrous quarterly earnings call on July 28. The company reported a $30 million net loss and $34 million write-down to clear excess Revues, which price reduced to $99.99. The console once sold for $299.99. Logitech expressed commitment to Google TV, despite the fire sale. But I wondered: "There will be a second life for Google TV, but one wonders how Logitech will be part of it". No part is the answer.

Current Revue users can expect Google TV 2.0, but a dark shroud of uncertainty hangs over future updates, or even when they can expect this one. Logitech is out of the Google TV business. Even 100 bucks is too much to pay for Revue, the way things look now. It's customer service travesty that Logitech passes along its Google TV misfortunes to Revue buyers.

In a Google+ post yesterday, developer Ryan Conrad rightly expresses: "If Logitech drops support for the revue, Google better step up and continue OS update support on that thing". Yes, Google should bail out customers stiffed by Logitech.

I was among the few reviewers who positively received Revue and Google TV, acknowledging also many limitations needing fixing in v2.0. The new version is greatly improved, but still needs work. But the foundation is there, with this update, which is based on Honeycomb. But I didn't find that out from using Revue.

Sony NSZ-GT1 Google TV

As of November 7, my Revue hadn't updated to Google TV 2.0. I gave up waiting and ordered the Sony NSZ-GT1 Blu-ray player. I sold my 40GB PS3 to fund Sony Google TV; I had purchased the game console for the Blu-ray anyway, so it was a trade-off or trade-up. Sony offers Google TV on several Internet televisions and the GT1. The set-top box sold for $399.99 at launch; I paid $199. Amazon has it for $186.41 today, and it's quite the value.

I'm not ready to review Sony Google TV but will offer this first impression: Sony remains committed to Google TV, and you should be, too. FedEx brought the device on Tuesday, and the delivery man asked me if it's a new product. "I've delivered many recently". I explained that Sony had released Sony 2.0 software and price dropped on the set-top box.

In using Sony Google TV, I can see why Logitech flubbed so badly. During Wednesday's conference call, Logitech executives called Google TV 1.0 immature and a mistake for the company to undertake. There's truth to those claims, but that telling omits much of the story. With the exception of IR emitters, NSZ-GT1 is superior to Revue in most every way. Logitech drew too much from its mouse and keyboard heritage designing Revue. Sony draws from its TV and gaming heritage. For example, Revue uses a portable wireless keyboard (it's clunky and feels cheap), while Sony TV uses what looks and feels like a modified game controller with numeric keys.

Sony Google TV set up easier than did Revue, with a bonus. During initial process, once connected to my home network, NSZ-GT1 downloaded Google TV 2.0. So rather than being compelled to set up with the older OS version before downloading the new one, most of the process took place using Google TV 2.0. Overall, I'm impressed with the device and new software, which will get the big goings over in my upcoming review.

I'd like to do a comparative review with new TV features coming to Xbox 360/Live, but Microsoft's external PR agency brushed off my loaner request. BetaNews needs to pump up Xbox coverage, but I need the game console and Kinect to take charge of it. Wonder what I'll have to sell next? :)

As for Google TV, I would recommend against Revue, given its now uncertain future. Sony Google TV costs more, but it better belongs in the living room and packs Blu-ray, too.

It's the question everyone who preordered or purchased on launch day and is having battery-life problems should ask. That's because the 30-day return window closes in two days and may already have passed for others.

A friend of mine, Sebastian, called this morning to tell me that he had arranged return of his iPhone 4S. He's displeased with battery life -- "five hours, not even a full day. If a phone doesn't work as a telephone it's worthless, it's a brick". Since he was contract-free before ordering iPhone 4S, he hasn't seen meaningful battery-life improvements from iOS 5.0.1 and there are enticing LTE alternatives, Sebastian wants to get out from the new two-year commitment while he can. But doing so proved arduous, although it looks like he succeeded. You might not be so lucky.

Had Sebastian not phoned, I probably wouldn't have realized the dilemma many other iPhone 4S early adopters face. I'll continue with his story and add what I learned from calling Apple stores today. Sebastian expected an easy return. He called his local AT&T store first, since the return also involves resetting the two-year contract commitment. There a rep told him that because he preordered the phone, the 30-day window had passed. For him, October 7 and not 14 ends the buyer's remorse period, he was told.

Sebastian persisted, calling his local Apple Store, which refused exchange for the same reason and also because the phone was purchased online. The store referred him to Apple online sales, where a different rep said the phone could be returned, but must be received by November 14. He received information to return his iPhone 4S and for the process needed to later inform AT&T so that he can get the two-year contract reset to zero.

Sebastian emphasized that had he not engaged a new two-year contract on a phone with "terrible battery life" he might have waited longer. Then there is the allure of faster data. He lives in the Washington, DC area, where AT&T started LTE service on November 6. Without iPhone 4S, he's out of contract, which lets him consider Verizon. The carrier offers 7 LTE smartphones, and the number will be nine by month's end (AT&T has but two).

What Apple Stores Say

I got to wondering: What about everyone else having iPhone battery-life problems? Apple claims a software bug is causing some iPhone 4S batteries to drain fast. But what if it's not? That's a question to ask with reports flooding from iPhone 4S complaining the problem persists even after installing iOS 5.0.1, and that there are new ones. What if this is a design flaw, on the order of Death Grip, where Apple placed the 3G antenna where most people's palms would touch the metal band and block the signal? Early adopters have scant time to return their Apple phones. The 30-day window from iPhone 4S launch closes Monday, a mere four days after Apple dispatched the software update that's supposed to fix battery problems.

I called Apple retail stores this morning to get some answers. I won't say which ones to protect employees should managers get flack from corporate. At the first store, an Apple specialist told me that "the date you received it" determines end of the 30-day return window, not order date. I gave battery-life problems as reason for returning iPhone 4S. He encouraged me to do a full restore and to bring in the phone for diagnostics. "I'm sad you're not happy with it". I asked what if I waited longer than 30 days to return the phone. "Yeah, after the fourteenth, you're stuck with the two-year contract".

By the way, Apple Store now uses a Siri-like voice assistant (male, though).

Another Apple Store gave different information. There the Specialist said the 30-day return period closes from the date on the receipt -- "when they processed your order", meaning "when they charged your credit card". If she's right, then the grace period has passed for many people who preordered and persistence got Sebastian an exception. I called him back: His order date on the receipt is October 10. I asked the specialist if iPhone 4S could be returned to Apple Store. "You have to return it through the online store if you purchased through the online store", which is consistent with information given my friend.

A third Specialist also said order processing date but suggested I call Apple Store Online to be sure. I did. The helpful woman there said the 30-days starts from the date the phone was received. "You called just in time. There's another two days".

But is that enough time? Many people may not yet have installed the update Apple promises will fix battery-drain problems. Many people complain problems persist after the update. Do they wait it out and hope Apple remedies the problem or return the phone while they still can?

Keep in mind Apple never resolved Death Grip via software update. Wrapping an Apple Bumper or case around iPhone 4 fixed the problem for many people, by keeping their hands from touching the metal band. But the design flaw remained. What if this is a design problem, such as how the two-antenna design switches between 3G and HSPA+ to get a signal, thus draining the battery faster, that may or may not be resolved with a software update?

Apple issued a statement yesterday: "The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices. We continue to investigate a few remaining issues". That's admission the issue is ongoing and unresolved.

You can return iPhone 4S. But if you preordered or purchased on launch day, October 14, you have this weekend to decide whether to keep the smartphone or return it to Apple.

Verizon waited until 11-11-11 at 11:11 am to launch the Motorola Droid Razr. If that's not enough lucky ones for you, AmazonWireless has more. New Verizon customers can snag the Droid Razar for $111.11. Sorry, existing customers pay more -- $229.99 for an individual account and $244.99 for family account. Verizon sells the smartphone for $299.99.

Droid Razr brings to seven the number of 4G LTE phones Verizon offers, with far greater national coverage than AT&T, which has just two LTE phones -- HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket. The new smartphone also marks Motorola's attempts to capitalize on and revive the hugely successful Razr, while leveraging the still successful Droid brand. If you want one, that one-eleven-eleven price is hard to beat.

Droid Razr is thin, light and tough --- 7.1 mm thick, 127 grams weight and steel and kevlar enclosure and Gorilla glass screen. Other specs: 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display (960 x 540 resolution); capacitive touchscreen; 1.2GHz processor; 1GB RAM; 32GB storage (with 16GB microSD card); 8-megapixel rear-facing and 1.3MP front-facing cameras; 1080p video capture; 1780 mAh battery; and Android 2.3.5.

By the specs, Droid Razr doesn't pack much more than many other Androids in its class. However, that Moto could squeeze such a large battery and LTE radio into such a thin smartphone is so bleeding edge, it's sure to cut competing handsets. Forget obtaining patents, Google has other very good reasons for buying Motorola Mobility; phones like Droid Razor are among them.

"This phone isn't just competing with other Android devices, it’s crushing them", Jonathan Geller writes in his review for Boy Genius Report. "The Motorola Droid Razr has replaced Samsung’s Galaxy S II as the best Android device I’ve ever used". Really? More the Galaxy S II Skyrocket? Oh dear, oh my.

Apple added contract-free unlocked versions of its iPhone lineup, including the iPhone 4S, to its online store on Friday. The 8GB iPhone 3GS is available for $375.00, 8GB iPhone 4 for $549.00, and 16, 32, and 64GB iPhone 4S for $649, $749, and $849 respectively.

Unlocked iPhones will only work on GSM networks, including the iPhone 4S, which is a dual mode phone. Furthermore, the GSM network will need to support the same frequencies as AT&T in order for 3G data to work. Potential iPhone users on T-Mobile's network and other carriers that use AWS would be limited to slower EDGE data rates.

"If you don’t want a multiyear service contract or if you prefer to use a local carrier when traveling abroad, the unlocked iPhone is the best choice", Apple says in its description. That said, you're still paying up to a $450 premium for that privilege.

Customers must supply a carrier supported micro-SIM card, and some functions of the device will not work if the carrier does not support it natively, such as visual voicemail.

Friday's announcement follows one from Sprint saying that it will begin to SIM lock all devices beginning today. The CDMA carrier had shipped phones since the 4S' launch last month without locking the micro SIM down. The activation process will now add the lock and an iPhone software update will lock down previously sold devices.

Sprint will, however, unlock the SIM port for international use for customers "in good standing", it says.

It also follows one day after Apple released iOS 5.0.1, aimed at fixing battery problems that plague a large number of 4S owners. Apple did not list the Sprint SIM lock as one of the 'fixes' in the update.

Veteran's Day is a special day of reverence for many Americans, it's the day when we pay our respects to our country's military service members for the demanding, difficult, and often painful work they have done for our country.

Today, we compiled a list of a few mobile applications that are of special interest to our armed services veterans.

Keeping in touch

Skype

Though rules and regulations on usage of Skype differ depending upon where a soldier is stationed, veterans can communicate face to face with their overseas colleagues for practically nothing, and more importantly, keep in touch with loved ones that might be far away. Veterans day is about showing respect to service members both living and dead; but communication with our living service members is a daily responsibility. Skype is excellent for that.

Keeping in order

USAA Mobile

The United Services Automobile Association (USAA) is the financial services company that 8.4 million service members use, and it deals with insurance, banking, investment, and financial planning of many veterans.

Because USAA is so widely used, it has the most wide availability of mobile apps, covering iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone 7. The company even recently released an iPad optimized app for banking, insurance and investment.

Keeping it cheap

Troopswap

With the undeniable popularity of daily deals sites, a service similar to LivingSocial and Groupon that is exclusive to military personnel is only natural. Still a brand new service rolling out across the country, Veterans, Service Members, Military Spouses, and the immediate families of service members are eligible for membership on Troopswap.

Going beyond just targeting the military, Troopswap also employs military spouses and vets as community outreach, and donates 10% of its profits to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Keeping healthy

PTSD Coach

The stress of battle is so high that the subconscious effects on the soldier are unavoidable, and up to 31% of soldiers deployed in Iraq come home with some form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs launched a mobile app last April that app lets users track their PTSD symptoms, gives them links to public and personalized sources of support, and provides information and strategies for managing PTSD symptoms on the go.

Keeping educated

College Guide

A major benefit to the military is the G.I. Bill, which, in its post-9/11 form, provides full tuition and fees for public, in-state schools up to $17,500 per academic year, plus a monthly allowance for housing and an annual stipend for textbooks.

Militarylounge.com has an iOS app called College Guide that provides a comprehensive list of universities that accept the G.I. Bill, a calculator of benefits, as well as a handbook of benefits that are available to vets and soldiers.

Photo Credit: Vladimir Prusakov/Shutterstock

How would you like to snag a Windows Phone running Mango? As part of its launch promotion and "Inner Circle" tour, Microsoft has graciously offered BetaNews one Windows Phone to give away to a lucky reader. That could be you.

Microsoft's design and marketing strategy for Windows Phone is "glance and go" -- let people get what they need from their smartphones quickly rather than be consumed by them. Conceptually, Windows Phone enables people to live better rather than spend their lives tap, tap, tapping on the touchscreen. That concept, and the task-oriented user interface behind it, makes Windows Phone remarkably different from either Android or iOS. It's also inspiration for our contest. Please tell us why glance and go appeals to you and how you would benefit from it. You can respond in comments below or email joe at betanews dot com. We'll accept entries until November 14, 11:59 pm ET.

Our panel of judges will select the best responses and choose a winner among them. How we narrow down a winner depends on quality and number of responses. If one stands out, that's the winner. If several are exceptional, we may come back to you to vote or simply roll the dice, so to speak, and randomly choose from the best responses.

By the way, some of you might wonder about the Windows XP contest. We'll announce winners this weekend and send out the five Microsoft mice next week. There we asked for your reasons why switch to Windows 7 from XP. Choosing winners has proved arduous, in part because there were so many clever, funny responses. It would be easy to award all the prizes to the comedians, but that would be unfair to those of you who offered smart, serious responses. Please be patient with the process.

Microsoft has taken a decidedly hands-on approach to launching Windows Phone 7.5. Mango started rolling out as an over-the-air update to existing WP customers on September 27. The first Mango handsets starting selling in the United States this week. They are: HTC Radar 4G on T-Mobile and Samsung Focus Flash and Focus S on AT&T. The HTC Titan soon comes to AT&T also. On Monday, Microsoft set up a six-story Windows Phone, where Far East Movement played a mini-concert, in New York City. Last week, the Windows Phone "Inner Circle" tour started in Los Angeles -- the first of 19 cities through November 21. I attended the San Diego event two days ago.

This coordinated effort is all about word of mouth. Presumably many of the people who owned Windows Phone before Mango's release are enthusiasts. They're influencers. Microsoft rewarded their loyalty with Windows Phone 7.5 first, which also is smart marketing if enthused users tell their friends to buy. The New York event and Inner Circle tour are about putting Windows Phone in front of people -- letting them see just how different the user interface and broader user experience is from Androids or iPhone.

Microsoft is going for slow-burn buzz that lasts long and builds loyalty, while also recognizing that Windows Phone must be seen, touched and used to be believed. Apple won't sue Microsoft for copying (like it is Android licensees); Windows Phone is nothing like iOS. Of course, Microsoft wants its OEM partners to sell lots of phones, but given the overwhelming noise out there about Android and even louder about iPhone, there's sense to the approach, which also should appeal to the business user base.

I used the San Diego Inner Circle tour as opportunity to study the different Windows Phones and the people checking them out. In an unusual tact for me, I repeatedly circled the room like a shark -- always moving -- rather than interview participants. Many attendees clearly were gadget geeks or professionals. As for the phones, the white HTC Radar 4G is the handsomest of the newest Windows Phone 7.5 handsets, but I liked it least. The display dosen't pop the same as Samsung Focus Flash or Focus S. I wouldn't buy the HTC Titan (Microsoft gave away four of them during the event), because of the 4.7-inch screen size. Even the 4.5-inch smartphone I currently use seems overly large. That said, it's a beautiful handset. My fav is Focus S.

If you haven't used Windows Phone 7.5, please go to a retail store and do so before entering the contest. I find the operating system to be fast and fluid on all the handsets presented during the Inner Circle. You'll want that experience, too, before explaining why glance and go appeals to you.

It was a big week for video game releases in the United States and United Kingdom, with two eagerly anticipated sequels hitting the shelves within days of one another: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 from Activision Blizzard, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim from Bethesda Softworks were both released this week.

Today, based on video game retail tracking data provided by Charttrack, Activision said the first day sales total for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in North America and the UK was $400 million dollars, or 6.5 million units.

The previous title in the series, Call of Duty : Black Ops made approximately $360 million on its first day last year, about 5.6 million units, so this represents a significant jump in single day sales.

This is an impressive first day indeed, especially because it only tallies the sales in two regional markets.

Activision's quarterly earnings showed that the company had almost tripled its profits by increasing its more efficient digitally-delivered sales.

What will be especially interesting to see will be the combined effect of the launch of both Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3 on net video game spending for this week.

If you’re keen to try out Windows 8 before it officially hits the shops, your craving can be satiated by turning to the Developer Preview. While this is handy, the process of setting up a dual boot system, configuring a virtual machine or setting aside a dedicated computer to run the operating system is enough to put most people off. If you’d prefer not to go to these lengths, Windows 8 Simulator may be just what you have been looking for.

As the name suggests, this is a simulation tool rather than a replacement for your existing operating system, and it can be used without there being any danger of damaging the copy of Windows you work with. Windows 8 Simulator is not even a transformation pack as it runs in its own sandboxed window that cannot affect any other part of your system.

Realistically, this is not a tool that will enable you to explore Windows 8 to its fullest extent, but if you are yet to take a look at the next version of Microsoft’s operating system, it provides a quick and easy way to not only see how things are going to look, but also to get hands on so you can test drive how things are going to work.

For Windows 8 virgins, the simulator gives the opportunity to try out the Metro interface to see how the new desktop is going to look and feel. Restricted to a small, non-resizable window, the simulator is more a curiosity than a serious preview of Windows 8, but it is interesting nonetheless.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the application by paying a visit to the  Windows 8 Simulator review page.

When it comes to serious writing, you need a serious writing tool; there are times when the likes of Microsoft Word just won’t cut it. Whether you are working on a novel, a play, a dissertation or any other form of lengthy document, a standard word processor is unlikely to provide you with the tools you need, particularly if you are trying to organize a series of ideas as well as getting down the task of writing. Scrivener used to be available only for Mac, but earlier this week the Windows version left beta and is available as a complete product.

Lengthy projects can be broken down into smaller sections that are more easily managed and a virtual index card system is available to help you to organize thoughts and ideas without the need to resort to using pen and paper. The ability to collate all of your research material together in a virtual binder, as well as being able to write, edit and revise your text, Scrivener is a tool that can see you through the writing process from start to finish.

You can save yourself a great deal of time by using Scrivener to replace multiple tools, eliminating the needs to keep constantly switching apps. If your work needs to be run by others before it can be used, the program includes all of the tools you need to create a standard manuscript layout, as well as the ability to publish in ePub or Kindle. Despite the professional level of tools to be found in the program, Scrivener is available at an incredibly low price and a trial version is available to enable you to check it out for yourself.

As the program is now available for multiple platforms, Scrivener is even more useful for any writer who finds himself working in different environments. When at home or in the office you have the option of working with the Mac or PC version, depending on which system you have on hand. The Windows version of the app is not quite as fully featured as the Mac version, but it is pretty close.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the program by paying a visit to the Scrivener for Windows review page.

iTunes is a piece of software that is loved and hated in equal measure. There is no getting away from the fact that it is a powerful and impressive media management program, but it is also slow to use and has something of a space-hungry interface. This is something that iTuner aims to address, enabling you to take advantage of the power of iTunes without actually having to battle with the interface.

The tool is a small system tray utility that not only provides access to basic playback controls but also to manage your media library. Keyboard shortcuts can be used to start and stop playback, skip between tracks and adjust volume, as well as show lyrics and jumping in the main iTunes application for those occasions when it simply cannot be avoided.

This in itself is handy enough, but there is more to iTuner than just that. The utility can also clean up your music library by removing files that do not work and deleting duplicate tracks and empty folders. You can convert tracks between formats, export playlists, and copy files to removable media as well as synchronizing with an MP3 player, all from the comfort of the system tray.

Even if it is used just for the basic playback controls, iTuner is a useful tool and the pop up that appears when the track changes is a nice touch. But the extra options offered by the program, and the fact that it is available free of charge, mean that this is an essential tool for anyone with an iOS device or who works with iTunes.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the app by paying a visit to the iTuner review page.

Photo Credit: olly/Shutterstock

Many file types support metadata, special tags that provide more information about their contents. A digital photo JPEG may reference the model of camera that took it, for instance; an MP3 might detail the album where it was originally released; PDF documents will often include tags mentioning their title and author.

In some cases you’ll be able to view at least part of this metadata from Explorer (right-click, select Properties > Details). For full control, though, you’ll typically have to go back to an application that specializes in that particular file type: an image editor for JPEGs, an ID3 tag manager for MP3s, and so on. Unless, that is, you have a copy of ExifTool.

This command-line utility can view, edit and write metadata for more than 130 file formats. So that means it doesn’t just handle the basics, like JPEG, MP3 and PDF. There’s also support for many digital camera RAW formats. It’s able to handle old or obscure formats, like Paint Shop Pro’s PSP. And there’s support for many file types that you may not think of as having metadata at all: RAR, RTF, SWF, WEBM and more.

At a minimum, ExifTool can display, edit or write metadata to your chosen file types (which can include a complete directory tree, for speedy batch processing). But it can also make practical use of this information. The program is able to process files based on their metadata, for example renaming or organizing them into directories according to some specified metadata tag. ExifTool can extract thumbnail images from RAW files. And there are plenty of other unusual applications possible, such as geotagging a set of images based on GPS track log files.

Of course, command line tools with this much functionality aren’t exactly renowned for their ease of use. If you’d like to organize a set of files by their creation date, for instance, then you’ll first need to spend some time mastering the various switches and syntaxes before you come up with something like this:

exiftool “-FileName<CreateDate” -d “%Y%m%d_%H%M%S.%%e” DIR

Still, the program can be immediately useful without any of that complexity; just drag and drop a file onto the ExifTool executable to view its metadata.

There’s also plenty of documentation, with lots of examples to speed up your learning, and a busy Help forum where ExifTool author Phil Harvey often assists.

But if you’re still put off by this amount of command line work, there are several free graphical front ends for ExifTool which provide easier access to at least some of its capabilities. Check the author’s site for the full list.

Somehow I missed yesterday's rather startling Microsoft exec move, but, whoa, it's a doosey. Yusuf Mehdi, the sole-surviving executive of stature from the Online Services Business' better days, is stepping aside and taking up a new marketing role over Xbox -- and, whoa, is that a good thing. It's helluva loss for OSB, but Mehdi wasn't going up the executive ladder there anyway. His loyalty is worth something, and there's chance to distinguish himself at Entertainment and Devices the way he did during OSB's brief period of profitability (back when it was called something else).

Mehdi was one of Microsoft's young, rising stars during the early Noughties and he worked as part of the leadership that turned MSN from Money Pit to Black Gold. I beta tested the online service before its debut with Windows 95. Microsoft launched MSN in response to online services AOL and CompuServe, while failing to see the more important World Wide Web rising above them. The MSN group lost money from day one and continued to do so into the new century. There was a joke among some Microsoft employees that MSN was on the "red side of campus", because it was perennially unprofitable.

But a stunning turnabout came when Microsoft announced fiscal 2004 first quarterly earnings in October 2003. MSN posted a profit, which it maintained for eight consecutive quarters. Mehdi is the last remaining executive from MSN's golden era, and he is distinguished by moving on elsewhere within Microsoft rather than leaving altogether.

Those eight quarters marked a real turnabout in MSN strategy and marketing, and Mehdi was one of the principal architects. Then came disastrous change. Microsoft decided to largely rebrand its online services as Windows Live. Related, CEO Steve Ballmer announced a massive early autumn 2005 reorganization that established three major Microsoft divisions and presidents over them (there are five now). During fiscal 2006 second quarter, the first full one post reorg, MSN revenue plummeted 125 percent year over year and 266 percent sequentially. Online Services hasn't posted a profit since. The reorg devastated the leadership, with only Mehdi remaining by Spring 2007.

Mehdi was loyal, even though in a sense his star diminished for no fault of his own. Still, he wielded magic. He played instrumental roles negotiating the Yahoo search deal and with launching Bing. Microsoft search rebranding is every bit the success that Windows Live's was failure, much of that is about marketing execution, which I have repeatedly praised.

Mehdi held many strategic roles during his 10 years at OSB, often coinciding with important positive milestones for the division, such as chief advertising officer and senior vice president of Strategic Partnerships. In February 2008, I described Mehdi as "a rising MSN star before the division's success led to its absorption into the Windows group. He's still someone to watch, whether he advances within Microsoft or moves on. As someone with responsibilities for mergers and acquisitions, Yahoo integration could be in Mehdi's future". At the time, Microsoft wanted to buy Yahoo, but later ended partnering on search.

In an email to OSB employees yesterday, divisional president Qi Lu described Mehdi as a "pivotal leader at critical milestones of our division’s journey from the early days of MSN, to the original MSN and Live Search products, to the launch of Bing and the consummation of key strategic deals for OSD and MS, including Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter and Nokia. Most importantly, he has built a world class marketing, business development, strategy, and product management organization that has made incredible contributions to the success of OSD and Microsoft. I want to take this opportunity to express my heart-felt thanks to Yusuf for everything he has done for OSD".

Currently, Mehdi is OSB's chief audience officer, a role he vacates when becoming chief marketing officer for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business on December 5 -- that means Xbox and gaming. According to his updated bio:

Mehdi is responsible for the Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, Xbox 360 games and Kinect brands. He works with the IEB leadership team to create hit products and services. Mehdi specifically leads product management, product marketing, market and business intelligence, PR/AR, advertising, brand and relationship marketing for the entire Xbox 360 business.

He assumes a marketing position over a product seemingly in good marketing health. But there are key transitions ahead, as Xbox, Windows and Windows Phone intersect across online and offline gaming and cloud services -- then there is planning for Xbox 360's successor. Better he be in the role now and have marketing wonks working alongside console architects for the rumored 2013 launch.

I haven't spoken to Mehdi in years, but he long has been one of my favorite Microsoft execs. He is fresh and frank, exuding an honesty not heard enough from Microsoft's higher echelons. The new role will fit him better than the last, I predict.

Despite the relentless coverage we give to the hardware end of the tech world, BetaNews is a software site at its heart, and we are always trying out new software.

Granted, in the last few years this has come to mean something different than it used to.

Most of the new software we are exposed to on a daily basis comes in the form of mobile applications, or as software-as-a-service or Web apps. This is because these are areas that haven't reached full maturity like desktop software has…and frankly, because it's still open season for developers to become quick millionaires on relatively straightforward concepts.

One of these areas of opportunity is in bringing established standalone applications to "the cloud," and turning them into collaborative Web apps. A few months ago, we looked at LucidChart, who was doing that very thing. They wanted to make a Web app version of Microsoft Visio, and had done a pretty good job with it.

Today, we took WeVideo for an spin. Even though this browser-based video editor is not even one year old, and is currently only in its second month as a beta, it's already an impressive product that is intuitive and fun to use.

It must be said right up front that this is not an HTML5 app. Like other graphically demanding multimedia browser content, WeVideo relies on Adobe Flash. So WeVideo's future on mobile devices is not extremely bright in its current form, but let's take it for what it has right now.

Users can upload their video to WeVideo and then edit it in a timeline format that should look familiar to anyone who's ever used a desktop video editor before. Videos can be cut up and rearranged, or layered with music and sound effects, graphical overlays, titles, and transitions. Each video project on the site can be edited and viewed by multiple users and saved under their respective profiles. Finished video projects can then be exported directly to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook or Twitter.

WeVideo works on a freemium model, so the free user has 1GB of storage, and each project can have 5 collaborators. The real limitation comes in the export of this content: a free user can only export 15 minutes of video per month, and it is limited to 360p resolution with a WeVideo watermark. It supports in-app payments, however, and for a single payment of $2.99, users can export a higher quality video.

There are also subscription tiers that give users more storage, better quality exports, and the ability to collaborate with more users per project. The first subscription tier, ("Plus") costs $4.99/month or $49.99/year, includes 10 GB storage, 60 export minutes per month with 480p resolution, and no watermark, allows 10 collaboration invites per project and local downloads in addition to the export feature.

In typical web app fashion, the features of WeVideo are limited, but with an intuitive interface and the useful ability to collaboratively edit video projects, it's worth checking out.

The Chinese are coming, and their first target is your wireless phone. China Telecom announced Thursday that it plans to offer wireless service in the United States beginning early next year. The state-owned communications company is aiming its services at Chinese-Americans, students and tourists who frequent both countries.

Customers will have two numbers for their phones, a Chinese and American number. Pricing has not been disclosed, but China Telecom Americas president Donald Tan told Bloomberg that it will be "competitive".

China Telecom is in the process of finding a partner, which indicates the early iteration of the service will operate as a reseller. It appears though that the company is looking into purchasing its own wireless network depending on its success.

That could be problematic: Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei was blocked from participating in an national emergency communications network due to homeland security issues. Undoubtedly, an effort aimed at building a Chinese-owned wireless network here in the United States will face a good deal of scrutiny.

China Telecom's move is not without precedent: Japanese carrier DoCoMo already has a service offering here, targeted at Japanese consumers who travel between Japan and the US.

Photo Credit: Alex Wolf/Shutterstock

The Firefox development merry-go-round has moved on again, withFirefox 9 Beta and Firefox 10 Aurora builds being joined by two separate versions of Firefox 11: Firefox 11 Nightly and Firefox 11 UX, the most intriguing build of all.

Those looking for major new features or a revamped interface will be disappointed, as the emphasis in Beta and Aurora builds is very much one of performance improvements and stability fixes. With this in mind, which version should you install? Read on for our updated guide to what’s happening with each version of Firefox.

Firefox 8.0 FINAL

This is the latest stable release of Firefox, and as such is recommended for most users, particularly with a noticeable lack of new features coming in later versions. After Firefox 7 plugged some annoying memory leaks, Firefox 8 adds some interesting new features; downloads are now integrated into the History window, for example, while an option for speeding up startup by only loading the currently selected tab when Firefox first loads has made its way into the General tab of the program’s Options box.

Firefox 8 also tightens up add-ons, providing a compatibility assistant that allows the user to disable unwanted third-party add-ons the first time the program is updated to a new version, while also blocking third-party programs from installing add-ons silently.

Firefox 9.0b1 Beta

The only change of note in Firefox 9 is the implementation of a technology called “type inference”. This basically allows Firefox’s Javascript engine to process Javascript code much more quickly than before, leading to noticeable performance improvements when loading pages or apps that contain Javascript.

Firefox 9 Beta will install over the top of any existing stable release, so while it’s undergone a lot of testing to this point, is still not stable enough to be considered safe for less experienced users, although it’s likely to be robust enough for most day-to-day browsing needs. If installing the beta, take a backup using a tool like MozBackup before you begin.

Firefox 10.0a2 Aurora

Aurora is an “alpha” build of Firefox, which means it’s undergone minimum testing only. As such it’s not suitable for everyday use, which is why Firefox Aurora is installed as a separate build alongside the stable or beta build, allowing you to test its features without affecting your day-to-day browsing. Settings are shared between Firefox Aurora and your other build, however, so again caution should be exercised before installing it.

A number of major features that were assigned to Firefox 10 appear to have fallen by the wayside and will presumably appear in the next Aurora build, or find themselves bumped back to version 11. These include improved streamlining of the Location Bar -- at present, the only noticeable change to have appeared in Aurora is the dropping of the Forward button. Also at risk are options for importing data from Chrome, a redesigned New Tab page and a tweak that will set all add-ons’ default status to compatible when a new build of Firefox is released.

Other changes that have landed in Aurora will mainly interest developers, including a new Inspector tool (accessible from the Web Developers menu) -- selecting this allows users to highlight specific parts of a page to reveal the code underpinning them. Coupled with a new code editor, it’s designed to allow web developers to both build and test pages within Firefox itself.

Firefox 11.0a1 Nightly

Firefox’s Nightly channel gives users access to code hot off the press, but while you’re looking at the latest bleeding-edge version of Firefox, you’re also venturing into uncharted waters because much of this new code has had no testing at all. Nightly builds update regularly, so once installed you’ll find your build updating on a much more frequent basis than other unstable releases.

At the time of writing, Firefox Nightly exhibits no new features above and beyond that of Aurora -- for a glimpse into what is likely to appear in Nightly builds over the next six weeks take a look at the Features/Release Tracking page of the Mozilla Wiki.

Nightly is also available as a 64-bit build for compatible versions of Windows and Linux.

We’d recommend all but developers and serious, knowledgeable enthusiasts avoid the Nightly builds of Firefox.

Firefox 11.0a1 UX

Introduced in our last update, Firefox UX provides a parallel Nightly build of the browser that concentrates on developing a new interface for Firefox. Sadly, the likelihood of features previewed here appearing inFirefox 10 has all but disappeared, but if you want a glimpse into what Mozilla hopes will revamp Firefox’s look and feel in 2012, take a look at Firefox UX (like Nightly, also available as a dedicated 64-bit build).

When we first previewed Firefox UX, it exhibited a streamlined Launcher Bar, with both forward and home buttons removed by default; only the forward button has been removed in the latest Aurora build. Also visible was a clickable button on the Search bar, a Download Manager widget that’s integrated into the main Firefox window, and a New Tab page that showcases recently visited sites as well as the user’s bookmarks.

Not much has changed since the last version -- a quick visit to Mozilla’s presentation of desired interface changes reveals that some major changes are still at the wish list stage. One thing we have noticed, however, is that the History window is incorporated into its own tab in Firefox UX rather than opening a separate pop-up window as it does in all other builds of Firefox.

In Summary

Which version of Firefox should you try? Stick to the most stable version you feel comfortable with -- if we’re honest, there’s little in Firefox 9, 10 or 11 for the casual user to get too excited about, although Firefox UX as always provides a tantalising glimpse into how Firefox’s user interface will evolve over the next year or so.

If you do decide to give the Nightly or UX builds a try, back up first, or use a non-critical machine or virtual setup (try VirtualBox), just in case…

I've gotten off my purest high horse and come to look at Android differently. Starting with my purchase of the HTC-manufactured Google Nexus One in January 2009, I used pure Android smartphones, untouched by hardware maker or cellular carrier mods; no skins, no extras. Pure Android was the best, I believed. But over the last couple months, I've come to realize that the best thing about Android is what third parties -- and not Google -- do to make it better. Go ahead, eat that Ice Cream Sandwich on Galaxy Nexus. Gingerbread is good enough for me.

Pundits of all types harp about fragmentation -- that it holds back Android and makes competing against iPhone harder. Oh yeah? If 550,000-plus Android activations a day is a problem, give it to me. What a failure to have. At the end of September, Android smartphone OS share, as measured by US cellular subscribers 13 or older, was 43 percent in third quarter, up from 39 percent at end of June, according to Nielsen. By comparison, iOS continued a year-long trend of no growth, with 28 percent share.

The State of Android

The state of Android fragmentation is this, as of November 3:

• 44.4 percent Android 2.3-2.3.7 (Gingerbread)
• 40.7 percent Android 2.2 (Froyo)
• 10.7 percent Android 2.1 (Eclair)
• 2.5 percent Android 1.5-1.6 (Cupcake, Donut)
• 1.9 percent Android 3.x (Honeycomb)

The newest version, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) doesn't yet show up in the numbers and likely won't until the Samsung-manufactured, Google-branded Galaxy Nexus starts shipping next week. Ice Cream Sandwich unifies the two forks for Android -- Gingerbread for smartphones and Honeycomb for tablets -- and is chock full of new features. But like older Android versions, there's no land rush. For example, HTC has committed to Ice Cream Sandwich in "early 2012" without saying what that really means. Handsets getting Android 4.0: EVO 3D and Design 4G on Sprint, Vivid on AT&T (which just launched November 6), Amaze 4G and Sensation, XE and XL on T-Mobile and Rezound on Verizon (which launches November 14).

Unquestionably, fragmentation persists, but it's really more about users being on older Android versions than the newest thing. Apple controls iOS updates and pushes them out at will. Carriers and manufacturers determine which Androids get what software upgrades -- hence, a major reason for fragmentation. Anyone with iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S can get iOS 5 (that's the newest version) right now. The argument goes: Newest version and most users on it is huge competitive advantage over Android.

But as Windows XP's lingering success shows, newest isn't necessarily the best. What matters more, particularly when third parties are licensing operating systems, is the ecosystem that evolves around the platform and what it delivers to users. Related: Applications. There are plenty enough compared to Apple's App Store -- 315,000 according to AppBrain and 550,000 says AppLib.

However, not all apps are available for all devices, because of fragmentation and slow developer uptake for Honeycomb. There Google protects developers and phone users. Android Market segregates apps based on the OS version running on the phone. Most Froyo and Gingerbread apps are available to most devices (running those OS versions or later, of course). The mechanism works quite well, and actually limits some of the more negative effects fragmentation causes.

Making Android Better

Android is doing surprisingly well considering the state of fragmentation and that most users are on some 2.x version, when 4.0 is newest. There, carriers and manufacturers deserve credit for improving the stock OS. With iPhone, it's one size fits all. iOS is pretty much the same across carriers. Apple doesn't permit them to customize the phones or even put on their own branding. In the United States, an AT&T iPhone 4S is indistinguishable from a Verizon model. Apple tightly controls branding and software.

Recently, I started visiting Verizon and T-Mobile stores, spending time exploring higher-end Android smartphones, primarily from HTC and Samsung, which both skin the operating system -- with Sense and TouchWiz UI, respectively. To my surprise, I'm generally impressed with these UI add-ons, and that's an unexpected response. More surprising, well to me, is my reaction to carrier customizations, which are seemingly beneficial. I've long scorned carriers for loading up crapware that slows down performance and diminishes the user experience. But I'm not seeing much of that on higher-end Android smartphones.

Personal user experience is perhaps the best explanation. In September and earlier this week, I purchased two different Samsung smartphones -- the Galaxy S II and Galaxy S II Skyrocket, on AT&T, respectively. Both are chock full of customizations, Samsung's TouchWiz UI and AT&T apps and services, that really add bang to the user experience. The Android enhancements make both phones much more enjoyable to use and more practical than the Samsung-manufactured, Google-branded Nexus S.

I also find the fresh enhancements, coupled with the hardware, deliver better experience than iPhone 4 (I haven't used 4S). There's no Honeycomb, no Ice Cream Sandwich -- just Gingerbread with a twist. Next week my wife receives Kindle Fire, which uses Android 2.3.4.

The Galaxy S II is simply the best phone I have ever used, and I was sorry to part with it. But on Tuesday, I trucked down to the local AT&T store and exchanged the S2 for the larger Galaxy S II Skyrocket, which also supports LTE. I'm not as satisfied with the larger phone (4.5-inch vs 4.3-inch display) or increased thickness -- doesn't feel as good in my hand -- but the performance is excellent and AT&T enhancements make it better.

For example, on both phones, whenever I go to McDonald's or Starbucks, the Notifications Bar indicates there is an AT&T Hotspot. Skyrocket has Visual Voicemail, and it's a much more pleasant feature to look at and use than the comparable capability on iPhone.

TouchWiz UI eye-pops Gingerbread, with more color and some great features, some of which are similar to those just now coming in Android 4.0. For example, there's option to send a text message when rejecting a call, and Social Hub brings together Facebook, email, instant messaging and Twitter into one app. I looked at this one askance, but it works well and consolidates communications and social interactions.

Skyrocket's Android 2.3.5 touched up by AT&T and Samsung is much better than the same version on my wife's Nexus S, changing my perception. I've given up my purest ways. It's not so much what Google does to Android that matters but third-parties.

Android fragmentation doesn't matter, as long as carriers, phone manufacturers and software developers do their jobs.

Editor's note: Kindle Fire's Android version corrected.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Apple on Thursday released iOS 5.0.1, aiming to fix one of the biggest issues with iPhone 4S. The company claims the update addresses poor battery life in the device, as well as remedying a host of other issues.

Many 4S users complain they need to charge the device far more than they should, leading some to find creative ways to conserve battery life. Apple maintains that the battery issue is the result of "bugs" within the initial release of iOS 5. The company insists battery issues only affect a small number of users, although a cursory look around the web indicates a widespread problem.

In addition to the battery life fixes, Apple adds multitouch gestures to the original iPad and fixes issues with documents over its iCloud service. Australian iPhone 4S users should also see improvements in voice recognition with this update.

iOS 5.0.1 is currently available through iTunes and over-the-air updating. To force the update over-the-air, tap "Settings", then "General", and then "Software Update". Click the button towards the bottom to start the process. Apple recommends that the device be connected to a power source during the process to conserve battery life.

A BetaNews check of the over-the-air process had the update downloaded and installed on iPhone 4S in about ten minutes. We will report on any battery life improvements this weekend. We also ask readers with iPhone 4S to report their experience in the comments. How does the update affect your 4S battery life?

We’re approaching the end of 2011, so it should come as no surprise that developers are pushing out their 2012 products. Uniblue is a company synonymous with system utilities, and the newly announced 2012 product lines bring a number of important updates to all of the key programs. SpeedUpMyPC 2012,DriverScanner and RegistryBooster are all available as individual tools, but there is also the money saving PowerSuite 2012 which incorporates each of these utilities into a single suite.

As the name hints at fairly strongly, SpeedUpMyPC is concerned with boosting the performance of Windows. This is achieved by optimizing network and hard drive settings, amongst other things, and you are guided through the whole optimization process. Additional performance boosts can be achieved by turning to Uniblue RegistryBooster 2012 which can be used to defragment, trim and optimize the registry. There’s also DriverScanner which automates the process of keeping your system’s drivers up to date.

Each of the tools is useful in its own way, and represents decent value for money, but opting for the PowerSuite package makes the best financial sense as it combines RegistryBooster, SpeedUpMyPC and DriverScanner. All of the programs that make up the suite have been updated to some extent, some more than others, and there is a great sense of unity when they are used together. While it’s not exactly an essential upgrade for anyone who already owns the 2011 versions of any of the programs, for new-comers it’s a great way to get more from Windows.

It’s important to note that Uniblue ship their products as a function-limited demo, meaning you need to pay for a license before you can utilize the functions in full. Existing Uniblue customers will be able to download and install the latest 2012 build using their existing licenses.

You can find out more and download free very limited trial versions of the programs by paying a visit to the review pages for Uniblue PowerSuite 2012, Uniblue RegistryBooster 2012, Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2012 and Uniblue DriverScanner.

Opera has released the latest beta version of its popular web browser, Opera 11.60. Code-named “Tunny”, the new release makes some significant changes, both visible and in the browser core. And these start with a revamped address bar.

Type a keyword, for instance, and Opera won’t only search your bookmarks and history. It’ll now also offer search suggestions, so typing "Windows" will provide links for Windows Update, Windows Live, Windows 8, and so on. And once you’ve reached a page, a new star icon allows you to bookmark it at a click. These aren’t exactly the most original ideas, then, but they’re worthwhile additions that will speed up your browsing just a little.

Opera’s integrated mail client sees more significant changes, with new default mail views, groupings, icons and toolbars, all of which combine to make your Inbox easier to view, manage and navigate. At least, that’s the theory, though if you disagree then the simplified Settings dialog now makes it even more straightforward to tweak the client’s look and feel to suit your needs.

Opera’s always been one of the fastest browsers around, and the good news is that Tunny aims to improve on this even further: it’s faster at loading pages, and now uses even less RAM on JavaScript-heavy sites.

And the program also introduces a new HTML5-compliant parser, providing new HTML5 functionality and improved compatibility.

Of course Tunny is still a beta, and you need to treat it with caution: there’s no telling what bugs it may contain, especially as the changes are so widespread this time. It works well for us, though, so if your system is backed up and you’re willing to take the risk, then Opera 11.60 downloads are available now.

Entertainment company Warner Bros. is defending its anti piracy efforts following allegations of abuse, including removing content that it did not own the copyrights to. The claims raise serious questions as to whether current anti-piracy efforts making its way through Congress may punish innocent parties if this is a common occurrence.

File hosting service Hotfile sued Warner in September, claiming that after granting server access to Warner to remove copyrighted content, the media giant not only removed its own but also content it owned no rights to.

Hotfile alerted Warner to the issues, but the movie studio ignored those complaints. Running out of options, Hotfile sued Warner for fraud and abuse.

The real rub comes in Warner's own description of its practices, which can be found in a filing with the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Warner admits that it took down files that it didn't own the copyrights to, and typically searched for files on keywords alone.

Worse yet, Warner instructs employees to take down software that enables faster download of pirated content. These files are open-source, so no one owns those rights.

The courts must now decide if Warner is within its rights, although any legal observer should expect the judge to ban Warner from removing files other than its own: the law doesn't allow for vigilante copyright protection.

That said, everyone should worry if these methods are widespread in the industry.

Two companion bills are snaking through Congress, the PROTECT-IP Act in the Senate, and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House. Critics have lambasted both bills for what they see as blatant censorship.

Why? In SOPA the legislation would create a legal basis for the Attorney General to cut off websites from the Internet, even without notice. With that in mind, think of the story of Hotfile and Warner. What if an entertainment company like Warner mistakenly claimed pirated files on a company's web server?

That website could lose Internet access -- no questions asked. In some cases, it gives the power to the corporations themselves to ask for blacklisting, which could strip the websites of their legal right to be innocent before proven guilty.

In the bill's defense, that only appears to be for payment processing, but nevertheless the website could be stripped of its revenue stream for days while fighting to prove its innocence.

"The potential for rampant abuse is obvious: whether it’s a frivolous claim that wouldn’t withstand the scrutiny of the official process or an attempt to put an emerging competitor at an extreme disadvantage", Electronic Frontier Federation activist Trevor Timm says.

Warner and Hotfile's saga should serve as a wakeup call to those in Congress pushing for the current forms of these bills.

It is clear that an industry's overzealous effort to curb piracy has gone too far and is negatively impacting a business as a result. Washington's effort could add a whole new dimension to that, especially considering Warner's alleged carelessness.

Photo Credit: CURAphotography/Shutterstock

Six Estonian nationals were arrested this week, charged with running a massive $14 million clickjacking fraud ring that infected 4 million computers across 100 countries.

Discovered in a two-year FBI sting operation called "Operation Ghost Click," the six men have each been charged with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, computer intrusion conspiracy, computer intrusion (furthering fraud,) and computer intrusion (transmitting information). The head of the group, Vladimir Tsastsin, 31, was additionally charged with 22 counts of money laundering.

A seventh individual involved in the crimes, an unnamed Russian, is reportedly still at large.

The group worked under the name Rove Digital and was a known source of shady Web activity since at least 2006. In "Ghost Click," Rove Digital was using a malware called DNSChanger to build a botnet of 4 million computers in 100 countries. Some 500,000 of those were in U.S. alone, with infections even taking place in government agencies like NASA.

The Malware altered the DNS server settings on victims’ computers to route them to rogue DNS servers that were owned and operated by the group. Infected computers would be sent to sites determined by the group irrespective of the intended destination (for example, when users attempted to go to the IRS site, it would reroute them to H&R Block instead,) and legitimate advertisements on legitimate sites were replaced by ones that benefitted the group.

"Rove Digital is a seemingly legitimate IT company based in Tartu with an office where people work every morning. In reality, the Tartu office is steering millions of compromised hosts all over the world and making millions in ill-gained profits from the bots every year," said Trend Micro senior threat researcher Feike Hacquebord.

According to the Federal court order, the group's DNS servers have been seized and replaced with legitimate ones.

"These defendants gave new meaning to the term, ‘false advertising.’ As alleged, they were international cyber bandits who hijacked millions of computers at will and re-routed them to Internet websites and advertisements of their own choosing—collecting millions in undeserved commissions for all the hijacked computer clicks and Internet ads they fraudulently engineered," said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. "The international cyber threat is perhaps the most significant challenge faced by law enforcement and national security agencies today, and this case is just perhaps the tip of the Internet iceberg. It is also an example of the success that can be achieved when international law enforcement works together to root out internet crime. We are committed to continuing our vigilance and efforts—it is essential to our national security, our economic security, and our citizens’ personal security."

The FBI has issued a whitepaper about DNSChanger and how to detect if your computer or network router has been infected, which can be found on the FBI's website.

Online storage services can be a great way to share documents or back up key files. Of course they all have their own interfaces and clients, though, so if you use more than one then you’ll have plenty of software to install and master.

But maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. Cloud Turtle (from Genie9, the company behind the Genie Timeline backup package) doesn’t only work with Genie9′s own Timeline Cloud service, where it enables you to search your backed up files, restore any you need, stream music and videos, and more. It also delivers equally strong functionality with both Amazon S3 and Nirvanix accounts.

Once you’ve provided the login details of your S3 account, for instance, Cloud Turtle provide support for the basics, such as uploading and downloading buckets and objects.  But the program is also able to handle many more low-level S3 configuration options: setting up HTTP headers for objects, defining access control lists, controlling logging, and more.

And it’s a similar story on Nirvanix accounts, where Cloud Turtle can upload, download and delete files and folders, stream music and videos to your system, even view and edit file metadata.

The program does also have its problems. Error handling is poor, for example: If there’s some issue in communicating with your account then you probably won’t be told. Cloud Turtle simply won’t work.  Which may quickly become very frustrating, as we couldn’t find any meaningful documentation for the program anywhere.

Still, if you do use two or more of the supported services then Cloud Turtle could save you time. And it’s perhaps an interesting pointer to the future, where it’s likely we’ll see many more tools offer access to multiple cloud services from a single, unified interface.

Photo Credit: Tom Wang/Shutterstock

That's the question a BetaNews reader asked me earlier today, when forwarding news that esteemed researcher Charlie Miller had gotten the shaft from Apple. Miller released an app that exposed a serious security flaw in iOS. His reward: Banishment from Apple's developer program, for one year. Perhaps longer.

I asked colleague Ed Oswald to write the news story. My followup here seeks to answer the question asked by the reader: "Can you imagine if Microsoft took this approach?" No, because that would go against Microsoft's security policies. But I can imagine the response had Microsoft done something like this -- punish a respected researcher for bringing a major security flaw to its attention. Vilification. Condemnation. Damnation. In blogs. In news commentaries. On social networks. And Apple? There is little noise at all. Once again Apple can do no wrong.

From the most straightforward perspective, Miller got what he deserved from Apple. He released to the App Store a stock app that actually gave him broad control over devices. He was pretty much free to do what he wanted with them, although he chose to do nothing. That he released an app that did something other than its stated purpose violated Apple's terms of service. The app also made iOS devices liable to attack and seizure, although it can be argued, and Miller does, that the vulnerabilities already were there, which was the point of the app.

But the rogue app reveals something more, which makes Apple's seeming retribution all the more egregious. Apple is renown for secrecy, particularly about new products and their development. But there also is secrecy about security matters -- security by stealth. Apple discloses little about its products' security problems, other than scant info when releasing occasional updates. According to the company's security website: "For the protection of our customers, Apple does not disclose, discuss or confirm security issues until a full investigation has occurred and any necessary patches or releases are available".

That reads to me like a policy of denial, or better stated non-denial, non-admittance. Another reason for Apple secrecy: Managing perceptions -- the company's public image. Secrecy serves that objective exceptionally well, particularly around sensitive security matters. Apple's products are perceived to be more secure -- Mac OS better Windows, iOS more than Android -- which secrecy helps preserve. For developers who can't keep their silence, and most do (now why is that), there is punishment.

It's Miller Time

This isn't the first time Miller broke Apple's unwritten code of developer silence and doing so embarrassed the company. In July he exposed something simply unbelievable -- a security vulnerability affecting, get this, Apple laptop batteries. Yeah, batteries. Apple left unchanged the default passwords used for accessing and programming the batteries, which savvy developers could exploit in their applications. Miller published a paper showing how. Apple might as well have set all its employee passwords to "password".

That's just a recent incident, and from an accomplished security researcher. In a July BetaNews post, Larry Seltzer wrote: "Charlie Miller is one of the best-known characters in the vulnerability research business. For years he has been famous as the only person to do serious research on Apple products, especially on Macs. He has a shelf full of Pwnie awards to show how good he is at it".

Miller also is a consecutive-year Pwn2Own winner -- iPhone 4 in 2011 and MacBook Pro via patched Safari browser the three previous years. Perhaps Apple had enough of his exploits and the rogue iOS app is excuse to banish him.

But what if Apple wasn't so secretive? Would Miller need, or want, to release an iOS-compromising app? He has been very active on Twitter this week. "I did violate the ToS, but I doubt the ToS let's me do any of the crap I do. So why boot me now?" Miller asks.

It's common practice -- and one that Microsoft was instrumental establishing -- that researchers disclose vulnerabilities to companies first. The policy is sound, for protecting everyone from flaws being exploited before their patches. Not all security researchers abide by the practice, while others will disclose if they feel the vendor has been unresponsive.

One-and-a-Half-Way Street

In the case of the vulnerability Miller uncovered, he saw demonstration as the way to prove it. "Without a real app in the AppStore, people would say Apple wouldn't approve an app that took advantage of this flaw", he tweets two days ago. Apple is known for its strict App Store approval policy and perception that rogue or unsigned code can't sneak through. Miller also proved that perception wrong. But in doing so, he also didn't disclose to Apple beforehand. He explains: "I did contact Apple about vuln 3 weeks ago. Didn't tell'em there was an app. App has been in store since Sept."

Disclosure is fundamental to the work security researchers do with major developers. But with Apple, disclosure is a one-and-a-half-way street. The company expects developers to disclose what they find, yet doesn't publicly reveal as much -- certainly not like Microsoft.

Microsoft's security policy changed in the early Noughties. The company asked researchers to not publicly reveal security flaws before they were patched. Microsoft agreed to give these researchers credit for their discoveries when disclosing the vulnerabilities. The company expanded the role of the Microsoft Security Response Center, with a mandate of transparency and disclosure and release of updates on a regular monthly schedule. The amount of security information Microsoft releases is staggering compared to Apple. Security by stealth isn't sound policy.

You tell me, IT managers dealing with Apple and Microsoft software, do you feel the company's give you equally adequate security information -- ranging from best practices to vulnerability disclosure. It's hard to conceive of Microsoft doing the same to a researcher of Miller's stature for exposing a major OS vulnerability.

Former hacker turned security consultant Kevin Mitnick offers Miller advice in a tweet yesterday: "So tell Apple they are on a 1 year suspension for being notified first before you publish their vulnerabilities".

It looks like this will be a very good holiday season for tablet computers with only 31 percent of respondents to our newest Plus Study saying they are not interested in a tablet. Out of the remaining 69 percent who are interested in buying a tablet or possibly learning more about them, 44 percent of them would be willing to consider a smaller, 7-inch Amazon Kindle Fire. At the same time only 12 percent say they wouldn’t even consider anything other than an iPad.

With this much "acceptance" of a smaller tablet and the large price difference, conditions seem right for the Amazon Fire to become a hot item this year. Although the study didn’t ask specifically about the Barnes and Noble Nook, the recently announced, $249 Nook tablet could also be an attractive alternative to iPad.

Does Tablet Size Matter?

Although size is a very subjective aspect of a tablet computer, it looks like a 7-inch tablet could be very popular. In fact, this could not only help boost Kindle Fire sales but also Barnes and Noble’s new 7-inch Nook Tablet as well as other smaller and lighter Android tablets. Perhaps there are a lot of iPad owners who feel the iPad is a tad heavy and difficult to hold in one hand because only about half the iPad 2 owners said the iPad was "just right".

Of course, that’s not to say there won’t be strong demand for 10-inch or 8-inch -- or some other sized -- tablet; in fact, we’ve heard rumors of a 10-inch (or 8.9-inch) Amazon tablet following close on the heels of the 7-inch Fire. On the other hand, iPad owners might be interested in a smaller, lighter iPad as well.

Dawn of the Two Tablet Household

We don’t know if families are tired of fighting over the iPad or the new $199 Kindle Fire looks irresistible, but it appears that a large number of existing tablet owners are planning on buying another tablet this holiday season. To be honest, the numbers looked a bit high to us but that’s what the data revealed.

Actually, the idea of the two tablet household is already here as we found more than 27 percent of iPad 2 owners indicating they owned another tablet. Curiously, when we include people who don’t own a tablet the number of buyers looking at iPads and Kindle Fires are smaller and closer to each other. Could it be that tablet owners are more likely to buy a second tablet this year than someone buying their first tablet?

Conclusion

Up until now, no tablet has been able to compete with Apple’s iPad. Operating System confusion and lack of "tablet" apps on the Android side may have helped keep Android tablets at bay -- however, the iPad 2 is starting to show its age and the new Kindle Fire is about to make the scene with a very attractive $199 price point. As popular as the Kindle Fire appears in this study, whether it lives up to expectations on things like battery life, performance, image quality, etc, the picture could get brighter or less bright for the Kindle Fire.

Amazon may also benefit from the timing of their tablet. With the iPad 2 nearly a year old and the iPad 3 rumored to not be available until next year (missing the holiday season), Amazon may have timed the launch of their tablet just right. We also think it’s interesting that the strongest competition the Apple iPad may experience this season could very well come from book and content sellers (Amazon and Barnes and Noble) rather than other tablet manufacturers like Samsung and Motorola.

Andrew Eisner is Retrevo's resident gadget enthusiast. The former PC World executive producer helped establish Ziff Davis' premiere test lab, where he led a team testing the latest high-tech gear.

Think Insights with Google, an experimental marketing research library that Google has been developing for the last three months is now out of beta and available for anyone to check out.

The idea behind Think Insights is that it gives marketers access to Google-sponsored research, search stats, and emerging trends as well as a multimedia library with various case studies, infographics and video content that help advertisers know who they should target, and how they should advertise (with Google, of course.)

By far the handiest feature of Think Insights is its Real-time Insights Finder, a rich Web application toolkit that lets users see what is being searched, watched, and talked about across the Web in real time.

One such tool, "Insights for Search," is similar to Google Trends or Ngram viewer. It gives users the ability to enter search terms, filter by search type (Web, image, news, product,) filter by geographic region and date, and download them as CSV text files for integration into databases or spreadsheets.

The tool yields an interesting look at how regional industry affects search trends on Google. For example, searching for the term "Tachometer" reveals that the most activity for that query comes from Slovakia, a country that has received a lot of foreign investment for the automobile industry for the last decade.

Think Insights also includes Google's AdWords keyword search tool, AdPlanner, YouTube Dashboard, and "What do you Love?" search.

Google Real Time Insights Finder can be found under the new Think Insights page.

After you read this story, ask yourself: what would be the public response if Microsoft did this?

Apple is apparently unhappy with the security researcher who snuck a malicious app onto its App Store to expose a flaw in iOS, and has kicked him out of its developer program. Accuvant Labs researcher Charlie Miller published financial app InstaStock -- connected to a server that he operated. Miller effectively had complete control of that device, once the user installed the app. The proof of concept is in the YouTube video shown above.

The app was downloaded only a "few hundred" times since its September App Store approval. While Miller had the capability to install software on devices with InstaStock installed, he chose not too. He also had the capability to steal data, send text messages and even delete information on the devices -- all without the users' consent. In other words, he exposed a very big security vulnerability.

Apple did not receive Miller's work well. Although he says he informed Apple of the issue three weeks ago, the Cupertino company decided to remove his developer access over a terms of service violation. "Apple has good reason to believe that you violated (the iOS developer agreement) by intentionally submitting an App that behaves in a manner different from its intended use", Reuters quotes an Apple e-mail addressed to Miller as saying. He is banned from the Developer Program "for at least a year".

Apple shares some culpability here: its much ballyhooed App Store review process failed to detect the malicious intent of Miller's app, and the flaws within iOS are Cupertino's responsibility alone. Either way, the speed at which Apple moved to cut off the researcher is surprising, even to him.

"First they give researcher's access to developer programs, (although I paid for mine) then they kick them out...for doing research", he laments in a tweet on Monday. "Me angry". In a later tweet he adds: "For the record, without a real app in the App Store, people would say Apple wouldn't approve an app that took advantage of this flaw".

Miller's findings may have protected iOS users from legitimate threats. So why is Apple's response so heavy handed? That is unknown -- Apple is not responding to requests for comment on the matter.

But it's going to be slow going, and for good reasons. Despite all IPv6 promises, there is still much, much testing to do before it's ready for prime time.

Today Comcast revealed that it has started an IPv6 "pilot market deployment" as first step leading to nationwide rollout next year. Broadband providers like Comcast haven't rushed the switch to IPv6 -- despite an increasing shortage of IPv4 network addresses -- because of lacking support, ranging from operating systems to network switches and other devices. Then there are security questions that only real-time use can answer.

"This first phase will support certain types of directly connected CPE, where a computer is connected directly to a cable modem", John Brzozowski, Comcast distinguished engineer & chief architect for IPv6, explains. "This will depend upon the cable modem (a subset of DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems, which will expand over time) and will also depend upon the operating system (only Windows 7, Windows Vista, Mac OS X 10.7 / Lion), which must support stateful DHCPv6". Comcast's list of cable modems is 74, but only three support IPv6.

Still, Comcast's starting with the cable modem is sensible, but could mean that, at least for the short haul, some customers won't be able to use their own attached routers -- many of which wouldn't support IPV6 anyway. Like other broadband providers, Comcast faces the challenge of supporting IPv4 while moving to its successor. Brzozowski explains:

It is also important to note that we are deploying native dual stack, which means a customer gets both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses. That means we are not using tunneling technology or large scale Network Address Translation (NAT). Using a tunnel introduces additional overhead compared to not using one (native IPv6), as your traffic must traverse a relay before going to the destination and back. And NAT technologies rely on two layers of NAT, one in your home (in a home gateway device), and one within a the service provider's network that usually shares a single IPv4 address across possibly hundreds of customers or more...We believe those two layers of NAT will break a number of applications that are important to our customers.

Still, there's a painful transition coming:

• Most of the hardware currently available supports IPv4 and may not be firmware upgradeable to IPv6 (some of that is lacking willingness, where the vendor wants to sell something new).
• IPv6 will break many connected applications, problems Brzozowski observes.
• Security of IPv6 networks is still unproven.

On the latter point, Larry Seltzer explains in a June analysis:

The bottom line from observations like this is that IPv6 is not even in its infancy in terms of development. It's more like a fetus. And while clearly a lot of thought and experience went into the security design of IPv6, nothing is secure by design. It's a rock-solid certainty, as we gain real-world experience with IPv6 and malicious actors find incentives to research and attack it, that we will find serious security problems with it. We have virtually none of that experience today...The transition period to IPv6, Meyran says, will be especially dangerous because there's no way the security products will be mature enough to handle the environment.

Someone has to take the lead, before IPv4 network addresses really do run out. Comcast (and its competitors) is right to get things moving. Finally.

Photo Credit: bofotolux/Shutterstock

Mozilla has released the first stable build of its Thunderbird add-in, Lightning 1.0, which adds various organizer tools to Thunderbird, including a calendar, to-do list and events manager, giving it a more Outlook-like feel.

Version 1.0 represents the first stable release of the product, and is fully compatible with Thunderbird 8.0, which has just been released.

Lightning can be downloaded as a separate XPI file and installed manually, or you can open Thunderbird and locate it via the Tools > Add-Ons menu. Once installed, a new Events and Tasks menu appears in Thunderbird as well as an Events pane that can be tweaked to show a list of events, tasks or combination of both for the currently selected day.

A separate calendar view, which opens in its own dedicated tab, can be accessed either from the Events and Tasks menu or by hitting [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [C], while a Tasks tab is also accessible.

Lightning evolved from the Mozilla Calendar project, which began life as a standalone calendar application called Sunbird. Although still available as a separate download, Mozilla has ceased development on Sunbird, which remains in beta, and recommends users switch to Thunderbird and Lightning instead. One publicly stated goal is to eventually fold Lightning into Thunderbird into a single standalone application capable of competing with Microsoft Outlook.

Mozilla Lightning 1.0 Final is available now as a free open-source download for computers running Thunderbird 3.1 or later, including the brand new Thunderbird 8.0.

In line with its recent Firefox 8 update, Mozilla has rolled out version 8 of its open-source email platform. Thunderbird 8.0 follows the pattern of recent major version updates by not actually delivering much in the way of new features -- understandable given the number of developers and testers working on Thunderbird are fewer than on Firefox.

Like Firefox 8, Thunderbird is now based on the latest Mozilla Gecko 8 engine, while add-ons installed by third-party applications are now disabled by default for security reasons. There are also new Search and Find keyboard shortcuts alongside numerous security patches and bug fixes.

The new keyboard shortcuts have come about due to an ambiguity between using the [Ctrl] + [F] shortcut to both search using the Quick Filter and within individual messages depending on what was selected.  Now [Ctrl] + [F] is used specifically to search within selected messages; to search using the Quick Filter bar, use the brand new [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [K] shortcut instead.

Thunderbird 8 also includes what Mozilla describes as “improved accessibility of the attachment list” when composing emails. Changes include subtle alterations to the way attachments are displayed -- the size of an attachment is now displayed to the right of the attachment name aligned right in grey, for example, while the overall look is designed to reflect the user’s own operating system, be it Windows, Mac or Linux. Attachments can now be navigated, opened, saved or deleted using keyboard shortcuts –- when selected using the arrow keys, press [Ctrl] + [S] to save the file, for example.

The most noticeable change to Thunderbird 8’s user interface is actually a feature that has gone missing -- in previous versions of Thunderbird, the user could switch folder views between all folders, unified, unread, favorites and recent using a clickable bar at the top of the folder pane. This option, described as a “bug”, has been removed in Thunderbird 8, forcing the user to switch views using the View > Folders menu.

For those who cannot live without this feature, it can either be reactivated by tweaking theuserChrome.css file or -- of more practical use to most – by installing the Folder Pane View Switcheradd-on.

Version 8 also includes a number of platform-specific fixes that squash bugs and improve stability, plus a number of security fixes. Expect Thunderbird 9 Beta and Earlybird 10 to follow in the next few days, again with minor changes the order of the day.

Thunderbird 8.0 Final is a free, open-source download for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Adobe Flash, as a mobile browser plug-in, is finished.

Today, Adobe Vice President and General Manager of interactive development Danny Winokur announced that Adobe is ceasing work on Flash Player for mobile devices after the release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook.

Moving forward, Flash in mobile devices will be exclusively for standalone apps. Adobe will continue the course it laid out with Flash Builder and the Flex Framework, where Flash is used to package cross-platform mobile apps with Adobe AIR. The company is expected to release an update for Flash Builder and Flex in the not-too-distant future.

Within the browser, however, Adobe has fully committed to supporting HTML5.

"Over the past two years, we’ve delivered Flash Player for mobile browsers and brought the full expressiveness of the web to many mobile devices," Winokur said. "However, HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively. This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms. We are excited about this, and will continue our work with key players in the HTML community, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM, to drive HTML5 innovation they can use to advance their mobile browsers."

Winokur's mention of exclusivity is a reference to Apple's lack of support for Flash in iOS, a position Apple very publicly and very emphatically took more than two years ago. But the decision to retire Flash Player for Mobile isn't the result of Apple's decision so much as the maturation of HTML5.

Now that support for HTML5 technologies has become a mostly standard part of browsers both mobile and desktop, Adobe says it is going to work with the W3C and WebKit to apply its expertise in advanced graphics on HTML5, much like it did with CSS shaders.

In the developer realm, Adobe recently pushed out the third preview of its Edge HTML5 editor, a tool which brings HTML5, JavaScript and CSS development into a Flash-like timeline environment.

By eliminating its efforts on Flash Player for mobile, Adobe has cemented its position in the mobile world as a reflection of the overall developer climate of the last couple of years: either you make a standalone app, or you develop an HTML5 Web app.

Adobe's got both of those ends covered.

It was all hands on deck at HP Tuesday night: new CEO Meg Whitman wants to decide what to do with WebOS. HP is keeping its PC business, but there is no decision yet on the mobile platform, and some thought this would come last night.

According to The Verge -- although we can't pin down who their source is -- Whitman only kicked the can down the street, saying "it's really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision". Regardless, she is said to have promised a final word within the next three to four weeks.

So what are Whitman's options? Here are five possible scenarios from the most to least unlikely in our eyes. We will return to these in those "three to four weeks" to see if we are right.

1. Sell it. With HP having no immediate plans for WebOS, it should not be shocking that it's generating some interest among possible suitors. We've reported about rumors Samsung is interested in the platform here on BetaNews, and Reuters on Tuesday claimed the company is being advised by Bank of America on its options, also naming Oracle as a possible suitor.

This seems like the most reasonable of the five options. HP recovers some of its investment in Palm, and also gets a nice influx of cash. WebOS is saved, which in turn could keep all those new HP TouchPad owners happy, because the platform itself is not dead.

PROBABILITY: MOST LIKELY

2. Keep it and invest. The ultimate in saying "F-U" to ousted CEO Leo Apotheker may be keeping the unit altogether. It would indicate that Apotheker's plans to change HP were not shared by the rest of the company. But it also will require HP to get serious about WebOS, and Whitman knows this.

The Verge claims she said this on Tuesday night. "If HP decides [to keep webOS], we're going to do it in a very significant way over a multi-year period". Whitman believes that "HP can make that bet", and the fact she's saying this raises some eyebrows.

For that reason we don't know which way to go on this one, but it certainly gives hope to those wishing HP would stand by WebOS.

PROBABILITY: EVEN CHANCES

3. Partner up. What may make WebOS less expensive for HP is some type of partnership. It has not been talked about in the tech news rumor mill, but should be considered a possibility. Take this for example: HP has expertise in hardware. By partnering up with another company to develop WebOS itself, the burden is shared and the cost lessened.

This partnership could also decentralize WebOS itself, licensing it out to other manufacturers. This seems like a win-win situation for all and gives WebOS a stronger presence in the marketplace. That said, the fact that nobody is talking about this option makes us think it's probably not going to happen, no matter how much it makes sense.

PROBABILITY: SEEMS UNLIKELY

4. Spin it off. Wouldn't that be crazy. A little over two-and-a half-years after making a big deal about buying Palm, let it go. Then again, the merger has not been a great one, and bad mergers have been reversed before (can anyone say AOL Time Warner?). HP could take a minority stake in the spin-off company and attempt to recoup some of its investment in Palm.

While it makes sense on paper, a spin off would require a good deal of work and expense. It also seems like selling webOS outright or getting serious about webOS would be a wiser course for HP, and probably cheaper too. We don't think this has a good chance of becoming reality.

PROBABILITY: NOT LIKELY

5. Shut it down. In the day following HP's announcement, The Guardian reported that its sources said that the company plans to shut down the division completely, cutting some 500 jobs. This would all but make its acquisition of Palm worthless, save for the patents the company may have held.

For this reason, this option is the least likely of the three. HP dumped $1.2 billion into Palm, and the residual value of the business after you take out the hardware and software is nowhere near that. HP needs something from webOS.

PROBABLITY: NOT LIKELY

We want to hear what BetaNews readers think will happen to webOS. Give us your guesses and your reasoning in the comments, and we'll share them with readers in our followup story when HP makes its decision on the fate of webOS.

The Eastman Kodak Company on Monday announced that it has sold its Image Sensor Solutions (ISS) business to Beverly Hills private equity firm Platinum Equity for an undisclosed sum. The transaction includes the sale of Kodak's New York research and manufacturing facility where solutions for commercial, industrial and professional imaging are developed.

Kodak's ISS business manufactures mostly CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) sensors; a type of digital image sensor that has gradually been losing market share to CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensors, the smaller, more energy-efficient image sensors commonly used in mobile phones and consumer digital cameras.

Earlier this year, market research firm iSuppli predicted that CCD sensors will be completely overtaken by CMOS sensors in the digital still market by 2015.

And that's the market in which CCD is still strong, which includes high-end image capture devices for industry, and consumer DSLR still cameras. Even though CCD is regarded as a superior sensor CMOS is still In the overall image sensor business, iSuppli expects CCD sensors to shrink to a 4.7 percent market share by 2014.

"This is a great opportunity to acquire a business with an impressive record for delivering innovative solutions to customers around the world,” said Brian Wall, the partner at Platinum Equity who led the team pursuing the acquisition. “The ISS business has a strong management team with the right vision for leading the company into the future. We share their commitment to product development and customer service and are committed to helping the business realize its full potential."

We've given so much attention to iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S II that Windows Phone looks mightily neglected. It is, and that needs to be remedied. If S2's 4.3-inch screen size, Super AMOLED Plus display, thinness and 8-megapixel camera appeal to you -- but not Android -- Samsung Focus S may be for you. The Focus S and Galaxy S2 share much in common. Call them fraternal twins or near-identical cousins, but these two handsets are kin.

I apologize. In the rush to cover AT&T's new LTE phones, which went on sale yesterday, we overlooked Samsung Focus Flash and Focus S; they also debuted November 6. Like the Galaxy S II skyrocket, where we asked "Will you buy?", the same question comes for the two Windows Phone 7.5 Focus models that went on sale yesterday. Will you buy one, or have you already? Please answer in comments or email joe at betanews dot com.

These are the Windows Phones you've been waiting for -- at least from AT&T. The two new Focus models up data speed with HSPA+ support and deliver Mango, the newest version of Windows Phone 7. If you're on T-Mobile, then it's HTC Radar 4G for you, offering similar benefits. But what sets Focus S apart is what it shares with the hot-selling Galaxy S II. Quick comparison:

Galaxy S II: 1.2GHz Samsung Exynos dual-core processor; 4.27 Super AMOLED Plus display with 800 x 480 resolution; capacitive touchscreen; HSPA+/UMTS/GSM/GPRS/EDGE; 1GB RAM; 16GB storage (expandable to 32GB with microSD card; 8-megapixel rear-facing and 2MP front-facing cameras; 1080p video capture; Bluetooth 3.0; WiFi "N"; Near-Field Communications (NFC); 1650mAh battery and Android 2.3.4.

Focus S: 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 single-core processor; 4.27 Super AMOLED Plus display with 800 x 480 resolution; capacitive touchscreen; HSPA+/UMTS/GSM/GPRS/EDGE; 1GB RAM; 16GB storage (expandable to 32GB with microSD card; 8-megapixel rear-facing and 1.3MP front-facing cameras; 720p video capture; Bluetooth 2.1; WiFi "N"; 1650mAh battery and Windows Phone 7.5. Note: I could not find RAM from AT&T, Microsoft or Samsung. Different product reviewers cite 512MB and 1GB. I bet on the higher number, which is same as S2. Both phones sell for $199.99 with 2-year contracts. Update: Amazon Wireless offers the Focus S for $149.99 (but backorderred 8 to 9 days), Focus Flash for one penny and Galaxy S II for $144.99.

Weight: 3.9 ounces for Focus S and 4.3 ounces for Galaxy S2. Dimensions: 4.96 x 2.60 x 0.35 inches for the Android and 4.96 x 2.63 x 0.33 inches for the Windows Phone -- that's 8.9mm for the S2 and scant 8.55mm for Focus S. Battery life is all over the place. AT&T and Samsung say 6.5 hours and Microsoft 9 hours. I can only guess, but say this: Battery life on my Galaxy S II AT&T model is exceptional. Surely the Focus S must be as good. The Android has Gorilla glass, but I haven't confirmed same is true of the Windows Phone.

For buyers concerned about size, shape, thinness, display size, screen resolution, 4G data speed, storage capacity, storage expandability and main camera, these phones are twins enough. The decision should weigh more towards operating system and supported applications (Android has more than Windows Phone to choose from, but only the ones you need matter). But subtle differences may matter to other buyers -- single- versus dual-core processor, 720p versus 1080p video recording and 1.3MP versus 2MP front-facing camera. Processor is immaterial to me, if OS and apps are fast and fluid enough. But the 720p video recording would put me off. What about you?

Far East Movement performs in a 6-story Windows Phone, Nov, 7, 2011

The S2 and Focus S are similarly plastic encased, whereas the smaller Focus Flash is metal. By the way, Focus Flash has same processor as the Focus S and similar capabilities but with 3.7-inch display, 5MP camera and significantly lower subsidized price: $49.99. Flash buyers also receive a $25 app gift card.

To promote the new Windows Phones, Microsoft held a special event earlier today in New York City's Herald Square, putting up a six-story Windows Phone, from which Far East Movement played.

"Windows Phone will help change the way people look at smartphones", Andy Lees, president of Microsoft's Windows Phone Division, says. "Other phones have you wade through a sea of apps, while we bubble up all the things that are important -- centered around the people that matter to you most".

Windows Phone won't change anything if people don't buy. Will you? Buy Focus Flash or Focus S? If so why?

Photo Credits: Microsoft

Network security company Palo Alto Networks on Monday introduced a new anti-malware product for on-premises firewalls known as WildFire, which vets new and unknown files in a virtual sandbox to see if they're a new piece of malware, and then creates a distributable signature if they're determined to actually be bad files.

With the WildFire engine in place, a firewall will submit (either manually, or automatically based on policy) new and unknown .EXEs and .DLLs to a virtual cloud-based environment, where they are modeled against 70 different behavioral profiles to determine if they're malware.

If the files display the characteristics of malware, IT is then notified which user or machine has downloaded a malicious file and how it was delivered.

WildFire then generates a unique signature for both the individual file and the traffic it generates to protect all others on the network.

The information collected and analyzed by the service is available to administrators as reports in the WildFire portal, this includes information about the targeted user, application that delivered the malware, and URLs involved in the malware's delivery.

“Our approach to modern malware is the latest example of how we question conventional network security approaches until we’ve developed a better way of addressing the problem,” said Nir Zuk, founder and CTO of Palo Alto Networks. “Combining prior technical contributions such as sandboxing technology and cloud-based malware analysis with the unprecedented capabilities of a next-generation firewall has resulted in innovation that enterprises can feasibly deploy throughout their networks.”

WildFire is available to Palo Alto customers immediately.

If you’re interested in finding great free PC games then you could just start browsing the many gaming websites and forums available online. There’s a lot of competition, though, so it may take quite some time.

But a smarter option, at least initially, might be to use the portable Game Downloader, a tiny client which provides easy point-and-click access to more than 100 of the best free PC games around, with more being added all the time.

The program organizes its games into many different categories: Action, Arcade, First-Person Shooter, Real-Time Strategy and so on. And initially you’ll just select one of these to see what’s on offer.  Some of the categories are a little under populated -- “Fighting” only has 3, in Paintown, Super Vampire Ninja Zero and Tonibash - but there are many big names to be found elsewhere. Turn-Based Strategy includes games like Advanced Strategic Command, Battle for Wesnoth, Freeciv, Scorched 3D and UFO Alien Invasion, for instance. And as the game list is held in a server-side database, the authors are able to add more on a weekly basis.

Choose a game and you’ll see a little more about it, including a basic text description and a screenshot. If you need more information then a click will send you off to YouTube looking for game videos, or to the game website. Or, if you’re already intrigued, then simply clicking Download Game will grab a copy of the installation file for you.

Game Downloader does have various issues and irritations. There’s no search tool to help you locate a particular game, say. The program uses a small window that can’t be resized, so there’s some unnecessary scrolling.  And Game Downloader makes pointless use of a system tray icon. So, for instance, to find out the size of a download you must click a button, and have the icon display the file size as a tooltip. And the program Settings box is only available from the icon, so unless you go looking you’ll never realize it even exists.

Still, if you’re just looking for an easy way to find and download great free games, then Game Downloader certainly delivers. Quirks aside, there’s an excellent selection of quality games here, and with its regular updates the program should help to keep you entertained for a very long time.

Mozilla has uploaded the final build of its open-source, cross-platform browser Mozilla Firefox 8.0 to its servers ahead of its official release tomorrow. Version 8.0 is the latest in a rapid series of releases from Mozilla that has seen development accelerated to rivals likes  Google Chrome.

Whereas version 7, released six weeks ago, concentrated on behind-the-scenes improvements, version 8 does feature some noticeable changes, including an Add-ons Compatibility Assistant plus an option for speeding up startup.

The new Add-Ons Compatibility Assistant only appears whenever the browser has been updated. It lists all add-ons, making it clear which ones have been disabled for compatibility reasons and inviting users to review all third-party add-ons, giving them the opportunity to disable any before the browser starts.

Another related new feature is that third-party add-ons can no longer install themselves silently -- instead the user will be clearly warned what’s happening, provided more information about the add-on in question and allowed to block it if required.

Elsewhere, Firefox 8 includes a new option -- accessible from the General tab of the program’s Options dialog box -- that can speed up startup on browsers that restart with a number of tabs open. Instead of the browser laboriously reloading all websites when first launched, the user can tick an option that will only load or reload the contents of a tab when it’s first selected after launch.

One final obvious new feature is the addition of a Downloads entry in the History tab, allowing users to access previous downloads from the same window they access previous websites.

With the stable release of Firefox 8, expect to see Beta, Aurora and Nightly/UX channels to update to versions 9, 10 and 11 respectively tomorrow when we’ll reveal what changes are making their way towards the stable channel. In the meantime, Firefox 8.0 Final is available now as a free, open-source download for Windows, Mac and Linux.

HTC will upgrade eight current devices to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in the first wave of updates, the device manufacturer said on Monday. The latest version of Google's mobile operating system was announced in mid-October along with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus -- the first Android phone to run ICS natively -- but current Android phones will have to wait several months for the upgrade.

Relying on its partnerships with carriers, HTC will upgrade the following devices to ICS: the EVO 3D and Design 4G on the Sprint Network, the Vivid on AT&T, and the Amaze 4G and Sensation on T-Mobile. For the Sensation, the XE and XL variants will also get the upgrade. In addition, the upcoming HTC Rezound will be upgraded to ICS. That phone will launch on Verizon's network on November 14.

"We're continuing to assess our product portfolio, so stay tuned for more updates on device upgrades, timing and other details about HTC and Ice Cream Sandwich", the company writes in a post to its Facebook page Monday morning.

Devices will begin to receive the updates in "early 2012", although the manufacturer did not provide specific dates.

Other phone manufacturers have also announced their plans to upgrade devices in the new year. Motorola says its RAZR and Bionic will get ICS, while Samsung will bring the update to its Galaxy S II and Note.

Book retailer Barnes and Noble on Monday unveiled the third generation of its Android-powered Nook e-reader, the Nook Tablet. Nearly identical in appearance to its predecessor the Nook Color, the Nook Tablet is designed for improved multimedia consumption to better compete with Amazon's new Android tablet, the Kindle Fire.

The Nook Tablet has a 7-inch IPS touchscreen display, a 1GHz dual-core processor (currently of undetermined brand,) 1GB of RAM, and runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread.)

It offers 16GB of onboard storage (double the built-in storage of the Nook Color) and supports microSD cards up to 32GB in size. Barnes and Noble says the Nook Tablet also has a better battery life than its predecessor, with an estimated 11.5 hours of use over the Color's eight.

With a pricetag of $249, the Nook Tablet is available for pre-order today, and it is expected to ship almost immediately, landing in stores and in homes "late next week."

The Nook Tablet, like Amazon's Kindle Fire, falls under the banner of "media tablet," while the Nook Simple Touch and Kindle lines are squarely in the e-reader category.

So Barnes and Noble is positioning the Nook Tablet as a superior device upon which to consume audio and video…not just e-books. It comes with Netflix and Hulu Plus apps built in, and will eventually also have Flixter with UltraViolet for movies and TV.

But it is worth noting that the competition between Barnes and Noble's Nook and Amazon's Kindle product lines isn't so much about the end user hardware as it is about the content that is available to users and the content distribution architecture behind it.

Barnes and Noble is a bookstore, specializing in, you guessed it, books. It does not have its own system for distributing streaming video or mp3s like Amazon does with the Kindle Fire.

However, it does have the Nook Cloud service, which powers Nook's device/app sync and integration, but this was not covered in much depth by Barnes and Noble at its press conference on Monday. It also has the Nook Apps store, for user-installable apps, but it is tiny in comparison to the Android Market and even to Amazon's Appstore.

The Nook media tablet line has thus far been quite popular as a source of affordable Android tablets. It enjoys a certain cachet because it can easily be rooted for expanded functionality, but it isn't known for a particularly powerful out-of-the-box experience, especially because it lacks access to the official Android Market and unauthorized third-party apps. So it faces formidable competition from Amazon's Kindle Fire, which is $50 cheaper and has essentially everything it needs under Amazon's own roof.

My problem is all the rumor and misinformation spread about Apple and apologists who treat the world's most valuable tech company like it's some rebel force. Apple is no longer a puny upstart fighting "The Man". Apple is the "Establishment". I'm aghast with apologist bloggers and so-called journalists, not the company the two Steves, Jobs and Wozniak, founded.

This post responds to a question posed over the weekend by one of BetaNews' most loathed commenters, Bay_Area_CA_Male, who I threatened to ban last week because so many other readers complain about his comments. He responded to my email promising to tone things down and also asking: "Why do you hate Apple so much? Or is it a 'get the most hits thing?'" I don't hate Apple, and I stand behind everything I write about the company (there's no hit whoring here, just provocative writing and compelling headlines). Can the Apple rumor-mongering rabble say the same? For clarification, while I here answer Bay_Area_CA_Male's question, catalyst for writing is one of several Macworld UK headlines in my RSS feeds this morning: "[iPhone 5 'already built, waiting for LTE chipset']".

Apple rumor-mongering is simply out of control. Another example from my RSS feeds today: "Apple leaning toward dual-LED light bars for iPad 3's Retina Display". Like Macworld, AppleInsider sources DigiTimes. I've griped about this kind of
single-sourcing problem before and won't belabor it again.

I highly recommend following recently launched Stupid Apple Rumors for a glimpse about just how many there are. Fresh off the vine today is "Proof of the Rumor Echo Chamber/Circle Jerk". Excerpt:

Surfing around, looking for more rumor chum and I spot this from 9to5Mac:

Apple completes testing of 15 inch LCD for ultra-thin MacBook Pro?

They claim to have gotten the rumor from Macotakara. So I head over there to read:

MacBook Air (15-inch)？

But they claim they got it from MacRumors. Another click sends me to:

Apple Finishing Up Work on an Ultra-Thin 15" Mac Notebook

By the way, most Apple rumors turn out to be false, something Stupid Apple Rumors now tracks and reports on.

Then there is the strange twisting of news to make something perhaps negative more positive. There, my apologist headline of the month (so far) goes to AppleInsider: "Apple allows Motorola Mobility to win procedural German injunction over iPhone". Oh yeah? Apple allowed, not the court ordered? Last month's favorite: "If you sold your Apple stock today, you're an idiot", by MG Siegler for TechCrunch. It was the apologist take for why it was okay that Apple fiscal 2011 fourth-quarter results missed Wall Street consensus.

My problem isn't Apple, but all the news and misinformation about the company. You can chock up any tone in my Apple posts to them. Someone has to counterbalance this crap.

It's nothing new. We've been here before, with Microsoft before its antitrust problems resurfaced in 1997 and 1998. Then tech reporting leaned heavily in Microsoft's favor. The kinds of Microsoft stories and rumors then remind of Apple today, just not as far-reaching. The World Wide Web reaches more people and is more a publishing platform than the 1990s.

Now Why Is That?

I see four fundamental factors driving the unabashed, unquestioning pro-Apple caucus:

1. Brand loyalty. People love their Apple stuff, and that's good for the company and demonstrates just how successful are its customer service, marketing and products. Enthusiasts tend to gloss over shortcomings, which is the enviable circumstance many companies long for.

But Apple doesn't just have enthusiasts. There are unabashed loyalists, who are part of a sub-culture decades old. These are the members of the original rebel alliance and those who joined them later on. During the 1990s, when Windows PCs crushed Macintosh, Guy Kawasaki returned to Apple, where he, starting in 1995, worked on product and brand evangelism. "My job on this tour of duty was to maintain and rejuvenate the Macintosh cult", he says.

Kawasaki's hit squad of loyalists is well-known among long-time journalists for their relentless responses (attacks if you like) against anything not pro-Apple. The group is still active today, using similar tactics but with louder voice because of comments. Their continued, unabashed cries of "anti-Apple" and "Apple hater" is testimony to Kawasaki's success at rejuvenating the "Macintosh cult" of loyalists. Thing is, Apple is no longer the Rebel Alliance. It's the New Empire.

A good example of the hit-squad mentality: Comments to my post "Why can't Apple get iPhone's design right?" The majority of posts attack me personally -- name calling, character defamation and other put-down tactics -- rather than actually address the content. Over the weekend, my colleague Ed Oswald told me he didn't understand why I wrote that story. The answer is for the reasons stated therein the analysis. Telephony and battery life rank as among the top priorities cell phone buyers expect. Death Grip plagued iPhone 4 and battery-life the 4S -- problems that emerged immediately after launch. These are serious matters.

2. Stock price. I've harped on this one many times in past BetaNews posts. There are too many people too heavily invested in Apple, who don't want to see the share price fall. If financial analysts have Apple investments or clients invested in the company, conflict-of-interest is inevitable. This is an endemic scenario far larger than Apple.

Over the weekend, Ed wrote about analysts and pundits taking a negative view of Apple's future following its fiscal 2011 fourth-quarter earnings announcement. I saw little of that. Surely no analyst heavily invested in Apple or clients there wants to rattle the stock price. Shares fell following the earnings announcement because of spooked investors, not because large numbers of Wall Street analysts suddenly turned against Apple.

Some journalists are good about disclosing their investments. But if they have none, and acknowledge so, is that enough? The acceptable standard is yes. Does their significant other invest in Apple -- or parent, sibling, child or someone else whom they might be emotionally invested in. Conflict-of-interest isn't one layer deep.

Apple rumors, of which there are way too many, help feed positive perceptions about Apple's future and help buoy the share price. Same can be said of the many rose-colored glasses stories that aren't critically balanced.

3. Writer users. Many Apple watchers -- be they analysts, bloggers or journalists -- use the company's products. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made a startling observation two summers ago: "We have lower share in the investor audience". He joked about the number of Mac laptops he could see in the Financial Analyst Meeting 2009 audience "Don't hide them. I've already counted them. Feel free, as long as you're using Office". Several high-profile journalism schools strongly recommend or require Macs and other Apple products of incoming students. At events where I see bloggers or journalists, the majority use Macs, and I see lots of iPhones, too. There's inherent bias there. Microsoft got some of that same kind of benefit when everyone used Windows.

4. Google economy. Pageviews are the new measure of success and means of generating cash. They mean much for site's securing direct advertising and ad sponsors and for writers getting paid. I see it as fundamental to the "circle jerk" example and to many others like it. Stories circulate and recirculate, too often singly-sourced, leading to loads of misinformation and propagation of false rumors. All the while, someone gets clicks. But there is little original reporting involved.

I don't get paid by the pageview here, and that's another area of conflict-of-interest not called out enough. I write about what's interesting to me and hopefully to others. I also like to stir up discussion, by looking at things from a different viewpoint. There's never one perspective to anything.

I'm not anti-Apple. I'm hard on everyone, myself included. But I do react to the amount of misinformation and rumors about Apple and apologists who excuse every little thing. There my award of the month (so far) goes to last week's GigaOm post "Does the Siri outage reveal its success?" -- which turned a service outage into a badge of honor.

Verizon Wireless wants its customers to upgrade their phones and take advantage of the carrier's next-generation LTE network, and is sweetening the data pot to get them to do so. Beginning Tuesday, Verizon will double the data allotments for customers for the same price as its traditional data plans.

The $30 2GB plan is now 4GB, the $50 5GB plan will have 10GB allotment, and the $80 10GB plan a cap of 20GB. A Verizon spokesperson confirmed the offering, first reported by CNET, saying it will last "through the holidays", but declining to offer specifics.

Motorola will launch the Droid RAZR on Friday, which includes LTE data. Despite its gimmicky launch date -- 11/11/11 at 11:11am -- Verizon may hope the new LTE data caps give the launch an extra boost. While not unlimited, the carrier is still offering data plans that are highly competitive in the market for the price.

New customers can sign up for the plans when purchasing a LTE device. Current LTE-capable device owners must request new data caps via customer service or My Verizon.

Verizon's move is obviously aimed at attracting consumers away from AT&T's LTE network. The nation's second biggest wireless provider announced its first LTE phones -- the HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II -- last week. The data plan caps are the same as its 3G offerings, however.

Photo Credit: Verizon

Editor: Ryan DeJonghe responded to our request for Kinect stories in celebration of the technology's one-year anniversary. Would you like to get fit? He has a group of 1,400 using Xbox 360 and Kinect to do just that.

I’ve always been a fan of video games and technology. Anything that would marry the two would be icing on the cake. Starting out on the NES, I hooked up every accessory available, from Broderbund’s U-Force controller to the Miracle Piano Teaching System. So naturally, when Microsoft announced they were releasing a product that would be able to track your entire body, I was first in line.

Prior to the launch of Kinect for Xbox 360, I was already trying to get back into physical shape. I used SparkPeople.com to guide my habits and the Wii to get in shape. The Wii Fit was a great product for me, but seemed more of an introduction to exercise, versus a substitute for it. It's where I found my love for Yoga, so no complaints there. However, I couldn’t wait for the release of the Kinect. Every video I watched only made me hunger more.

One of the great benefits of SparkPeople is the ability to create groups, similar to Facebook. Knowing how powerful and amazing Kinect would be, I set out to start a fitness group called “Kinect to Spark”. I solicited the help of Tema Chipo, who has been an amazing motivator in other video game groups. At the launch of Kinect in November 2010, we had about eight members. From that point, we worked hard to drive the group's growth. And not just that, but growth while motivating members of the group.

When the Kinect launched, I quickly saw ways it would transform lives. Our members found amazing exercise in everything from games "Your Shape Fitness Evolved" to "Dance Central". Even the game that came bundled with the console, "Kinect Adventures", proved to be a fitness challenge in some ways.

Needless to say, Kinect sells itself, especially to those that are looking to become more active. There are days where I go to Best Buy just to watch people try out the Kinect on display. I love seeing the magical look in their eyes when first experiencing Kinect. The pattern is conistent: they try out Kinect for about 20 minutes, call someone over to watch them play and look on store shelves to buy one. It’s hard to explain to anyone who hasn't used Kinect what it does and feels like. But once they’ve played it, the magic begins.

We certainly had the momentum rolling for the fitness group, coming off of the holiday season. However, in February, I suffered a Sudden Cardiac Arrest. My parents were in town visiting, and we started off the day playing a bit of Kinect. From there, we went out to eat and the next thing I remember was having my chest pounded on. Seventy-two shocks and a coma later, I woke up feeling like a train hit me. To this day, doctors don’t know what caused my Cardiac Arrest. My heart was clean of blockages, but there was some kind of electrical storm that dropped me instantly.

While this momentarily set me back, both in exercise and weight loss, I am thankful for the experience. While recovering, I became addicted to another technology called OnLive -- a streaming video game service. You can think of it as Netflix streaming, but for video games. I got involved in the community and even started reaching out to developers and publishers about putting their games onto the service.

Thanks to the relationships made from OnLive, I then connected to people working on Kinect games. Looking to reignite my Kinect team, I started up another site, called Kinect Reviews and Interviews. Since September, I have been reviewing games, conducting interviews and hosting contests on the site -- all for the purpose of driving people to our Kinect fitness group.

Today the Kinect fitness group is thriving. Sure, there is always room for improvement, but we have come a long way. We currently have a weight loss contest with some nice prizes the members contributed. We also have a virtual walk across the country, Xbox Live, Facebook group, another contest to win "Dance Central 2", and many other things to keep each other active and motivated.

So while we may hit a few snags in the road, such as losing members or PR companies not responding the way I want, there are always rebounds, such as making a new video game industry contact or seeing a member reach a healthy milestone. These member milestones are actually the reasons I keep driving on. We’ve had members that have lost over 100 pounds-playing video games. So while the world of video games may be full of the Call of Duties, I can still find solace in the success of the Kinect for Xbox 360.

Ryan DeJonghe is a writer and founder of fitness group "Kinect to Spark".

Not me, likely, and I'm surprised by the answer.

Today, AT&T flipped the 4G LTE service switch in four additional markets and launched its first supporting smartphones -- HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyocket. Last week, I asked "Who will buy them?" I'm less surprised by your responses than my own.

Several BetaNews readers are in the same pickle barrel as me. They bought the Galaxy S II around the time of its October 2 release, which is outside AT&T's 30-day return period (with $35 stocking fee) to get the Skyrocket. The question: Why wouldn't you take the LTE and HSPA+ model over the HSPA+-only one, extending your phone investment over the life of the two-year contract?

BetaNews commenter VivekK offers the simplest solution to the 30-day return policy problem: "U know U can return the phone saying that something is wrong right? Do that, and U can get the LTE phone when it releases -- that's what I did. :D" I would more likely try to cajole bending the rules for a longstanding AT&T Wireless and U-verse customer. Do what your conscience will let you.

"I'm in your exact situation, Joe," Jon Deutsch comments. He continues:

Bought my GS2 on Oct 4, I think. So the GS2LTE will be after my 30-day return fee. I'm really torn (as you are), but what makes me less torn is that 4.5-inch screen -- and it's going to be thicker and heavier. And what we do not know at this point in time are many variables:

• Will the LTE model have as good battery life? (i.e., with LTE on all day, will it even be worth it?)
• Will the LTE model have NFC (so far, it's a no)? This means that the 'beam' feature in ICS will not work.
• Will the LTE model perform as well? This is a serious concern. That Exonys CPU is only 1/2 the story. The quad-core MALI GPU makes my (and your) GS2 flow like melted butter. What if the new chipset doesn't perform as well?

So, with that, I'm betting that I sit tight because Philly also isn't on the immediate list for LTE... and to your point, who knows if the performance will even be there this early in the game. Verizon has proven they can do it... but in my mind, AT&T hasn't yet. Remember, a 2-year contract is really only 18 months with AT&T in terms of getting discounted hardware.

Deutsch's questions, which I had already asked and answered before reading his comment, are why I likely won't buy Galaxy S II Skyrocket today. Battery life is the kicker for me. I'm completely satisfied with Galaxy S2 battery life, which is surprisingly much better than what I had with iPhone 4 -- and that was exceptional. I typically recharge every other day, 24-40 hours with heavy usage. My own BetaNews story about iPhone 4/4S design problems -- signal strength for the older model and battery-life with the newer -- got me to reconsider my smartphone priorities. Skyrocket battery life, with larger display and LTE radio, is an uncertainty -- while I'm completely satisfied with what I've got.

I've handled both the Sprint and T-Mobile Galaxy S II variants, which like Skyrocket and Vivid have 4.5-inch screens. The 4.3-inch S2 from AT&T is comfortable in part because of the thinness, which appeals more to me. Then there is Skyrocket's 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor, which in some early benchmarks performs considerably less well than the Exynos 1.2GHz processor in the S2. I haven't looked at reviews today, but read one last night at ChipChick (guys, it's okay to read this site -- these women know their tech). Helena Stone writes:

The Galaxy S II blew through Quadrant’s benchmarks with a score of 3078, so it was a bit of a surprise to discover that the Skyrocket earned a score of 2518 in Quadrant. Don’t get us wrong, the Skyrocket feels just as responsive and fluid as the S II as far as everyday performance is concerned, but we were surprised that the benchmarks for the 1.2GHz processor in the S II are so significantly greater than the benchmarks on the Skyrocket. This really isn’t a deal breaker, but more of a peculiarity.

Like Deutsch, I don't live in an area with LTE service. Considering how satisfied I am with the Galaxy S II, particularly battery life, I'm suddenly reluctant to take the risk. I will truck down to the AT&T store for a look at Skyrocket, but my thinking is not to trade up.

Are You and AT&T Ready for LTE?

What will you do? Lots more of you have something to say about that. First some quick specs:

HTC Vivid: 1.2GHz Qualcomm APQ 8060 dual-core processor; 4.5-inch qHD
super LCD display with 960 x 540 resolution; capacitive touchscreen; LTE/HSPA+/UMTS/GSM/GPRS/EDGE; 1GB RAM; 16GB storage (expandable to 32GB with microSD card; 8-megapixel camera; 1080p video capture; Bluetooth 3.0; WiFi "N"; 1620mAh battery and Android 2.3.4. Dimensions: 5.07" x 2.64" x .44". Price with two-year contract: $199.99.

Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket: 1.5GHz dual-core processor; 4.5 Super AMOLED Plus display with 800 x 480 resolution; capacitive touchscreen; LTE/HSPA+/UMTS/GSM/GPRS/EDGE; 1GB RAM; 16GB storage (expandable to 32GB with microSD card; 8-megapixel camera; 1080p video capture; Bluetooth 3.0; WiFi "N"; Near-Field Communications (NFC); 1850mAh battery and Android 2.3.5. Dimensions: 5.15" x 2.75" x 0.37". Price with two-year contract: $249.99. (There is some confusion about NFC, which may be included but disabled.)

Commenter RogerOfDoger makes a good point. Should the future investment be about software or hardware: "It will be interesting to see how quickly the 'investment for the future' is updated for Android 4.0, and how long it remains an 'investment in the past' with Android 2.3.5". I could grumble the same about the Galaxy S2.

Commenter JL lives in a "LTE city, but LTE is not that important to me as I really just see it as a battery hog until the second gen chips come out. So, that being said, I am looking in to importing a Droid Razr GSM model from Canada, or getting the Galaxy Nexus. If this ends up being too expensive, I might opt for the HTC Vivid and just deal with the 4.5-inch screen, but my #1 concern is 960x540 or 720p resolution". If resolution matters to you, too, Vivid beats Skyrocket there.

James Sarino:

Yes, I'd be interested in this phone [Skyrocket], and I'm glad I waited. :-). I have an unlocked Nexus One now, and it's getting a bit long on the tooth. The only things that will sway me away from the Skyrocket are if the S II HD LTE makes it to the US (and AT&T), and of course there's the Galaxy Nexus, which can run on both HSPA+ and LTE, and it too makes it to AT&T (confirmed to Verizon so far), so I hope to hear about where those phones will go sooner rather than later. But I agree with you about investing in the future and getting an LTE-enabled phone early.

Samsung announced the Galaxy S II HD LTE for the South Korean market in late September. Display size is 4.65 inches -- same as Galaxy Nexus -- but with better camera (8 megapixels, not 5MP).

"I have the HTC Inspire and I'm thinking I'll probably just stick with it", writes Joe Dodd. "I actually got it a week ago and a couple of days later found out about the HTC Vivid. Shucks!...I won't be getting it because 4G isn't even offered in my area...Consider the acronym itself: 'long term evolution'. Doesn't it make more sense to wait for it to 'evolve' a little more before making an investment in one of the first pieces of AT&T technology to use it?

Bruce Burns offers by far the longest comment, and it's worth reading the whole thing:

Hey Joe! I was almost in the same boat as you. I bought the GSII on Oct 7. However, I must give AT&T credit. The AT&T store near me never stocked the GSII because they knew of the Skyrocket's release. I had to buy the GSII @ Radio Shack, which was not a consumer friendly event -- neither was taking them back (bought 2 phones). After I bought the phones an AT&T rep at the store told me about the some-time-in-the-future release of the LTE version. My thought at the time was it could be 6 months so I kept the phones. When they announced on Halloween about the Nov 6 release, I was shocked.

A few of his reasons for going with S2 Skyrocket: "The GSII was the most awesome phone I've ever seen or had -- the Skyrocket is larger and faster processor-wise and then there is LTE". He lives in one of the nine markets where LTE is available. They are: Atlanta, Athens, Ga., Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Washington, DC.

I'll end with another question: Did you buy either the HTC Vivid or Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket today?

Have investors, analysts, and pundits lost their minds? Reading some recent Apple analysis you could make that case. The company is still wildly successful financially, yet perusing the news sites and the blogs will make you think the company is in some danger of failure. That couldn't be further from the truth.

There is too much focus on the present, take for example Apple's most recent quarterly results. The Cupertino company had its second best quarter ever, yet investors focused on analysts sky-high expectations. Apple paid for it, and still hasn't recovered two weeks later.

Apple is on a path for sustained success, and there is building evidence of that through its financials and the market overall. Failing to look at the big picture is a mistake.

The Writing on the Wall

First off, Wall Street's reaction was without merit. iPhone shipments missed for an obvious reason: consumers expected a new iPhone, and held off on their purchases. iPads remain strong and close to consensus. Most importantly the Mac business is thriving, surpassing consensus.

My colleague Joe Wilcox gave us an early preview of the Mac results in his story on quarterly PC sales numbers from IDC and Gartner in mid-October. Gartner placed Apple's US share of the market at 12.9 percent, IDC at 11.3 percent -- based on unit shipments (not actual sales). Both were the best numbers for the company in decades, and Joe referred to the gains as "shocking".

Now take what I just shared, and add to it to Apple's own projections for the upcoming quarter. The company expects to rake in $37 billion -- its best quarter ever (by some $10 billion in fact!). Apple regularly beats its projections, so I'm expecting a blowout quarter for the company.

Company executives in the most recent conference call said more than once it expects "record shipments" for both the iPhone and iPad lines. They're very confident in Cupertino.

The data makes the reaction of hypersensitive investors and knee-jerk pundits and analysts look ridiculous. Here is a company that is doing almost everything right and running on all cylinders, yet investors punish it. It makes no sense. Analysts only analyze on what they know, and how much can you really know about the most secretive company on the planet? Can we really trust these analysts have the full picture? I think those answers are obvious.

Analysts Are Not the Gospel

Analysts get things wrong all the time, and sometimes en masse. Count the number of analysts that following the PlayStation 3's lackluster launch kept projecting it would end up in first place overall? Too many to count, and it's still in third place a half decade later, according to compiled sales numbers from VGChartz.com. How many actually had the Nintendo Wii selling as well as it did? Almost none, and it nearly sold the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined! So much for analysts' predictions!

They have been wrong before about Apple too: the iPad is a shining example. Look at this compilation of sales forecasts for the original iPad from Asymco. Not a single analyst came within half of the 14.8 million units the company actually sold in 2010. Even your "Apple-favoring" analysts -- Shaw Wu and Gene Munster -- were way off.

On predicting the financial health of Apple, analysts also made a significant change to the way they figured their predictions, Bullish Cross' Andy Zaky points out in a post for Fortune.com. Whereas in the past analysts typically placed their expectations at about a five to ten percent premium to Apple's forecasts, this quarter that jumped to an average of about 19 percent. So when Apple beat its guidance within the typical margin of 12 to 18 percent that it had over the past several quarters -- 13 percent here -- it was seen as a miss.

The San Jose Mercury News' Chris O'Brien wrote on how these analysts screwed up on understanding the consumer market when it came to waiting for the new iPhone (what did I tell you?). One of them actually admitted they were quite overzealous.

"We really missed on the transition", Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro told O'Brien. "People just stopped buying iPhones". (I'd also note that Fidacaro was way off on the iPad too.)

Thus, the "Apple stumbles" meme in the media is more a function of analysts inexplicably changing their forecast formulas. This would have been considered a great quarter otherwise. How do you figure that?

What an analyst says should never be taken as gospel or hell, even taking my word as gold on this issue. Many of us use what these experts say to further our own biases. It is human nature for us to do so, thus there's no need to lay blame.

Tomorrows Consumers Are Apple's Ace

While I have laid out for you my argument for why Apple's already in good shape, we really haven't seen anything yet. Evidence of this comes from a recent study by Harris Interactive. The firm polled young consumers aged eight to 24. They found that Apple had strong brand equity in this key group -- in fact, it is the top brand in computers, phones and tablets among those 13 to 24. Apple beat out a long-established brand in HP, one of the biggest phone manufacturers in HTC, and dusted the floor with the Motorola Xoom.

The fact that Apple is curating such loyalty across the board among the youngest of consumers is very significant. These kids are growing up Apple, and when they get to the age where they're making purchasing decisions independently the company will benefit. This is something Apple has never enjoyed during its three decades of existence.

Why is this? Today's older tech generation comes from a time where Apple computers sat aside of PCs with a sixfold premium, our only exposure to Apple was in the school computer lab, and we used Napster to download our music. Contrast that to today's generation: They know Macs as the premium brand in computers, but without much of the so-called "Apple Tax", many of them have exposure to Apple through their iPods and iPads -- that so called "halo effect" -- and iTunes is the place for them to go for digital music.

This consumer group is huge, too. "Generation Y" (born 1977-2000) eclipses the size of the "Baby Boomers". By 2017, it will exceed the elder group's buying power, according to marketing researcher Kit Yarrow, PhD and retail expert Jane O'Donnell, authors of Gen BuY. Apple has significant brand presence here. It is really difficult to argue that this will not translate into increased sales -- or at least the opportunity.

The company has an envious position now that few of its competitors will ever enjoy. This is why Apple is in no trouble regardless of the bumps in the road it has encountered this past year.

I think it's quite dangerous to make judgements based on the present of a company's overall health. Many analysts, pundits, and investors alike have done so with Apple. But the argument can be made that Apple's best days are ahead of it, and the stars are aligning to keep the Cupertino company relevant for the years -- if not decades -- to come.

Photo Credit: 1000 Words / Shutterstock

If you need to work with Adobe PDF files then you could cobble together a basic solution from free tools. A virtual printer driver here, a conversion tool there, a PDF viewer with simple annotation features -- it’s surprising what you can achieve.

If you’re looking to create your own PDF files, though, edit any part of an existing document, work with PDF forms and perhaps integrate with document management systems, then you’ll need something considerably more powerful.

You could spend big money on Adobe Acrobat, of course. But there are alternatives. Nitro Pro 7 allows you to create, convert, view, edit and collaborate on PDF files, is packed with high-end annotation options and includes powerful form design features and many security options. The program then goes beyond Adobe’s Acrobat X Standard with new redaction capabilities, more powerful in-place image editing, Evernote integration and more. And yet you can buy it for less than half the price of the Adobe package, a very reasonable-sounding $99.99.

This seems like a very good deal, but what you do really get for your money? We took a closer look.

PDF Creation

You’ll probably want to start by creating a PDF file or two, and Nitro Pro 7 provides many ways to make this happen.

The program’s virtual printer driver, for instance, allows you to create PDFs from any application, customizing their layout, metadata, resolution, compression and font options, password protection, document restrictions (only allowing low-res printing, say) and encryption: it’s an excellent tool, powerful yet also easy to use.

Nitro Pro 7 can also optionally integrate with Microsoft Office 2003 and later. Creating a PDF file from Word, Excel or PowerPoint was as easy as clicking the Create PDF button on our Office 2010 ribbon.

The program also imports pages directly from your scanner, while an I.R.I.S.-based extension (now included as standard in all versions) performs basic OCR. Its default settings aren’t the best, and there’s little interactivity (you can’t guide the program by highlighting areas of the page), but it’ll be fine for simple documents.

A conversion tool accepts Microsoft Office, WordPerfect and HTML files, along with all the main image formats, and converts them to PDF or back again (so you can convert a PDF file to .DOCX for editing in Word, say).

And in our tests we found these features generally worked well. All our sample files were imported accurately, if at times a little slowly, and even our most complex Word documents became quality PDF files in a click or two.

Editing

If your newly-created PDF files aren’t exactly what you need then you can always edit them. Nitro Pro 7 is packed with useful features here, yet the program’s clean and clear Ribbon-style interface means it’s generally very easy to find what you need. (Which is just as well, as the Help file is annoyingly not context sensitive -- you can’t press F1 with a particular dialog open and expect to see relevant advice -- and has an Index, but no Search tab.)

Choose the Edit option, for instance, and you’ll immediately benefit from Nitro Pro 7′s new paragraph text editing. Just double-click a paragraph, and you’re able to edit text just as though it was in a word processor. Type or delete, and the text reflows correctly; change alignment, text or font properties and everything works just as you’d expect. As long as the document hasn’t been created via OCR, anyway (the paragraph blocks can then be very unpredictable).

You can quickly create standard headers and footers containing text or graphics, organize them into profiles, then apply them to any document in a click. These can also be edited and removed with ease (even if they were created by Adobe Acrobat).

There are also options to insert Bates numbers, text or image-based watermarks, bookmarks, links or more. You can insert new pictures, or tweak existing images by altering their brightness, contrast and color, rotating, resizing, flipping, cropping them and more. And Nitro Pro 7 also works well at the page level: you can rotate or crop a page, delete or replace a set of pages, and split a document in many different ways, amongst other options.

New to this edition is a Redaction panel. The program can now automatically search for and redact sensitive information, as well as allowing you to manually mark whatever content you’d like to remove. And there’s also a “Remove Metadata” option, although notably this dialog doesn’t show you what it’s removing. (You can check beforehand by viewing the page Properties, but that shouldn’t really be necessary.)

A stack of annotation options start with the ability to add notes, or add text markup (highlight or underline text, say, and add a pop-up note explaining why). You’re able to draw on the page, or add basic shapes, text boxes or callouts. And the standard Stamps selection (“Urgent”, “Reviewed”, “Draft”, “Final” etc) has been extended with the useful new Dynamic Stamps, which automatically include relevant details such as the date, time, or your name.

More Features

Nitro Pro 7 has plenty of other interesting new features spread all around the package.

The program can now remember your place in a document when you reopen it, for instance. And improved tab management sees you able to close all documents except the one that is currently open. Small additions, but they make a real difference to the program’s overall ease of use.

Elsewhere, the new QuickSign feature allows you to import a scanned image of your own handwritten signature, then add it to the end of any future document in a click. And new digital signature profiles allow you to combine this with a digital certificate. Click Sign, choose your profile, and click on the page; your signature appears where you’ve clicked, and the document will be digitally signed as well.

As with previous editions, the program has strong support for creating and working with PDF forms (including the ability to import and export data to or from FDF files). And this version now makes it much more straightforward to work with static XFA forms, which don’t have the regular interactive fields. Previously you’d have to print these out, fill them in by hand and scan to import the results; now you can use the Type Text tool and just type to complete each field.

And if you have the Evernote client installed, then you’ll appreciate Nitro Pro 7′s new support. Simply right-click content of interest -- anything from images and blocks of text to entire pages -- and choose the Send to Evernote option to save a copy for later.

Performance

Nitro Pro 7 has no shortage of power, but how do these features perform?

Basic text and image rendering speeds are average for this kind of tool, being just a fraction slower than a simple PDF viewer. Vector art is rendered far more quickly, though: Nitro PDF say the program may be 500-percent faster here than previous editions.

How efficiently does the program render PDF files? For a basic test, we took a plain text file, 9.33KB in size, and saved it as a standard quality PDF file using Office 2010 (using Microsoft’s PDF addin): this produced a 65.4KB file. Then we created a medium quality PDF file using Nitro Pro 7, and this was 52.3KB in size: no major overheads here.

Next, we took a moderately-sized PDF file (25 pages, 448KB) and inserted a simple header to display the page number, so ensuring that every page would be updated. Saving this increased the file size by 60KB to 508KB, again very acceptable, and further tests with larger documents showed similar results.

And to finish, we decided to test the import/ export options by converting a 498-page eBook from PDF format to Word, and back again, then comparing the files.

This required some patience. Creating a Word document from our original PDF took a reasonable 148 seconds, but converting that document back to PDF required a tedious 516 seconds. (As a comparison, Word 2010 managed to save the same document as a PDF file in 67 seconds).

This was a far more complex document than most people will be importing on a routine basis, though. And the conversion itself was generally very good: we spotted a single substituted font, and a few small paragraph positioning issues, but the latter were only noticeable if you looked closely. Which was excellent performance for such a tricky task.

Nitro Pro 7 scores highly where it really matters, with accurate file importing, a lengthy list of essential editing and annotation options, some great new features, an intuitive interface -- and of course it’s great value for money.

The software lists for $99.99 and supports Windows XP, Vista, 7 and Server 2003/ 2008/ 2008 R2, all 32 and 64-bit editions.

This week I gave a talk on Web 2.0 and teaching to a group of higher-education faculty ("cloud" isn't yet pervasive in academia). I won't bore you with the details, but I made the basic argument that using cloud-based tools could help educators create better learning environments for their students through the collaboration, mobility and engagement opportunities the cloud affords. I gave examples of several different tools that could help do this, like collaborative documents, mobile video broadcasting, and group citation indexes. Then I ended with what they all really wanted to talk about: social media.

In addition to being the hottest iteration of cloud computing to the general public, social media holds much potential for education. Social media allows for effortless individual and collective communication between teacher and student(s). It breaks down the walls of the traditional classroom, allowing for conversation and active learning to exist 24/7, in real time and asynchronously, right in the palm of a student's hand.

Yet social media also has some serious drawbacks, especially when it is mixed into the professional world of education. The instances of teachers being fired for Facebook posts are numerous. The State of Missouri was so concerned about the professional implications of teacher to student Facebook interactions that they actually banned them. Though this law has since been overturned, the sentiment is telling: the mixing of social media between teachers and students can be professionally dangerous.

For this reason, I gave the higher-ed educators the following advice: If you use social media, you're nuts not to be using Google+.

This isn't a slam against Facebook and Twitter. I use both the services and find them valuable. However, being an educator myself, I have always struggled with the challenge of friending students. I know that once I do so with my personal social media accounts I am entering potentially dangerous territory professionally. I am willingly blurring the lines between my personal and my professional life.

In some ways this is refreshing. I like to get to know students outside of the classroom and have them know about me -- to a certain extent. But sometimes, I just might not want students to see pictures of my family's summer vacation (see dangers of that with above link). I might not want my co-workers to know about my political views revealed with my link shares. What I ultimately end up doing is editing what I say, or just not sharing at all -- something that seems fairly counter-productive to the whole social media experience.

Luckily, Google+ has helped to alleviate many of these problems.

Privacy

The key functionality of Google+ is its granular, intuitive privacy controls. Users create Circles that they populate based on their relationship to other Google+ members. I have a Circle for Students, Classmates, Co-workers, Family, etc. When I post anything on Google+ -- pictures, status updates, links -- I choose exactly what Circles I want to see that content. I can drill down even further and specify individuals that I want to see my post, as well as specify if that post can be shared or commented upon. With Google+, I am in complete control of my digital identity, and it is all very, very easy to do.

One Identity to Rule them All

One way to get around the blurring of professional and personal lines in social media is to have an account for your professional use and one for your personal. So a teacher named Sam Smith might have a personal account that he only uses to friend personal relations and a professional account he only uses to friend students and professional colleagues.

Yet this approach is cumbersome. Now you have two Facebook accounts to maintain, two Twitter accounts to use, two email addresses to check consistently for activity. It can be done, but it is a pain. Also, you better not publicly say anything on that personal account because it can be searched and found by prying students looking for dirt on you. Easier to just use one account and watch what you say.

Google+ allows you to have one identity where you can choose what you say to whom and, in doing so, have the freedom to say whatever you want. By forcing you to concisely choose who you share your posts with and then making it easy for you to implement that granular approach, Google+ lets you be many different things to different people while still using one account.

Hangouts

One other feature of Google+ that makes it a truly "killer app" for education is Hangouts. With a webcam and mic enabled computer or phone/tablet with a front facing camera, you can have a real time, online meeting with up to 10 simultaneous video streams. Google recently added Google docs integration and screen share, making it even more compelling. Now a group of students, or a teacher with some students, can meet, "face to face" and edit one document in real time, with side-chat functionality as well.

I’ve actually used Hangouts as a student (in a particular masochistic turn, I decided to pursue a doctorate degree). I recently had a study group and we collectivity edited our assignment together using Hangouts while chatting face to face. The process worked flawlessly and I feel like it was in many ways more productive than a physical face to face meeting would have been.

The use of hangouts for education is significant. Small group ad hoc meetings between students from anywhere at anytime. Study groups accessed from the palm of your hand. A teacher that can join a group at anytime to give feedback and answer questions. The list goes on.

The Right Tool for the Right Job

Many pundits have crowed about the imminent failure of Google+ as a social network. Reports of the drop in usage, lack of Google CEO participation and inability to beat Facebook abound. I find most to be unfounded smear campaigns asserted by pundits for unknown reasons (see Mike Elgan’s refutation of Google+ "desertion" reports here). Google+ is not going the way of Buzz or Wave. Google is in this one for the long haul and has the resources to make it work (see: Gmail).

It's also not a zero-sum game, as the pundits would have you think. There's a place for Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Where you fit in to those places depends on who you are. I'm a father, a husband, an education professional, a student and more. I'm also an avid tech user and a believer that cloud computing iterations like social media offer incredible value to our society (see: Occupy Wall Street movement). It is because of these various roles that I choose Google+ -- because it allows me to assume all these roles at once, securely.

Moving Forward

Google recently enabled Google+ for Apps users. In the context of education, that means institutions that use Google Apps will have the ability to turn on a functionality that will give them an instant academic social network. (Update: Unfortunately it seems like this functionality is currently only available for higher ed Apps user -- 18+. Many K-12 Apps users are none to happy about this-- and I completely agree with them. Hopefully Google will reconsider, as they recently did with their pseudonym policy. In the meantime, Google+ still offers K-12 educators the privacy controls I've described for using social media in a personal and professional context.) Using their student IDs, students can now interact with one another and their instructors effortlessly. The opportunities for increasing engagement and collaboration are limitless, and the price -- free -- can’t be beat.

The institution I am currently a student at is on Apps but, last time I checked, had not turned on Google+ (the University Apps administrators control this functionality). I hope they change their minds soon. Given the potential of Google+ and education, they’re nuts not to.

Photo Credit: AHMAD FAIZAL YAHYA/Shutterstock

Ryan Tyler is a free-lance writer and educator living in Portland, Or. He has worked in the entertainment industry as well as K-12 and higher education. His interests include education reform, distance education and using technology to make the world a better place. Of course, he’s also a tech geek.

On the opening day of the Mozilla Festival in London on Friday, the Knight-Mozilla News Technology Partnership announced five technology fellows who will spend the next year embedded in leading news agencies, studying the needs of the modern newsroom.

The Guardian, The Boston Globe, Al Jazeera English, Zeit Online, and the BBC have opened their newsrooms so these innovators can find new ways that open source Web technology can advance the values of journalism.

The Knight-Mozilla News Technology Partnership, or "MoJo" as it's called, is a three-year partnership between the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Mozilla to utilize open Web technology to advance modern journalism. It began last April, and has already featured such developer challenges as: "How can new web video tools transform news storytelling?"; "Going beyond comment threads: How can we reinvent news discussions?"; and "Making news better for the people who create and read it using only open Web technologies, (no Flash, iOS, or any other proprietary SDKs.)"

"This first cohort of Knight-Mozilla fellows is an impressive group, and well positioned to add real value – both to their partner news organizations and to the journalism field in general," said John S. Bracken, director of media innovation at Knight Foundation. "At Knight, we see great promise in these intersections of technology and journalism."

These five individuals are just the first in a set of 15-20 fellows that will be embedded in newsrooms throughout the world to create new tools and innovations for "news experiences" that are as open and widely accessible as possible.

Google has updated both Google Chrome Beta to version 16, and Google Chrome Dev to version 17, respectively.

Chrome Beta’s standout feature is support for multi-user profiles that can be standalone or linked to separate Google accounts for sync purposes. This allows users to access their own personal settings from another machine, but should be considered a feature that’s convenient rather than secure.

Once installed, multi-users is accessible from the Personal section under Chrome’s Options. Clicking New User opens a new window with an icon in the top left-hand corner indicating which user is currently browsing using that window. Multiple windows containing different users can be opened at once, while accounts can be configured to sync with a Google account, be renamed and have their identifying icon changed.

Google is keen to stress the feature is one for convenience rather than security. In its blog post announcing the beta, Google Software Engineer Miranda Callahan warns: "One thing to keep in mind is that this feature isn’t intended to secure your data against other people using your computer, since all it takes is a couple of clicks to switch between users".

"We want to provide this functionality as a quick and simple user interface convenience for people who are already sharing Chrome on the same computer today", she adds. "To truly protect your data from being seen by others, please use the built-in user accounts in your operating system of choice".

Google Chrome 17 has no such standout features in the latest Dev build. There’s a new version of Chrome’s V8 Javascript engine (3.6.6.3) while the user is now prompted to cancel any downloads when the last incognito window of a profile is closed. Print Preview also now supports adjustable margins.

One major issue with this new release is that the Native Client Interface (NaCI) doesn’t work in the Windows version of Chrome. This is a tool aimed at developers who wish to build web applications that seamlessly execute native compiled code within the browser itself, so shouldn’t effect end users, although as always caution should be exercised when choosing to run any pre-release software. If in doubt, stick to the latest stable release of Chrome.

Both Google Chrome Beta 16 and Google Chrome Dev 17 are available for download now for Windows, Mac and Linux.

A dedicated email client is not something that is seen as being quite as essential as it used to be, largely because most web-based email services have dramatically improved. However, there are many people who prefer to entrust their communication to an application rather than a website, and there are a number of titles that can fulfill the role. Free programs such as Thunderbird have proved popular, but if you’re looking for a little more control over your inbox, commercial offerings such as Postbox provide a range of additional options and features.

Although the email client can be used to access almost any email account, there is a strong focus on Gmail support. As Gmail is widely regarded as being the most accomplished web-based email service available, you may well wonder why you would want to use an email client to access it at all. Postbox has a great deal to offer, but its integration with social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter is one the highlights. Postbox pulls in information from each of these networks to provide as much information as possible about your contacts and the people you correspond with.

There are other email clients that have been designed for use only with Gmail but few can offer the seamless look and feel of Postbox. With native support for Gmail labels, including a simple drop down menu system for applying labels to messages in your inbox, managing a large number of emails and the process of searching and navigating through your messages is made wonderfully easy.

If you have become used to working with the Gmail website, you will no doubt make extensive use of the range of keyboard shortcuts supported by the site. These same shortcuts can be used in Postbox so you can quickly reply to, create or delete emails without the need to move your hands from the keyboard. It doesn’t matter whether you are using the Mac or Windows version of the app, there are OS specific feature that make Postbox quick, easy and intuitive to use. For OS X users, there is support for full screen mode as well as trackpad and Mighty Mouse gestures, while Windows 7 users have jumplist support that allows for easy access to your contacts as well as the email composition window, and system tray minimizing helps to keep taskbar clutter to a minimum.

Third-Party Tool Support

Google support extends even further with the date detection feature; if an email includes a date, or a reference to a day in the future, you are provided with the option of creating a Google Calendar event. There is also interesting support for third-party services including Evernote on the Mac -- you can quickly create a note by opting to send message content to your Evernote account. To overcome the problem of attachment size limits, you can send links to files stored on Dropbox rather than having to email the files themselves.

Postbox is pretty much everything you could ask for. The interface is highly tweakable, and there are a number of helpful shortcuts that can help you to home in on the emails you are looking for. Four dedicated buttons above you inbox provide instant access to standard messages, emails that includes lists of things you need to do, messages with attachments, and messages that include images. The app can also be used to access newsgroups and read RSS feeds, but the main task of handling email is taken care of beautifully.

iOS users will be happy to see the inclusion of a unfied inbox, while the Gmail-style threaded conversation view makes it easy to follow an email exchange without the need to manually search back through your messaging history. In its own right, Postbox is impressive but there is also the opportunity to install add-ons that can open up even more features.

Postbox is available for both Windows and Mac, and you can test the 30 day trial. The full version of the app is available for $29.95

China is in the spotlight again after a US intelligence report accused the country of cyber espionage. The country is using the data stolen as a result to strengthen its own economy, and is a threat to both American progress and the economy overall, the report says.

"Many states view economic espionage as an essential tool in achieving national security and economic prosperity", the report reads. "Their economic espionage programs...could give these states a competitive edge over the United States and other rivals".

While China is accused of the majority of cyberspying, the report also states that Russia has set up an "extensive and sophisticated" network on its own. China is likely using its efforts to bolster an already booming economy, however, Russia's reasons for cyber espionage stem out of a need to diversify its economy and fight back against an economic system it sees as Western-biased.

Spies turn to the Internet for several reasons. There is a lower risk of detection than attempting to collect the data in person. Spying becomes much faster and far cheaper as a result, because broadband networks allow for the instantaneous transfer of massive amounts of data in just seconds, instead of delivering the files in physical form.

Finally, it's much easier for the spy to hide his or her physical location through using a complex system of proxies and the like, hiding their true identity from the victim. With so much of our world's business now on the Internet, it's just there for the taking, the report says.

"Losses of sensitive economic information and technologies to foreign entities represent significant costs to US national security", it argues. The theft of military technology could endanger the US military, the theft of government economic data could harm the country's affairs, and the theft of trade secrets could hurt our businesses efforts to remain competitive in a global marketplace.

The report expects both Russia and China to remain major players in cyber espionage, although it warns that new threats may be on the horizon, and there is an increasing threat from decentralized players.

A great example of this would be the hacktivist group Anonymous, which is affiliated with no government body but has broken into government servers worldwide and published the information it has found on several occasions.

China slammed the report for targeting the country for spying. "Identifying the attackers without carrying out a comprehensive investigation and making inferences about the attackers is both unprofessional and irresponsible", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a news briefing. "I hope the international community can abandon prejudice and work hard with China to maintain online security".

Photo Credit: Kheng Guan Toh/Shutterstock

Microsoft's innovative natural user interface Kinect turns one year old today, and it looks like there's a celebration of some sort brewing.

Kinect began as an Xbox 360 peripheral, but it grew into an official Windows peripheral six months ago with the first Kinect for Windows beta.

Today, beta 2 of that SDK has been rolled out, and the Kinect SDK team put out the following message on Twitter Friday afternoon:

"Please follow @KinectWindows, our team's new presence on twitter. Big day today...stay tuned."

Lots of innovative projects have sprung from the Kinect SDK, and it's expected to commercially launch in early 2012.

We'll see what the Kinect team has in store for us today. In the meantime, you can download Beta 2 of the Kinect for Windows SDK in FileForum now.

That's my response to the question "Does the Siri outage reveal its success?" posed by Darrell Etherington at GigaOM today. Etherington's post will be one of many Apple apologies that you'll read, following Siri's collapse yesterday. There are conflicting reports about timing, but five to six hours is fairly consistent.

I expect the typical fanboy comments to this post -- like those yesterday to my "Why can't Apple get iPhone's design right?" -- accusing of linkbaiting and being an Apple hater. Not so. In the Apple crowd, no one can hear you scream because they're all shouting you down.

Etherington has a Master's Degree in creative writing and puts his talents to good use, contending that Apple might "want to reflect on this after the fact and pat itself on the back". This is where I spit up coffee while reading his Siri outage apology.

Hopefully Apple learned a valuable lesson about managing a large-scale, persistent data service managed from its own server facility, and this will never happen again. But the extent of the outcry as the outage wore on, as well as the attempts Friday to follow-up and try to get to the bottom of what exactly happened show that Siri’s effect on the mobile landscape is not insignificant.

Siri is a new iPhone feature/service for Apple, and one that requires cloud connectivity to answer the many questions people will ask. "Learn a valuable lesson?" What? Apple failed to learn the lesson about managing data centers when MobileMe collapsed during its launch nearly three-and-a-half years ago. That's no excuse for Siri's outage, nor is comparing to the recent, longer BlackBerry service outage (which he does).

I posted about the Apple apology blog to Google+ before writing this response. Tom Paladino astutely sums up Etherington's response: "The article was asking: has Siri become ubiquitous so quickly that it's failure in up-time (and subsequent outcry) indicate that the overall service is a success?"

I understand it all too well. John Berger responds to Paladino: "It indicates no such thing. All that it says is that they hired competent system admins who were able to identify, troubleshoot, and fix the problem in a relatively short amount of time. It has zero to do with the 'success' of Siri".

Let's be generous and assume that Apple has sold 10 million iPhone 4Ses already and that all 10 million devices are located in areas where they have data access to Siri services and users can afford to pay data access fees. That's ubiquitous? Hardly, in a global market where there are 5.6 billion mobile subscribers. Nor is the number of iPhone 4Ses sold likely that high or the number of Siri users anywhere close to that number. What? Apple can't handle a few million users in the cloud? Etherington makes too much of Siri's success as justification for a service that should fail never.

My colleague Ed Oswald upgraded to iPhone 4S, mainly because of Siri. I know other people who did the same. More importantly, Siri is Apple's primary advertising push for iPhone 4S. If for no other reason than marketing, the service shouldn't fail. Not now, especially. First impressions are everything.

As more evidence the outage shows Siri's success, Etherington writes: "The outcry about Siri’s downtime reminds me of the web-wide groans that go up every time the Twitter fail whale makes one of its visits, or when Tumblr takes a tumble".

Paladino offers better response than I could at Google+: "The outcry about the outage shows a lot of people were quite upset about it similar to when Twitter fails or when BlackBerry goes down. Do these represent a large enough pool to make the service ubiquitous? I don't think so yet".

Exactly my point, and more. Even if a service is hugely popular, no outage can be excused by popularity. What? You think the BlackBerry users cowing for their service back would have accepted that excuse -- BB is so popular the service crashed? Did AT&T subscribers bitching about dropped calls accept iPhone's popularity as excuse. Hell, no.

There's a broader issue and lesson to be learned from it: How much should mobile devices depend on cloud services for key functionality.

"Given the state of data services in the US right now, I don't think a service like Siri is ready for prime-time" Paladino asserts. "Nor do I think ChromeOS was a good idea without offline capabilities. The fact that Siri needs a data connection to do local tasks like play a song or schedule an appointment is the big fail in my eyes".

I must agree.

Microsoft's "It's a great time to be a family" marketing campaign keeps getting better. This ranks as one of my favorite high-tech promotionals in a decade and accomplishes something Microsoft has never successfully done in a mass-marketing campaign -- clearly show the benefits of multiple products working together. I spotted two more videos late today.

Before Microsoft launched the "I'm a PC" campaign three years ago, I recommended firing then new ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky, after the Chairman Bill Gates and Comedian Jerry Seinfeld commercials aired. But I was wrong to make the recommendation. The agency has produced for Microsoft a string of creative hits, of which the family campaign is just the most recent.

As I explained about two weeks ago, the campaign sells the Microsoft lifestyle -- emphasizing relationships and technology enabling them. There's a real familiarity, because family is something most people can relate to. It's not like most of us are harvested in test tubes. The commercials are also clever, in the storytelling and how they present the benefits of multiple products. Keyword: Benefits. Not features, but benefits people gain from them.

In the commercial embedded above, a dad shops for groceries from a list on his phone. Yeah, big deal. So he has a shopping list. What's special about that? But the list updates in -- real time. From the family's Windows 7 PC. Dad uses OneNote on his Windows Phone, and it can dynamically sync via SkyDrive. This Microsoft video explains how. The products aren't all necessarily named -- OneNote, SkyDrive, sync, Windows Phone and Windows 7 -- but the benefits are clear.

As I've been saying for years, sync is the killer application for the connected age and it's something the commercial above and another "Tech-No" I wrote about two weeks ago demonstrate. BetaNews reader John Crane commented about the latter:

That epic sharing happened a couple of time in my extended family. We were having separate family get-togethers in two different locations across and country and were able to share videos and photos with each other in real time. We have a couple Apple PC holdouts in my family, but most everybody else uses Windows.

Apple's iCloud is all the rage right now, in part because it's new. It's a sync service more than anything else. But the focus is more about individuals -- making your stuff available where you want it. Microsoft's approach with its cloud sync marketing emphasizes sharing with others -- an aspiring message conveyed through the family marketing campaign.

No one talks in the TV commercials, which like those from previous campaigns will be reshot for each locality -- 34 international markets. Globalization may be easier for this campaign than others, since there's no dialogue. In watching the commercials, I find the no-dialog approach very effective. My attention is drawn to activity taking place around the different devices and services.

Have you seen the movie "Blade Runner" directed by Ridley Scott? At the movie studio's insistence, the final commercial release included voice by actor Harrison Ford. Scott later released "Blade Runner" director's cut without the voice over, and it's a much better movie for it. What's that saying? Silence is golden. Sometimes it is -- well, there is musical background.

The marketing campaign runs across different media. I spotted the embedded commercials this evening at iSmashPhone.com, while doing some background research on Apple's Siri service outage. They started playing immediately, unprompted, too, which is really annoying.

I'm looking forward to the next commercials.

Taiwanese software giant CyberLink has released version 8 of its all-encompassing disc-burning suite, Power2Go. Comprising software for burning data and media to CD, DVD and Blu-ray, Power2Go 8 adds a new tool for creating system recovery discs that allows the user to back up and restore data outside of Windows, plus the ability to mount virtual disk images as if they were physical drives.

Power2Go 8 also sees the introduction of a cut-down free version of the software. Power2Go 8 Essential is essentially a 15-day trial of the full Platinum edition of the suite that reverts to an “Essential” edition capable of only a handful of tasks after the trial expires.

The full version of Power2Go 8 brings together a plethora of burning tools under one roof: data, photo, music, video and system recovery. Interestingly, Blu-ray support is limited to data and photo gallery discs -- there’s no option to burn video Blu-ray discs with this release.

The major new feature in version 8 is the new system recovery disc tool, which is restricted to the Platinum edition of the software. This allows you to back up Windows, your programs and data to a series of discs that can be used to restore your PC should disaster strike. Any discs created during the trial period will only function for 15 days, so make sure you register before burning one if you intend to use the feature long-term.

Free -- to a Degree

All of these tools are available to Power2Go 8 Essential users for the duration of the 15-day trial. Once this expires, however, the program reverts to basic functionality: you can create data CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs, burn and rip music CDs (but not WMA or MP3 CDs), copy discs and use the tool’s drag-and-drop desktop gadget.

What you won’t be able to do is burn any form of video CD or DVD, save and burn disc images, choose between ISO/UDF or take advantage of Power2Go 8’s simulated burning feature. You’ll also find a number of accessories are disabled too, including the Audio Converter, CD Extra, Mixed Mode CD, Virtual Drive and Label Print tool.

Power2Go 8 also comes with WaveEditor 2, a “sample-level precision waveform editor” that provides a multi-timeline mixer for editing multiple audio tracks simultaneously. Again, this functions as a 15-day trial.

Power2Go 8 Essential is available now for Windows XP, 7 and Vista. It installs as a 15-day trial of the fully functional Platinum version before reverting to the basic Essentials version with flags to upgrade whenever the user attempts to launch a non-supported tool. The full version retails for $69.95, with a slightly cut-down Deluxe edition also available for $20 less. This version omits the system rescue option and the ability to burn video DVDs with Dolby Audio.

Apple will require all apps in the Mac App Store to employ sandboxing beginning in March 2012, aiming to make apps safer from malicious attack. The Cupertino company informed all registered developers in an e-mail sent on Thursday. Apple had planned to mandate sandboxing beginning this month, but for undisclosed reasons delayed the requirement.

Sandboxing is a method which developers use to limit exposure to system processes. The application is run in a protected environment and given a limited set of resources. This in turn makes it much harder for attackers to break in. "The vast majority of Mac users have been free from malware and we're working on technologies to help keep it that way", Apple argues.

While the move is aimed at protecting Mac OS users, it presents a host of challenges for developers. When building programs, Apple has allowed access to a select list of system processes, called "entitlements". Here's that full list:

• Read-only access to the user’s Movies folder and iTunes movies
• Read/write access to the user’s Movies folder and iTunes movies
• Read-only access to the user’s Music folder
• Read/write access to the user’s Music folder
• Read-only access to the user’s Pictures folder
• Read/write access to the user’s Pictures folder
• Capture of movies and still images using the built-in camera, if available
• Recording of audio using the built-in microphone, if available
• Interaction with USB devices
• Read/write access to the user’s Downloads folder
• Read-only access to files the user has selected using an Open or Save dialog
• Read/write access to files the user has selected using an Open or Save dialog
• Child process inheritance of the parent’s sandbox
• Outgoing network socket for connecting to other machines
• Incoming network socket for listening for requests from other machines
• Read/write access to contacts in the user’s address book
• Read/write access to the user’s calendars
• Use of the Core Location framework for determining the computer’s geographical location
• Printing

Mac App Store apps would not have access to other processes. Access for applications not distributed through the App Store would be unaffected. Regardless, this change has some developers upset.

"The obvious counterargument is that it’s Apple’s store, they make the rules, and nobody forces developers to submit their apps", software developer Pauli Olavi Ojalaw wrote Thursday to his personal blog. "However, the Mac App Store is increasingly the place where Mac users discover apps. Apple’s big push with making Lion and the pro apps exclusive to the App Store has guaranteed this".

Access to select other non-sandboxed processes will be permitted, but Apple says it will gradually phase those out "over time", and developers must request access or face rejection. Either way, it appears that the functionality of many Mac App Store apps may be greatly reduced, which in the end could force developers to attempt to promote their apps elsewhere.

Since Hewlett-Packard lost its Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd last year, the corporation's executive staff has been transient. This week, among the continuing shuffle, a new executive position has been named, and a position that had been open for the last five months has been filled.

Both of these positions, ironically, fall under the category of Information Technology...something HP is supposed to...well...do.

When Hurd exited, Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak stepped up and served as interim CEO while the company searched for a replacement. Two months later, former SAP President Leo Apotheker was named CEO, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Managing partner Ray Lane was named (non-executive) chairman of HP's board of directors.

Under Apotheker, a new set of strategies for HP was announced, and a series of executive shake-ups took place. Apotheker highlighted three businesses that would be focused upon: Hybrid Cloud Solutions, Connected Devices, and Management, Security, and Analytics software; and the Chief Administration Officer Pete Bocian, and Chief Information Officer Randy Mott were both eliminated.

But in less than a year, Apotheker was shoved out of the position of CEO, and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman was named president and CEO. Ray Lane, who entered with Apotheker, was elevated to executive chairman of the board.

Because an IT company can't run without IT leadership of its own, HP this week announced former Boeing CIO John Hinshaw will be taking the position of Executive Vice President of Global Technology and Business Processes, a new job in the organization that reports directly to CEO Meg Whitman.

Hinshaw's job will be to oversee information technology and shared administrative services, which includes procurement of indirect materials and services. Hinshaw also will be in charge of "optimizing business processes" across the company.

HP also announced that Craig Flower, who was temporarily serving as CIO in Mott's absence, has been elevated to the post permanently. Flower will be responsible for data management, application architecture, global business intelligence, sales, as well as product development and engineering applications, and will be a subordinate of the newly-positioned Hinshaw.

Photo: Tr3gin/Shutterstock

Is Amazon Prime the best deal in tech? It just may be: Amazon now offers the capability for customers to loan out over 5,000 books for their Kindle or Kindle Fire devices. The Kindle Owners' Lending Library will allow for one book per month to be lent out, and there are no due dates.

To borrow a new book, the Kindle user "returns" the title on their device by lending out a new book: the older book will disappear.

Publishers negotiated different terms to allow their titles to be included in the library, Amazon says. For some titles, a fixed fee has been paid to include the book. In other cases, the company is purchasing the e-book at a wholesale price in order to lend it to the Prime subscriber.

"The Kindle Owners' Lending Library is a great new benefit for Kindle owners and an entirely new growth opportunity for authors and publishers", Kindle Content vice president Russ Grandinetti says. Grandinetti notes that Prime Instant Video has already led to broader relationships with movie and television studios.

With the addition of the lending program -- not including the two-day preferred shipping that Prime launched with -- Prime subscribers will now have access to 5,000 books and nearly 13,000 television programs and movies at no additional cost. The service costs $79 per year and can be shared with up to four Amazon accounts (presumably in same household).

None of the six biggest publishers in the US are participating in the program initially, however. The Wall Street Journal reports that there has been pushback over any type of lending program out of fears that it will hurt future sales or damage relationships with other retailers.

While bigger publishers may be scoffing at Amazon's latest offering, smaller retailers seem quite content. "We're excited about any program that helps readers discover our authors and their books", F+W Media chairman and CEO David Naussbaum says. "We think this will lead to more people reading F+W's books, and more profit for our authors".

Photo Credit: Dmitry Lobanov/Shutterstock

For a company praised for such great design, Apple sure seems troubled getting out an iPhone that works right. Death Grip -- and its signal stifling capability -- marred iPhone 4 from Day One. Consumer Reports still won't recommend the handset, even after giving it a high rating. Successor 4S comes along and, uh-oh, suffers from heap, big battery-life problems. The story is everywhere -- even Apple apologist blogs report it. Perhaps the company should invest more resources in functional design than appearance.

Maybe Apple simply is out of its depth. The company has received generous praise for launching a smartphone from scratch and dramatically changing -- arguably pushing ahead -- the entire mobile market with it. Apple deserves kudos for its accomplishment. But the company also is a newcomer to a market where depth-of-engineering is necessary to get products right. The smartphone category is also one where form shouldn't supplant function.

Cell phone design isn't easy, and I don't profess to be any kind of expert. But it doesn't take a Masters degree in industrial design to see that Apple has got problems with iPhone 4/4S. From my perspective as someone who during the mid Noughties conducted consumer surveys about smartphone priorities, battery consistently ranked near the top and telephony often higher. iPhone 4 suffered signal problems and its successor has battery-drain issues. From a usability perspective, failure to deliver core functionality ranks among blunders any company can make designing products.

When working as an analyst and consulting with high-tech vendors about cell phones, my colleagues and I delivered a consistent message: Additional features cannot take away from core functionality. Anything that compromises what's core should be verboten. For cell phones this is particularly true of telephony and battery life, two features Apple has, so far, mucked up in successive iPhone releases.

Achieving Balance

Depth-of-engineering is particularly problematic for Apple because the company is so secretive about new products. Because of the intricacy involved in balancing the many features against one another, broad testing is necessary. I assume, but can't definitely say, that Apple limits access to new prototypes to prevent leaks about them -- then there is the lost iPhone 4 prototype from last year and what that might mean for future testing. If testing is limited, and any smartphone manufacturer might do this, depth-of-engineering can make a huge difference getting the right balance of features that don't compromise those that are core.

Compare to vendors like HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung or Sony, which have produced consumer electronics products -- cellular handsets among them -- for much longer than Apple. Motorola invented the cell phone in 1973 and Nokia the smartphone in 1996. These companies have deep device-engineering cultures. It's part of their DNA.

Apple apologists will argue, with some justification, that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has deep engineering culture, too, because of Macs and iPod. I agree. But cellular handsets, smartphones particularly, are considerably more complex. Something else: Apple often makes functional compromises for purposes of form. The list of products following this pattern is long and the approach is more part of Apple's engineering culture, I contend. There, looking at Mac and iPod, Apple did fairly well balancing features.

Apple made numerous compromises with the original iPhone, such as no 3G or MMS, but did so for the purpose of balance and protecting core functions telephony and battery life. The company took greater risks with iPhone 3G and 3GS, but still managed to maintain balance -- although personally I was not satisfied with battery life, never able to make it one work day on one charge. But in pushing design limits with iPhone 4 and iOS 4, where form superseded function, Apple faltered. Battery life was exceptional, but the antenna design -- mandated in part for appearances -- brought on Death Grip and widespread complaints about dropped calls, even as AT&T improved its cellular network. A company with deeper-engineering function culture might not have so blundered as Apple did with iPhone 4's antenna design.

A Really Big Problem

Now there's iPhone 4S and the battery-sucking problem. Yesterday, my colleague Ed Oswald joined the chorus of iPhone 4S battery life posts, offering a list of solutions. In group chat, I teased Ed, calling him an Apple apologist for treating the topic so lightly.

Apple's forum thread "iPhone 4S battery life?" is a litany of complaints. Among them:

• "My iPhone 4s battery seems terrible! Almost equivalent to my 3GS and it's terrible battery life".
• "Nearly every day my phone has been completely drained of battery before the end of the day, starting with a full charge. I didn't realize that this was a persistent and real problem until I had had the phone for a week".
• "My iPhone 4, even on iOS 5, would only drop about 2 percent overnight but my iPhone 4S drops about 9-10 percent. And I've already calibrated the battery by letting it drain to 0 percent and then charging it all the way to 100 percent".
• "I have AT&T, a guy in my office with Verizon has the exact same problem".

Yesterday, Ed offered five remedies for iPhone 4S battery problems. Absolutely none should be necessary. If there was right balance of functions against operating system capabilities, nothing should need be turned off. Another forum poster expresses the sentiments of many -- and how bad from usability and customer satisfaction perspectives -- is the iPhone 4S battery-drain problem:

This is completely ridiculous...It's crazy that I have to have a device with 75 percent of the functionality turned off in order for the battery usage to be at a semi 'normal' level. There is NO WAY ON THIS EARTH that my phone would get nearly half of the time that Apple advertises this phone should last. I've turned off notifications. I've turned off the feedback. I've turned off location. I've turned off calendars. I've turned off WiFi. I've deleted things. I've drained the battery and recharged it all the way. Bottom line, the battery life still *****. For a phone sitting on standby in the locked mode, my battery should not continue to drain the way it does (and I have good network strength where I am)...I feel like I have purchased a device which is MAJORLY FLAWED.

Yesterday, Apple issued a statement minimizing the numbers and blaming iOS 5: "A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks". If that's true, why aren't more iPhone 4 users complaining about battery-drain problems?

Whether hardware or software, iPhone 4S carries on the sad tradition of its predecessor, and I can't help wonder if a company with deeper cellular manufacturing engineering culture and one that puts function before design would have these problems. Google outsources its pure Android phones to longstanding cellular manufacturers -- for a reason; now the company is buying engineering expertise and culture with Motorola Mobility.

I own the Samsung Galaxy S II, which battery life exceeds what I got from iPhone 4. Now why is that?

On Wednesday, the District Court of Washington DC issued its ruling on antitrust complaints from Sprint and Cellular South about the proposed merger of wireless carriers AT&T and T-Mobile. Most of the complaints were thrown out.

AT&T and T-Mobile moved to dismiss the complaints, arguing that Sprint and Cellular South failed to adequately show the merger would cause them antitrust injury. Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said the majority of the claims would actually be dismissed, but let a few of Sprint and Cellular South's complaints stand.

"Having considered the parties' positions and the relevant legal principles, the Court will grant the motions except as to plaintiffs' claims regarding mobile wireless devices, and Cellular South's roaming claim insofar as it relates to Corr Wireless," Huvelle's ruling said.

A combined AT&T and T-Mobile would have anticompetitive buying power for new mobile devices: UPHELD

"Sprint’s and Cellular South’s complaints provide factual support for the allegation that AT&T already possesses significant market power as a purchaser of mobile wireless devices, and that the acquisition of T-Mobile threatens them with harm. Sprint alleges that the proposed transaction would add T-Mobile’s 34 million customers to AT&T’s 95 million customers, leaving the merged entity with 129 million customers (a 37 percent increase.)"

"Sprint alleges that the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has found that while larger carriers can negotiate handset exclusivity agreements, smaller carriers such as Sprint cannot. Sprint cites Apple’s iPhone as an example. AT&T was the exclusive provider of the 'iconic' iPhone from 2007 until early 2011, when Apple 'gave Verizon a time to-market advantage . . . most likely because Verizon had the largest subscriber base in the United States.'"

"Cellular South’s claims to antitrust injury from the proposed transaction’s effect on the
market for wireless devices are, if anything, even more plausible. Cellular South adds narrative to the numbers and market logic alleged by Sprint:

Cellular South and other carriers have often been refused access to current devices and
given access only when the device is no longer the most current model. Cellular South
and other carriers receive older phones at higher prices. The proposed merger will
continue and exacerbate that conduct."

Interestingly, both Sprint and Cellular South (now going by the name C Spire Wireless,) recently became the third and fourth U.S. mobile carriers to carry the iPhone.

Merger would negatively affect roaming partnerships: UPHELD

The Court dismissed Sprint's roaming claim but upheld the claim by Cellular South, saying:

"Cellular South’s Corr Wireless subsidiary, which uses the GSM transmission technology, has been a roaming customer of T-Mobile and is currently a roaming customer of AT&T. As such, given that roaming is a necessary input for Cellular South, the fact that 'the removal of T-Mobile from the marketplace would leave only AT&T as a potential GSM roaming partner,' might be enough to demonstrate Cellular South’s antitrust standing…Even if Corr Wireless represents only a small part of Cellular South’s business, Cellular South’s allegations suggest that its threatened loss from the merger is plausible."

Merger would unfairly lighten AT&T's Spectrum and Network Development costs by giving it T-Mobile's already-developed spectrum bands: DISMISSED

"To the extent Sprint challenges the mere fact that, if AT&T acquires T-Mobile, it will also acquire some additional amount of spectrum, Sprint does not allege injury-in-fact. Without additional guidance as to this claim, the Court is left to assume that AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile’s spectrum would threaten Sprint with injury-in-fact only if the acquisition would curtail Sprint’s access to a supply of spectrum that it demonstrably needed."

This shift in spectrum would actually pile more costs onto other carriers, and force them to increase costs or delay access to new equipment: DISMISSED

"This assertion stands in sharp contrast to a complaint that is otherwise thick with allegations of cut-throat rivalry and predatory behavior in the market for mobile wireless services. Furthermore, even if the carriers’ uncoordinated actions in developing new spectrum bands have yielded positive externalities in the past, what would be anticompetitive about the proposed acquisition if it eliminated those externalities and the carriers had to pay their own costs or, as it seems that Sprint is alleging, if the acquisition caused the costs to be split three ways rather than four? This assertion lacks sufficient factual support."

Merger between AT&T and T-Mobile would create a "Backhaul Monopoly": DISMISSED

"As it stands, Sprint’s claims fail. Sprint alleges no facts to support its theory that the elimination of T-Mobile as a purchaser of backhaul will increase concentration among backhaul sellers by putting the independent providers out of business...Because its complaint leaves so much to conjecture, Sprint fails to adequately allege a threatened injury-in-fact in the backhaul market. Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss Sprint is granted as to Sprint’s backhaul claim."

The US smartphone market has become so consistent -- Android gains, iPhone is stagnant -- that Nielsen has started revealing other interesting trends, as it did today. First, for the fanboys: Android share among US subscribers 13 or older was 43 percent at the end of third quarter, up from 39 percent at the end of June. Meanwhile, iPhone is top-selling smartphone, but iOS share is stuck at 28 percent, following a trend fairly consistent since mid 2010.

Each fan group has some number to wave around: Android as top-selling smartphone OS (and continually gaining) and iPhone leading handset in its class. To fan the fanboy fires, I should point out that iOS could finally get some pick up from new US iPhone carriers C Spire Wireless and Sprint. However, some of the hottest Android phones either shipped or will ship this quarter, including 4G LTE packing Motorola Droid Razr and Galaxy Nexus on Verizon and HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket on AT&T. iPhone 4S lacks LTE.

For anyone keeping track, BlackBerry OS share fell 2 points to 18 percent quarter on quarter. Windows Mobile/Phone held steady at 7 percent. For the Microsoft fanboys, don't feel left out. Windows Phone 7.5 handsets shipping this quarter, such as Samsung Focus S 4G, could finally lift Microsoft's smartphone OS share.

Now to Nielsen's other findings. Forty-three percent of US cellphone subscribers, again 13 or older, had a smartphone at the end of September -- up from 40 percent at the end of July. Interestingly, keeping an ongoing trend, Android OS share tracks consistently with overall smartphone share. Make of that what you will.

More Americans 25-34 have smartphones than any other segment -- 62 percent. It's over 50 percent for anyone older than 17 and younger than 45. Forty-percent of 13-to-17 year olds have smartphones. The oldest segments are least likely to have smartphones -- only 18 percent among those 65 or older. My soon-to-be 90 year-old father-in-law has iPhone 4, which we updated to iOS 5 last night. The many changes already stun him, and it will be worse after upgrading his computer to Mac OS X 10.7. There's a reason to stick with more familiar feature phones.

Time is definitely money when it comes to providing support in a medium to large enterprise. Auslogics OnCluster ensures that downtimes, slow PCs and frustrated employees calling the support desk are kept to the bare minimum by providing easy to supply centralized maintenance and real time support.

Auslogics OnCluster is based upon the company’s very successful range of home maintenance and support products that help automate common tasks like finding and removing registry and hard drive errors and defragmenting them both.

Setting this kind of maintenance to run automatically so that it can be monitored centrally ensures that you don’t need to spend a disproportionate amount of time on employees who neglect their PCs. At the same time, the software enables the end user to apply some maintenance tasks so that no one feels superfluous or under the control of big brother.

Built-in chat enables end users to contact your support team directly and they can be talked through a problem while your IT staff take remote control of the PC. You can manage workstations and any other end points from anywhere on your network that has access to a web browser.

The OnCluster management console needs no installation and you can use it to examine any PC on the network. It’s also possible to organise your PCs into groups to help you to manage them. These could be based upon department, function or location.

It’s even possible to deploy OnCluster across a VPN so that you can use it over multiple sites. There’s a small workstation client that has minimal system requirements plus a server component that can manage up to 100 PCs. For larger networks, multiple server installations may be necessary.

Auslogics OnCluster is available to download as a free trial with prices starting from $249.75 for a five-user solution. The server portion of the software requires Windows Server 2003 or 2008; the client portion also runs on PCs with Windows 7, Vista or XP installed.

Apple’s iTunes may not be everyone’s favorite music player or media management tool, but for millions of iPod, iPad and iPhone owners it is the software they use to work with their music collection. We have all experienced problems with MP3s to one degree or another -- a library littered with duplicate tracks, albums that have no ID3 tags, tracks with misspelt name to name but a few -- and this is something that Real Networks’ Rinse can help with.

This is an Adobe Air application that can be used to analyze and fix your music library, comparing the information attached to your files with an extensive online database. If you are the sort of person who likes to remain in control of what is happening with your computer, you may want to work through your music collection one track at a time, confirming any suggested changes that Rinse comes up with.

But if you have a particularly gigantic music collection, or if you simply don’t fancy the idea of sitting in front of your computer confirming every change, you have the option of working in automatic mode. Rinse can also prove useful if you have used other music management tools in the past only to discover that your music genres have gone awry.

If you have been plagued by missing album art or multiple copies of the same track, Rinse makes it easy to get things back in order. The application does nothing that you could not achieve manually, but it will save you a great deal of time and effort if you leave it to work its magic. The tool is a little on the expensive side at $39, but the results it comes up with are impressive.

You can find out more and download a copy of the program by paying a visit to the Rinse review page.

I have been using Windows 8 Developer Preview (32-bit build) for more than a month now, and must say that I am impressed. The first thing I did was test my own software to see how well Windows 8 supports programs that can run on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. So far the tests look good, and I only found one thing that did not work correctly (didn't handle a layered window properly).

I played with some of the supplied Metro applications, and they are quite interesting. At first, Metro totally confused me -- and I am a programmer! For example, you can't terminate a Metro application like you can a desktop application. Coming from the desktop experience, Metro may confuse some users. That said, I need to get some more information about Metro and how it works. Whether you are a programmer or not, I strongly recommend watching the Microsoft Build video about creating (and using) Metro applications, which you can find here.

The video is quite long, but worth your time if interested in how Metro works. Even non-programmers will understand most of the information presented. Now I appreciate more what Metro is all about and I like many of the concepts. I won't go into any details, since the video does a better job than I could.

From everything I have read, ARM-based tablets will only support Metro applications, while x86 (Intel/AMD CPU's)-based tablets will support both Metro and desktop applications. Desktop is how Microsoft describes the current-style applications we are used on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

Questions, Questions

The biggest complaint I've seen: The old Start menu will be replaced by a Start screen that would better be called a "Switch" menu. The big question: What will Microsoft do to improve the current Start menu for those who will work as much on the desktop as with Metro (see the insightful "Building Windows 8" blog for more on Start). I don't know about the average Windows user, but I currently have a Start menu (on Windows XP) that has over 125 items on it (yes, that many applications). My desktop has over 100 icons on it as well (many icons are for stuff not on the Start menu). Microsoft really needs to put more thought into how those who use desktop applications can access those applications (and files) that used to be available from the Start menu.

From a programmer's point of view, I am concerned about how well Windows 8 will support many the new features when it comes to desktop applications. Metro has some really exciting new features, like contracts, which I really wish was supported with desktop applications as well.

It is not enough for Windows 8 to support both Metro and Desktop applications, but the two need to be more seamlessly integrated. So far everything points to the Metro world being closely controlled (e.g. only source for applications will be Microsoft app store), while the desktop world will be "open and free" as in the past. I spent some time trying to find the location of the Metro apps on the hard drive; what a chore. I just wanted to examine some of the files of those Metro applications to see how they were written.

Another very important concern about Windows 8 is the effect on programmers who do not use a Microsoft product to write applications. Some very good software is written today using non-Microsoft tools. Desktop applications shouldn't be a problem, but Metro applications is another story. Will we be able to build Metro applications with non-Microsoft tools?

Metro works well and provides some great new features. The Desktop appears to work like it has in the past. The real question: How well will the two can blend? As a developer, I would like to see more overlap between the two. They need to be melded together so they become one operating system, rather than two uniquely different operating systems simply glued together.

So will Microsoft provide some new API's for developers of desktop applications so they can better blend the desktop with Metro? Will they make such features available for those who write native code applications? Also, will programmers be locked into using Microsoft programming tools when they want to create Metro applications?

What About Hardware?

There also is the question about the hardware necessary to run Windows 8 effectively. The Samsung tablet PC provided at BUILD was a bit more powerful than the average Windows 7 tablet PC of today. If the latest experience in the tablet market has shown anything, price will be a big issue for x86-based tablets. Sure ARM-based Windows 8 tablets may be cheaper to build, but for those of us who want the full Windows experience at a price we can afford, Windows 8 needs to be able to run well on very low-end hardware.

So will we see any very low-cost, mass-market, tablet PCs running Windows 8? We have seen some current netbooks sold at Walmart for as low as $228, but will there be Windows 8 tablet PCss in that price bracket?

You know what would be amazing? If when Windows 8 is officially released, I could go down to Walmart and purchase a x86 based tablet PC running the OS for $250.

I am not interested in iPad, even if it sold for only $250. I want a real Windows tablet that can run my desktop software. For $250 such a tablet would sell better than netbooks have, I think.

They only need a 32GB SSD instead of a hard drive. I have Windows 8 (32-bit) installed on a 20GB hard drive right now and there is plenty of room left. Also since there is a lot of emphasis today on using online services for data storage (aka. the cloud), users can store a lot of stuff using that. Programmers can (and should) be able to write efficient software that requires minimal space (and memory) on PCs, so such a tablet would suffice.

Now if Microsoft wants to make a big splash when Windows 8 releases, let's see if they can (with their partners) produce a $250 tablet PC running x86 Windows 8. In my opinion it can be done, but will they?

Chris Boss is an advanced Windows API programmer and developer of 10 year-old EZGUI, which is now version 5. He owns The Computer Workshop, which opened for businesses in the late 1980s. He originally developed custom software for local businesses. Now he develops programming tools for use with the PowerBasic compiler.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution called the Wireless Tax Fairness Act of 2011 late Tuesday, which seeks to put a five-year moratorium on new wireless taxes; including those placed on consumer services and property, and also those placed on providers.

The resolution, unsurprisingly, sprung from the heart of the U.S. high tech world, Silicon Valley. The bill's co-sponsor is Zoe Lofgren, a Democratic representative for the 16th district of California, an area which includes the City of San Jose, and Santa Clara County. The bill's Republican sponsor is Trent Lofgren, of the sixth district of Arizona.

"This bill is a common sense approach to tackling the rapidly increasing and discriminatory nature of local and state wireless service taxation," Lofgren said on Tuesday. "We need to encourage the development and adoption of wireless broadband, not tax it out of existence. My legislation simply places a five-year freeze on new taxes that are solely imposed on wireless services. I’m hopeful that the Senate will take up and pass Senators Wyden and Snowe’s companion measure, S 543, so we can get this on the President’s desk."

Senator Wyden's (D-OR) take on the bill is slightly more vitriolic than Representative Lofgren's.

"Wireless is a prime example of how every time a new innovation hits the market – governments invent new ways to tax it. We should be encouraging wireless usage as it continues to revolutionize the way Americans work, study and interact with friends and family, and yet, the only products subject to more layers and higher levels of taxation in the U.S. are alcohol and tobacco products," a statement from Wyden said. "New innovations have a hard time realizing their promise when they’re buried under multiple layers of discriminatory taxes. This is why we took steps to bar multiple and discriminatory taxes on Internet access and services – like email — and I’m glad we are finally moving to extend those same protections to wireless products."

The companion bill in the Senate that Wyden and Snowe introduced has not moved since it was moved to the Senate Finance committee last March.

Still, the wireless industry considers the passage of the House resolution a victory.

"On behalf of the 300 million wireless customers in the U.S., CTIA applauds the Wireless Tax Fairness Act’s lead sponsors, Representatives Lofgren and Franks, who worked tirelessly to get the bill approved in the House," A statement from CTIA, The Wireless Association said. "Today’s vote is a crucial step toward providing wireless subscribers with some much needed relief by putting a five-year freeze on new, discriminatory taxes and fees on their monthly bills. In light of the challenging economy, we hope the U.S. Senate moves swiftly to pass the companion bill."

To keep up with the shifting tide of video game distribution and the increasing popularity of mobile tablets and smartphones as video game systems, brick-and-mortar video game retailer GameStop was said to be working on an "Android-based gaming platform."

Now, the retailer has begun its push by offering the 7" Acer Iconia Tab A100, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer in bundles that come with a special Bluetooth game controller, the Kongregate Arcade app, digital subscription to GameStop's Game Informer magazine, and a handful of exclusive games.

Kongregate, which GameStop acquired late last year, is a social gaming portal with thousands of free games built in Flash or the Unity 3D game engine. It works on a system of credits which are used to buy in-game items or to "tip" game developers directly.

Because the Android ecosystem is ripe and ready for a game console, the question becomes: with whom is GameStop competing?

Two months ago, GameStop made it abundantly clear that it was going to be competing with streaming game service OnLive, when employees were instructed to discard vouchers for free OnLive versions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution that were packed into PC versions of the game. OnLive lets subscribers play full PC games without installing anything other than the OnLive client, this allows them to play games on their TV, Mac, PC, and iPad or Android tablets. Naturally, this makes the service a competitor to GameStop as it's another "over the top" gaming service for Android.

What is not presently clear is GameStop's position on native Android game titles, and benefits of the relationships it has forged with game publishers. The first "GameStop Tablets" come with a couple of exclusive games not yet available in the Android Market, such as Dead Space, which has only been available directly from EA, and Sonic CD, which has not yet been officially released.

The retailer could conceivably establish its tablet platform as a priority venue for new releases, thereby adding value to its services.

Here's a story that will make you think twice about what you share on Facebook. Researchers with the University of British Columbia's NetSysLab let loose what are called "socialbots" on Facebook, and came away with 250 gigabytes of personally identifiable data. The results of the study show that Facebook users need to be much more cognizant of exactly what they share, and who they add as friends.

A socialbot is a bot that comes in the form of a faked user profile. The bot friend requests users on the site, and then once the requests are accepted, it downloads the personal information on the profile. NetSysLab researchers report a success rate of up to 80 percent in tricking Facebook users into adding the fake profiles and making matters worse, Facebook's protective measures did little to detect or prevent the researcher's infiltration.

Three years ago the social network created the Facebook Immune System, which has since evolved into a complex set of algorithms that inspects nearly every status and action on the site. It is intended to detect suspicious patterns of behavior, but NetSysLab researchers say it did little to prevent their efforts.

Researchers found that one in five Facebook users it initially targeted accepted friend requests from the bots even though they had no mutual friends. This increased to a 60 percent success rate among its friends of friends, allowing the 102 socialbots on the network to amass 3,000 friends within just the first few weeks of the eight week study.

About 46,500 Facebook users were affected, with 14,500 of them also having their physical address mined from their profile. The success with which these researchers had in not only adding Facebook users at random -- but also retrieving personal details -- should raise a red flag.

Security firm Sophos recommends that users practice caution in who they add on Facebook, and only share personal information with their closest friends. "You can choose to make people 'limited friends' who only have access to a cut-down version of your profile if you wish", the firm says. "This can be useful if you have associates who you do not wish to give full friend status to, or feel uncomfortable sharing personal information with".

Moral of the story? Don't add people you don't know.

Photo Credit: De Mango/Shutterstock

I'm feeling kind of cranky today and having bad flashbacks to the 1990s, when the honking PC bought one day seemed oh-so last year weeks later. On October 2, I bought the Galaxy S II from AT&T. Problem: On November 6, the carrier will launch its first two LTE phones -- and service in four new markets -- the HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket. I so want the Skyrocket. It's an investment for the future, because of LTE. But AT&T probably won't let me have it, because the new S2 releases a couple days outside the 30-day return period for the older model. Not hopeful, I will nevertheless try.

What about you? Would you buy either phone, and would the main reason be LTE -- that is, if an AT&T subscriber? Verizon's LTE rollout already is farther along and reaches many more people, and the carrier offers six LTE phones (seven with the forthcoming Droid Razr) and two tablets. Have you bought a Verizon LTE phone, with faster data being a reason? Please answer in comments below.

We've had some fiercely contentious discussions here at BetaNews about the value of LTE, and whether it really matters to many phone users. I'm in the "hell, yes, it does" camp. Verizon surely thinks so, given its network expansion -- $65 billion, including $9.6 billion for spectrum purchased in 2008 -- overall, including LTE. But there's division here in the newsroom about how many people really choose a phone or carrier because of LTE.

According to a report In-Stat released last week, 75 percent of survey respondents listed 4G as one of the features they'd like in their "ideal phone". It's my experience that what people say they want on a survey but actually take differs dramatically. Factors like affordability often matter more.

A few days before Apple announced iPhone 4S, when everyone thought it would be something else, I asked: "What if iPhone 5 isn't LTE?" Reader Lori Johnson responded: "It needs to be LTE!!!!" Commenter James: "Why buy a new phone that only supports old 3G and runs slower in major markets".

That's exactly my quandary today. Had I known AT&T would release a Galaxy S II LTE model 36 days after the HSPA+ model, I would have waited. I've been here before, on PCs, when faster microprocessors, modems and USB came along. In the so-called post-PC era, better mobiles come out quickly, like personal computers in the 1990s. At least I could upgrade the PC, and there was no long-term monthly payment commitment. So it makes sense to me, if committing to a two-year cellular and data contract, to get LTE -- invest in the future. But fast data matters to me. Does it to you?

Then there's the "What's fast enough?" question. WiFi is widely available in coffee shops and even McDonald's, and that's free data. Both Galaxy S II models support HSPA+, with theoretical data maximum of 21Mbps (iPhone 4S is only 14Mbps). That's plenty fast and pitched as 4G, too. Skyrocket adds LTE, which, in theory, delivers up to 70Mbps.

"Although 4G is an important feature for handset buyers, there is a lot of confusion surrounding 4G", says In-Stat analyst Greg Potter. "When survey respondents were asked which carrier offered the fastest 4G speeds, the majority of the respondents either didn’t know or felt they were the same across carriers".

Perhaps I'm the confused one. Since all this speed is theoretical, does any of it really matter? And what's really fast enough? Here in the San Diego area, I frequently got over 6Mbps on T-Mobile with Google-branded, Samsung-manufactured Nexus S. I've yet to reach that speed on AT&T's network with Galaxy S II, which theoretical maximum is three times greater than Nexus S.

Additionally, LTE isn't available in my area. On Sunday, AT&T will add LTE service in Athens, Ga., Baltimore, Boston and Washington, DC, which will join Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. San Diego may not get LTE service for some time. But I'm thinking that either I or someone else in the family will still be using this phone when it does -- after all there is a two-year contract.

Then there is the phone, which features impress -- and same applies to HTC Vivid. Quick specs:

HTC Vivid: 1.2GHz Qualcomm APQ 8060 dual-core processor; 4.5-inch qHD
super LCD display with 960 x 540 resolution; capacitive touchscreen; LTE/HSPA+/UMTS/GSM/GPRS/EDGE; 1GB RAM; 16GB storage (expandable to 32GB with microSD card; 8-megapixel camera; 1080p video capture; Bluetooth 3.0; WiFi "N"; 1620mAh battery and Android 2.3.4. Dimensions: 5.07" x 2.64" x .44". Price with two-year contract: $199.99.

Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket: 1.5GHz dual-core processor; 4.5 Super AMOLED Plus display with 800 x 480 resolution; capacitive touchscreen; LTE/HSPA+/UMTS/GSM/GPRS/EDGE; 1GB RAM; 16GB storage (expandable to 32GB with microSD card; 8-megapixel camera; 1080p video capture; Bluetooth; WiFi "N"; Near-Field Communications (NFC); 1850mAh battery and Android 2.3.5. Dimensions: 5.15" x 2.75" x 0.37". Price with two-year contract: $249.99.

So, would you buy? Or have you got another LTE phone on another carrier? Please respond on comments.

The consumerization of IT isn't just taking place in the private sector. Consumer mobile devices are moving uncharacteristically quickly through public sector regulations to be used in government and military as well, and the Department of Defense is now on board with Android.

This week, Dell announced its Mobile Security for Android platform has been certified for use within the U.S. Department of Defense by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

Dell's platform was developed in cooperation with Good Technologies, and gives defense employees secure access to email, documents, and a discrete, partitioned method of distributing apps securely (In June, the DISA said "Several DoD agencies are considering standing-up a DoD mobile application distribution center, but this capability is not expected to be available until mid-late 2011 at the earliest.")

The DISA has been testing Dell and Good's solution for the last five months using the Dell Streak 5 tablet and Android 2.2. This doesn't mean the discontinued Streak is necessarily going to find its way into the Pentagon, but rather, Dell says that the "next wave of Dell Android devices, set for release next year," will be able to be rapidly integrated into military environments.

Dell's CEO Michael Dell recently admitted the consumer tablet market belongs to Apple's iPad, So Dell's weak presence among consumer Android devices could be heavily offset by a strong presence in the public sector and military.

Photo: Straight 8 Photography/Shutterstock

Just like many other iPhone 4S users, I am experiencing poor battery life that has left me running for the charger far more than I would like to. The issues are a black eye on what has been an otherwise stellar experience with Apple's latest smartphone.

Although I never owned the iPhone 4, I am told by those who have used both that there is a definite decrease in battery performance. We should have known, though -- in the slides of the keynote introducing the 4S, astute observers noted the standby time advertised by Apple (200 hours) was a full 100 hours less than its predecessor.

What's the cause? Is it the dual-core processor? Perhaps iOS 5's heavy dependence on Location Services? Maybe Siri, even? We really don't know. Apple has been pretty much silent on the issue.

My iPhone 3GS was piss poor when it came to battery life, generally requiring a recharge at least once a day. At points it certainly seems like the battery drains on the iPhone 4S far faster, and for a heavy smartphone user like myself that is a problem.

Frustrated users have started a thread in Apple's support forums that now has surpassed 3,000 replies and has nearly 200,000 views as of midday Wednesday. Like myself, they complain of 3GS-like battery life: "Seems to lose 1 percent every 3-4 minutes, even when locked/asleep". The posts also have users engaging in crafty tactics to conserve battery power.

What can you do in order to squeeze more life out of the 4S' seemingly bum battery? Here are five tips to keep you away from the phone charger which I have already been using.

1. Turn off features. Location Services will run continuously. Crappy battery or not, this will significantly reduce battery life regardless. Look through the list in Location Services and turn it off for apps which make no sense to have it (for example, Angry Birds actually uses your location. WTF?) Bluetooth should also be shut off if you're not using it.

2. Do you really need those emails right away? Some of us are truly connected to our e-mail accounts at the hip. But, every time our phones go out to check for new messages, it's sucking a bit of your battery. Set it to longer periods of time, or on demand -- meaning you have to tell it to check. Don't worry, those who email you can wait a few extra minutes for a reply.

3. Your screen doesn't need to be that bright. Just like a laptop, screen brightness plays a direct role in overall battery life. Just turning the brightness down by a quarter of what it is will give your 4S a bit of a power boost.

4. Forgo WiFi sync. While it's certainly cool that you can sync that iPhone without wires, it's a battery drain. Using WiFi (or heck, 3G) to transfer large amounts of data is a battery drain. Just connect your device to computer via USB like you used to. Your battery will thank you.

5. Maintain your battery. While batteries these days suffer far less from "memory" issues from being recharged before being fully depleted thus shortening battery life overall, it still happens. Every once in a while it's a very good idea to let your battery drain completely, and then recharge completely. Some on the support forums have even reported this simple process has resulted in a noticeable increase in battery life. It may be worth a shot.

Are you a disgruntled iPhone 4S user, perturbed over its battery life? Sound off below. We'd also love to hear your own tips that you may be using. In any case, we can all hope that Apple fixes this problem soon.

Photo Credit: Ed Oswald

GFI Software today unveiled the latest editions of the company’s security products, VIPRE Antivirus 2012 and VIPRE Internet Security 2012.

And while much of the competition tries to win you over by adding ever more malware-hunting features, GFI takes a different tack, concentrating just on the basics, but making them as simple to use as possible.

This starts with a more streamlined installation process. Everything’s up and running in a click or two, no need to reboot, with sensible default settings ensuring you’re protected right away.

The user interface has also been simplified. Everything you need to know -- protection status, last and next scan times, subscription expiration date and more -- is displayed on the opening screen, where you can also initiate a new scan or download definition updates at a click.

VIPRE Internet Security 2012 includes the core features you’d expect in any security suite, many of which have been enhanced this time around. So the firewall is now more intelligent, for example, using whitelisting of known safe applications to reduce the number of alerts. The spam filter is able to work at the protocol level, enabling it to protect any POP3 client. While browsing protection blocks dangerous downloads and keeps you away from malicious websites.

This is still primarily an essentials-only suite, so there’s no online backup, no parental controls, no sandboxing. But there are a few bonus extra features in both Antivirus and Internet Security 2012. So the Secure File Eraser securely deletes confidential files so they can’t be recovered, while the History Cleaner can clear your tracks in Windows and a few browsers and applications. And the PC Explorer displays low-level system details that may help you diagnose an infection: downloaded ActiveX controls, startup programs, Internet Explorer BHOs, HOST file changes, LSPs, Shell Execute hooks, and more.

The key advantage of the new products, though, is that they’re so lightweight. Even when scanning your system and displaying the program’s interface, we saw no more than three running processes, which rarely reached 10-percent CPU utilisation and consumed under 50MB of RAM (dropping to 5-6MB when idle).

The new VIPRE 2012 range really should be able to protect your system without noticeably slowing it down, then. And if that sounds appealing, then try it for yourself: trial versions of VIPRE Antivirus 2012 ($39.95) and VIPRE Internet Security 2012 ($49.95) are available now.

Photo Credit: Albert Ziganshin/Shutterstock

As we revealed just over a week ago, NitroPDF was readying the release of Nitro Pro 7, its commercial tool for creating, editing, annotating and sharing PDFs. Nitro Pro’s feature set rivals that of Adobe Acrobat, but is available for a significantly lower price -- just $80 for a limited period at launch.

Now, as planned, Nitro Pro 7  is now officially available for download in both 32-bit and 64-bit trial versions for PCs running Windows 7, Vista or XP.

Nitro Pro 7 introduces a number of major new features, as we revealed last month. You can now edit text in paragraph blocks, for example, giving you more control over the flow of text when making text-based changes.

Version 7 also introduces redaction features for blocking out sensitive material, plus introduces Digital Signature Profiles for speedy digital sign-offs off PDF documents. It also claims better performance, a tweaked user interface for more intuitive use and the ability to preview PDF files in Windows, Outlook and your browser without having to open them first.

Nitro Pro 7 is available now as a free trial download in 32-bit and 64-bit editions for Windows 7, Vista and XP. For a very limited period, the full package can be purchased for just $80, making it substantially cheaper than Adobe Acrobat.

Postbox 3.0 has been released for both Windows and Mac users. This commercial mail client is aimed at those who rely heavily on email and who find the various free email tools, such as Thunderbird or the clients supplied by OS X and earlier versions of Windows too restrictive.

Postbox 3.0’s headline new feature concerns tighter integration with numerous third-party apps and services, including Gmail, Dropbox and a range of popular social networks. It also includes handful of interface tweaks designed to take better advantage of new features in Windows and OS X, plus throws in a handful of minor new improvements.

Postbox 3.0′s improved integration with Gmail promises native Gmail Label support as well as support for Gmail keyboard shortcuts and a dedicated view for mail marked as "important". Postbox 3.0 also integrates popular social networks, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, more fully. You can now access your profile pages directly from the app, plus Postbox can now import extra information from social network profiles, such as photos, job titles and workplaces.

You can now email links from your Dropbox folder instead of the actual file, and use Date Detection to create events in supported apps such as Google Calendar and iCal. Postbox 3.0 also supports notifications from the latest version (1.3) of Growl.

A smattering of new usability features are also present. The Favorites bar can now be used to quickly access those accounts and folders you use most, while clicking Quick Reply includes an option for quoting the original message as part of the reply. Send and Archive functions can now be performed in a single step, and reusable templates for message replies have also been added to the program’s feature set.

Finally, version 3.0 also takes advantage of features in the latest versions of OS X and Windows. Lion users can now use gestures with their trackpad or Mighty Mouse, plus run the program in full-screen view, while Windows 7 users get to use jumplists and gain better integration with the app’s “popular” Minimize to Tray icon, which minimises the application to the Notification area of the Windows taskbar.

Postbox 3.0 is available now as a free trial download for Windows (XP or later) and Mac (OS X Snow Leopard or later). The full version costs US$29.95.

Plex, Inc has announced the release of version 0.9.5 of its freeware cross-platform media browsing suite. Now split into two distinct programs, Plex Media Server and Plex Media Center, as well as a mobile app for Android and iOS, Plex 0.9.5 introduces a number of new features as well as major changes behind the scenes.

One key new feature -- the creation of a myPlex account -- aims to make accessing your media content remotely over the internet a simpler task, while PC users can now access their media collections via the first Windows build of Plex Media Center.

Plex 0.9.5, codenamed ‘Laika’ as a tribute to both the Plex mascot and the first dog in space, is the first to feature separate client and server packages for Mac. Previously, the Mac release doubled as both server and client, which made for a hefty 100MB download on every Mac, regardless of whether or not it was running a media server.

The new separate builds both fully integrate the new myPlex feature, which aims to simplify the task of prepping a Plex media server for access outside of a local network as well as allowing users to share and access shared content with other Plex media server libraries.

The client version can now either transcode or Direct Play remote media, including both Flash and Silverlight content. Browsing your media now reveals an “On Deck” area as well as “Recently Added”, giving the user quick access to relevant content in each section, such as the next episode in a TV series being watched.

The Windows client, built from scratch by a dedicated team, also features integration with Windows Media Center, which basically allows you to launch the Plex Media Center from within Windows Media Center itself.

The server has also been updated, but most of these changes are bug fixes, performance tweaks and small feature additions such as the ability to filter movies by country or browse music collections. Notable enhancements include improved transcoding to resolve A/V sync issues and DTS distortion, as well as delivered improved playback via 3G networks.

Also updated is the mobile application, which costs $4.99 and runs on Android and iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. myPlex support is built-in for easier connection to home servers and improvements include alphabetized indexing for speeding up content navigation as well as support for photos and faster, more reliable server connections (as well as better caching over both 3G and wireless networks).

Plex Media Server is available as a freeware download for Windows, Mac and Linux. Plex Media Center is available for Windows and Mac users and is also freeware, while Plex 2.0 has been released for iOS and Android, and costs $4.99.

After years of promises and demos both from Samsung and a host of other companies, the flexible screen is set to finally become a reality in 2012. Samsung confirmed plans during its quarterly conference call.

"The flexible display, we are looking to introduce sometime in 2012", company spokesperson Robert Yi says. The company aims to introduce the first flexible screen device in the early part of the year. He adds that it would "probably start from the handset side".

Following the debut of the technology in handsets, Yi says to expect the company to bring flexible handsets to other products over the rest of the year. The company has already shown concepts of an OLED screen that has technology embedded in the individual pixels allowing it to generate light.

That said, Samsung is not allowing those who have seen it to play with the screens: the screen is locked up in a case which keeps the screen bent. How far along Samsung really is in producing working production models of these screens is not really known.

If Samsung can meet its goals, it certainly would give the company a leg up on its competitors, including Apple which has proven to be its strongest -- both in the marketplace and in the courts.

Is Apple working on similar technologies? It is hard to tell given the company's secretive nature. Samsung is a parts vendor to Apple, so it is within the realm of possibility that Apple may purchase screens from the company. Apple is working on some flexible device technologies itself, however. Patent applications have surfaced showing that the Cupertino company might have plans to add a flexible display within its Magic Mouse.

Photo Credit: Brian Bilek

Following last week's introduction of the 64-bit ARMv8 architecture, leading PC and IT systems company Hewlett-Packard on Tuesday officially announced its low-power, massive-scale datacenter initiative called "Project Moonshot" will initially utilize ARM processors exclusively.

HP's mission with Project Moonshot is to reduce data center size by 94 percent, energy consumption by 89 percent, and cost by 63 percent by using lower power servers in "hyperscale."

These low-power servers will be built on the Redstone Server Development platform, a test server design which utilizes a large number of tiny servers running Calxeda EnergyCore ARM Cortex processors. According to HP, a single Redstone rack will use 2,800 servers, but will reduce complexity in cabling, switching, and peripherals by as much as 97 percent.

This project will also see new hyperscale test centers called "HP Discovery Labs" opening across North America, Europe, and Asia. The first one will open in January in Houston, Texas, and will let clients work either remotely or on-site to test, experiment, and benchmark applications on this new microdistributed architecture.

The third important piece of this project is the HP Pathfinder Program, in which HP's partners will assist Moonshot clients with hardware, software, and support. The first partners will be ARM, AMD, Calxeda, Canonical, and Red Hat, and more partners will be announced later.

Intel is noticeably absent from this list, but HP says Atom processor support will be added to the Redstone server architecture at a later date, so the current server leader is sure to be pledging its support soon.

One of the curses of modern day life is remembering, storing and managing passwords. Whether you use a password manager, store passwords in your browser or try to remember the lot, there are always challenges. Storing in your browser is the easiest option, but how can you be sure that they’re safe? Secure Login for Firefox is a very handy extra layer of security.

Like Opera’s magic wand, Secure Login helps you to log into sites where you’ve already saved your username and password in Firefox. If you have an account stored, when you rest the mouse pointer over the key icon to the left of the address bar, you’ll see if it's available to login. Just click this button to securely authenticate yourself on this site.

Firefox already has a basic password manager built in, but it’s not as convenient to use to log into stored sites as Secure Login. For example, if you have several usernames stored for one site, you still have to begin logging in manually. Secure Login enables you to choose which of your accounts that you want to use.

More importantly, Secure Login helps to protect your account information. When you visit a site with a stored password in Firefox alone, it automatically provides the login details, making your username apparent to anyone with access to the browser. Secure Login enables you to authenticate without entering information manually. It also prevents disclosing any confidential information without your say so.

Once installed Secure Login turns the option to prefill forms without interaction off. This prevents malicious javascript on the site from harvesting your user details and prevents cross site scripting problems. For the best security, it’s a good idea to also set a strong master password so that anyone with access to your PC can’t immediately get into all your secure sites. You can do this in Firefox’s security options.

Secure Login 0.9.9 is a free extension for Windows, Mac and Linux versions of Firefox.

ARM, the UK-based company behind the reduced instruction set processor architecture of the same name, announced on Tuesday that it had acquired long-running chip design partner Prolific Inc.. The amount of money ARM put toward the acquisition was not disclosed.

Consumers won't directly see the fruits of this acquisition for several years, but the intent is clear: ARM is strengthening its talent pool and intellectual property for circuits 20nm process and smaller.

In late October, ARM partners Cadence Design Systems and TSMC announced they had completed the first 20nm Cortex A15 tape-out (the final "artwork" for the design to be printed on an integrated circuit) after 18 months of work on the project.

With Prolific's IC design and automated layout optimization tools, ARM will be able to speed up the design process at these small node sizes.

"Prolific has a long history of improving the efficiency of complex physical design process flows," said Paul de Dood, President and Founder of Prolific, Inc. "The ARM partnership will benefit from faster time to market for advanced node solutions through the addition of Prolific’s leading-edge optimization tools, which enable optimum power, performance and area with accelerated development timelines.”

Photo: James Steidl/Shutterstock

Do I have your attention now?

Google Chrome's assault on Internet Explorer continued a pace in October, according to browser usage share data that Net Applications released today. Chrome gained share for the 12th consecutive month. Since November 2010, IE share fell 7.72 points, while Chrome gained 8.05. Want to guess from where Google's browser is taking usage share? Hint: It's not Firefox.

Looking more recently, Chrome gained 1.42 points, while Internet Explorer lost 1.76 points September to October. Firefox actually edged up 0.03 points, ending four months of consecutive losses. Apple's Safari eeked up 0.41 points. Usage share for each in October:

• Internet Explorer: 52.63 percent
• Firefox: 22.51 percent
• Chrome: 17.62 percent
• Safari: 5.43 percent
• Opera: 1.56 percent

Internet Explorer usage share fell from 60.35 percent in November 2010; Firefox fell from 23.52 percent; and Chrome rose from 9.57 percent.

Last month, after viewing the startling results of a BetaNews poll, I asked: "My God, does ANYONE use Internet Explorer?" The poll is still open, but out of date, since new Chrome and Firefox versions has since shipped. Among the 4,470 respondents, 40.16 say they use some version of Chrome as their primary web browser. By comparison, 20.88 percent some version of IE, which is less than Firefox (30.18 percent). The poll is unqualified -- meaning we don't know who respondents are -- but we assume more tech-savvy folks based on readership.

BetaNews site browser stats tell a different story, and one that is perhaps more perplexing. Firefox was the top browser used to view the site in October (29.68 percent) followed by Internet Explorer (24.07 percent) and Chrome (23.58 percent). What's surprising is how evenly they are spaced. Safari was 13.57 percent, by the way.

Based on the poll, 70.34 percent of respondents use Chrome or Firefox as their primary web browser. BetaNews browser stats show 53.26 percent of visitors use one of the browsers. Does that invalidate the poll then? Site stats corroborate it, since usage share isn't finite market share. Most people use more than one browser, a tendency supported by BetaNews commenters on this topic and other analyst data.

Judging IE9 Strategy

Browser versions reveal a startling trend that shows the risks Microsoft took with its Internet Explorer 9 strategy. By version, IE8 had highest usage share in October (29 percent), followed by Chrome 14 (13.65 percent) and Firefox 7 (10.18 percent). For most of October, Chrome 14 and Firefox 7 were current versions of both browsers. The data shows how quickly their users are moving to the newest version compared to lag-behind Internet Explorer.

IE9, which had 9.79 percent browser usage share in October, isn't available for Windows XP. Chrome and Firefox are. Microsoft took a look-forward strategy that may pay off as the Windows 7 install base increases, but there's short-term pain today. According to NetApps, Windows XP is still the leading PC operating system, with 48.03 percent share in October. Windows 7: 34.62 percent.

Caveat: According to NetApps, there are 2 billion Internet users, and 93 percent of them use PC browsers. By that reckoning, because not every PC may connect to the Net, the data may not be fully representative of operating system share.

Roger Capriotti, Microsoft Internet Explorer marketing director, presents the data differently. He observes that IE9's usage share on Windows 7 is 34.9 percent, followed by Chrome at 14.3 percent and Firefox at 11.8 percent. "IE9 is growing nicely and is on path to be the leading modern browser on Windows 7 behind IE8 as early as next month".

From security and usability perspectives, Microsoft deserves praise for not making IE9 available for Windows XP. The question now: How quickly can Windows 7 deployments pull forward IE9 usage with it? Can there be enough to overcome Chrome gains? IE usage share was well above 90 percent when Firefox 1.0 shipped 7 years ago next month. Looked at the way, Internet Explorer hemorrhages browser usage share, at a time when Windows 7 adoption should give it more lift. My unsolicited advice: Microsoft must evangelize IE9 and Windows 7 benefits more, and it's high time for some fresh, aggressive marketing.

Let's face it: these days, a lot of us are accessing the Internet via smartphones, tablets, and other portable devices. It makes good sense that website owners respond to this trend, and ensure their sites play nice with mobile browsers.

Google knows this, and is launching a new initiative called "Go Mo", aimed at assisting developers in optimizing their content for mobile devices. The Mountain View, Calif. company has included site testing tools, best practices for creating mobile sites, and information to assist companies in locating qualified mobile web site designers.

"Millions more people are using mobile devices to get online every day", the front page of the site reads. "Does your business have a mobile-friendly site? If not—or if you're not sure—you've come to the right place to get started".

Google says that by 2013, more people will use mobile devices than PCs in order to get online. By 2015, there will be one mobile device for every person on earth -- all 7 billion plus of us. The search giant cites its own research claiming 95 percent of smartphone users have searched on their devices for local information, with 61 percent of those calling the business, and 59 percent visiting that business.

The 'GoMoMeter' allows the website owner to enter his or her site to be analyzed for mobile compatibility. We attempted to load BetaNews, however it didn't work. That could be due to the fact that the GoMo Initiative hasn't been officially announced yet and the site may not be fully operational.

Google even goes further and provides advertising agencies with a best practices guide to sell the idea of mobile to their clients. Called the GoMo Playbook, the document guides agencies in answering their client's questions about mobile as well as how to build an effective mobile site itself.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) on Tuesday launched its latest professional graphics card in retail, the FirePro V4900, which targets the entry level of professional graphics workstations.

WIth a pricetag of just $189, AMD's FirePro V4900 has 1GB of 128-bit GDDR5 RAM that drives memory bandwidth of 64 GB/s. It's not the most powerful of AMD's FirePro units, but it is priced to move, and will come as the default graphics card in certain Dell, HP, and Fujitsu workstations.

Here are the specs…

Stream Processors: 480
Memory Interface: 128-bit
Memory Size/Type: 1GB GDDR5
Bandwidth: 64.0 GB/s
DisplayPort: 2 Standard
Dual-link DVI: 1
Max Resolution: 2560x1600 @ 60Hz
Max Power: Slots: 1
Form Factor: Full Height / Half Length
Bus Interface: PCI Express 2.1 x16
Supports DirectX 11.0, OpenGL, OpenCL3, AMD Eyefinity
Shader Model: 5.0
OS Support: Microsoft Windows 7, XP, Vista, Linux (32-bit or 64-bit)

In AMD's most recent earnings call last week, President and CEO Rory P. Read cited the consistent business coming from the company's graphics division.

"AMD's graphics segment continued to be a solid business for us," Read said. "Segment revenue was up 10% quarter-over-quarter and up 4% year-over-year. This growth was driven largely by strong seasonal revenue increases in the AIB channel. Our AMD Radeon HD GPU was also recognized as the world's fastest mobile product in the most recent quarter. This continues to show outstanding graphics innovation from AMD. We also publicly demonstrated our next-generation 28 nanometer GPU product during the third quarter, and we look forward to building on our performance leadership position in the graphics area throughout 2012 and the years ahead."

November 4 is the one-year anniversary of Kinect, which rapidly is evolving into more than a game controller and a huge present and future success for Microsoft. The technology also represents the company's profound push into natural user interfaces. Apple's Siri has buzz now, but it's from Redmond, Wash., not Cupertino, Calif., that the most inventive NUIs are coming -- and most likely will dramatically affect your life and anyone within your sphere of six degrees of separation.

But that's a future I'll expand on in a few paragraphs. For now, the present. Do you Kinect? If so, I'd like your story, whether it's about the technology for gaming or something else. Please share your story here or send email to joe at betanews dot com. I'll collect some stories here and post others separately, depending on writers' preferences.

In January, reader Robert Johnson asked: "Could Kinect be Microsoft's iPod?" He gave a developer's perspective on the technology two months after launch and long before Microsoft released the Kinect SDK for Windows. His story is a good starting point.

One of the reasons I'm so recently bullish about Microsoft -- and why you should be, too -- is recent investments in NUIs like Kinect. As I explained in February, Apple's success today traces back to four investments made in 2001 during a recession that sapped sales. Economic crisis seemingly is time to pull back, but historically companies that invest often reap rewards later. Here there's some irony. Apple's fortune soared during the current economic downturn from investments made during the last one. I see Microsoft NUI investments made over the last couple years in same ilk.

During his Consumer Electronics Show 2009 keynote, at the height of the econolypse, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer professd: "I believe that companies and industries that continue to pursue innovation during tough economic times will achieve a significant competitive advantage positioning themselves for growth far more effectively than companies that hold back." He's absolutely right. Microsoft's investments in cloud infrastructure and purchases of companies like Skype, for example, are sure to pay off in the future. But Kinect, and other NUI technogies, stand apart for their potential to dramatically change how we all interface with high-tech. The most natural user interface is you.

Microsoft is getting much better at user interfaces and user experience -- that is UX -- and Bill Buxton is one of the key influencers. Buxton, principal researcher at Microsoft Research, is one of the best hires of the Steve Ballmer decade. I encourage you to review the Buxton Collection for a sense of what he sees as delivering good UX and sense for where Microsoft is going with NUIs.

Science Fiction

Technology like Kinect is the stuff of science fiction. But that's not the only tale being told.

Microsoft's biggest competitive problem is fiction -- what competitor's might do. There are now rumors that Apple will add Siri to Apple TV and that it will be better than Kinect. It's really laughable, since they do different things (granted there is voice command overlap). But the rumors -- and don't take them too seriously -- are having impact.

Yesterday, Ali Muzaffar commented:

I do love the Kinect but it's days are numbered if all the Android and Apple powered smart tv's are really coming. MS needs to do something drastic here, the Xbox is already a great media hub, they really need to extend the abilities of the Xbox and Kinect interface to allow you to do more. Perhaps make the Kinect sensor smaller in the process.

Microsoft is doing more, as the "Kinect Effect" campaign and Windows SDK indicate.

Yesterday morning, Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott picked up on the rumors spread by The New York Times Bits blog about Siri coming to Apple TV. (Who needs misinformed blog posts when the Grey Lady so effectively spreads rumors?) He writes: "Science fiction? I guess that's true if you ignore what Microsoft shipped a year ago".

I posted to Google+: "Apple doesn't copy, eh?" -- and the comments are worth a look. Fellow journalist Ian Betteridge makes the most important point:

Umm... you're all suggesting a feature which doesn't exist, on a product which doesn't exist, is a copy of something? Remember, these rumours originate with the same bunch of fantasists who insisted that Apple was going to be unveils a teardrop-shaped iPhone 5 with NFC and blah blah blah.

That's right, the science fiction here is Siri for Apple TV. But already Microsoft is competing against this amorphous thing. Surely, Apple rumors will be the ruin of us all!

Circling back, please share your Kinect story here in comments or by emailing joe at betanews dot com.

Security vendor PC Tools has revealed its new-look website and 2012 products. And the company is focusing very much on ease of use, with the claim that all the new releases provide “powerfully simple protection”.

There are four major programs available.

PC Tools Spyware Doctor and AntiVirus offers good all-round antivirus protection, with built-in browsing and antiphishing protection. New features include Scam Alerts, which "protect against the latest cybercrime schemes like "get rich quick" offers and fake antivirus "scareware" that trick people into divulging confidential information. And the new Malicious Site Monitoring "guards against exploits that cybercriminals often target like the latest movie trailers and breaking news headlines". There’s also a more basic PC Tools Spyware Doctor, which omits the anti-virus module, plus the completely free PC Tools AntiVirus Free, which does not include the Behavior Guard, the Site Guard or Browser Guard modules, found in the commercial edition.

PC Tools Internet Security adds a firewall, and a spam filter. It also supports the new Scam Alerts and Malicious Site Monitoring, and adds many improvements all across the package: more accurate scanning, better browsing protection, enhanced real-time guards, better behaviour monitoring, and more.

PC Tools Registry Mechanic cleans your Registry, deletes system clutter, optimizes Windows, and maintains your privacy, while an interface revamp makes it easier to use and clearly view all the program’s optimisations.

And the PC Tools Performance Toolkit includes everything in Registry Mechanic, and adds plenty more. So it can optimise your file layout for better performance; recover accidentally deleted files; improve your startup and shutdown times; analyze and repair hard drives; and, new this time, a Duplicate File Finder helps you free up drive space by deleting duplicate files.

Trial versions of each package are available now, however keep in mind that one thing which hasn’t changed is PC Tools’ less-than-generous policy on evaluations. So the programs can scan for malware and Registry errors, but won’t remove them until you’ve purchased a license.