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BetaNews.Com (10 non lus)

Hands-on: Huawei Ascend P1 S, super slim Android phone [video]

Publié: janvier 13, 2012, 10:00pm CET par Tim Conneally

Notebook PCs aren't the only thing getting slimmed down to razor-thin profiles in 2012. This year, there will be at least three Android-powered smartphones vying for consumer interest by being as thin as possible. So thin, in fact, that each calls itself the thinnest.

This trend started with the Motorola Droid RAZR in the fourth quarter of 2011, which Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said was the thinnest smartphone on the market.

Then at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2012 this week, both Huawei and Fujitsu made the claim with their new Android devices: Huawei Ascend P1 S and Fujitsu Arrows F07D. The video above should give you a good idea of just how thin the Ascend actually is. It's quite impressive.
People in China would kill for iPhone 4S

Publié: janvier 13, 2012, 8:11pm CET par Ed Oswald

The Chinese are clamoring for the iPhone 4S as it released across the country on Friday, but crowds at its flagship Beijing store became so unruly that law enforcement was called in to disperse the crowd and Apple was forced to halt sales of the the device in its retail shops.

According to press reports, "hundreds" of people began lining up for the device overnight in freezing temperatures for a chance to purchase the device. When the store failed to open at 7 am, some in the crowd became violent and began to pelt the store with eggs and yelled at employees through windows.

In a move to guarantee the safety of those involved, the crowd was informed that the sale was cancelled and police moved in to disperse crowds and cordon the area off with yellow tape. Signs were placed on windows stating the phone was "sold out".

"We were unable to open our store at Sanlitun due to the large crowd, and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, iPhone will not be available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being", Apple said in a statement.

Those in China wishing to get their hands on Apple's newest device are now forced to purchase the device online, or through China Unicom, the only official distributor of the device in the country. Either way, the excitement over iPhone shows the importance of the country to Cupertino's success.

China accounted for 16 percent of total revenue in the quarter ending September 30, 2011 -- a massive jump from the two percent the country's sales contributed to Apple's bottom line in 2009. Gartner estimates that about 10.4 percent of smartphones sold in the first nine months of 2011 were iPhones, also up dramatically year-over-year.

With such success, China's black market has proven lucrative for Apple devices, and those who procure them. The Financial Times relays the story of one of these scalpers, who was reportedly still fighting with security guards at noon because she had to "deliver the merchandise".

Photo Credits: Elizabeth Phung
Air Playit -- Android beta available, iOS version updated

Publié: janvier 13, 2012, 7:48pm CET par Nick Peers

Digiarty Software Inc has launched the first public beta of an Android client of AirPlay It, its free media-streaming solution. The set of tools, which includes AirPlayit Server for Windows and Mac, allows users to stream media content from their computer to compatible mobile devices over WiFi, 3G and 4G networks.

Digiarty has also updated its iOS clients. Air Playit 1.8.0 for iPhone/iPod touch and Air Playit HD 1.8.0 for iPad both add support for CUDA hardware encoding on Air Playit Server to reduce CPU usage and reduce the server’s load on the host computer. The clients also now support multi-tasking background playback of music and allows the user to download music tracks directly to the mobile for playback later while offline.

Other feature improvements for iPhone and iPad users include faster H.264 and AAC encoding and improved image quality. A fix has also been released for the Bonjour discovery service to ensure the server can always be found, while other various performance and encoding improvements have also been added to this new release.

Air Playit 0.9 Beta for Android isn’t yet available on the Android app market, but must be downloaded directly from the Air Playit website. It contains most of the functionality of the iOS version, although as yet no local download of media files is possible.

The Air Playit collection of server and client software is completely free: AirPlayit Server is a free download for Mac and Windows, while Air Playit for iPhone 1.8.0, Air Playit HD for iPad 1.8.0 and Air Playit 0.9 Beta for Android are also available completely free of charge.

Photo Credit: Winthrop Brookhouse/Shutterstock
Hands-on: Nokia Lumia 900, THE Windows Phone [video]

Publié: janvier 13, 2012, 6:31pm CET par Tim Conneally

At the International Consumer Electronics Show 2012 in Las Vegas this week, Finnish mobile phone leader Nokia debuted the Lumia 900, its first smartphone designed specifically for the United States market. We got to play with it quite a bit, and here's a runthrough of the device's strong points.

The Lumia 900 follows the same design ethic as the N9 and Lumia 800, with a single piece polycarbonate body, gently rounded sides and blunted top and bottom edges. Nokia has equipped the device with all the features that U.S. media and consumers complained were missing in the N9 and 800: 4G LTE connectivity, larger screen size, and a forward-facing camera.

We're curious to hear what you think about this device in the comments section. We talked to quite a few onlookers at the Nokia booth on the CES showfloor, and the only negative comment we heard about it actually had nothing to do with the device itself.

With an couple of undeniably desirable flagship phones (this one and the HTC Titan II,) it seems the main concern among consumers now is the comparative scarcity of apps for the Windows Phone platform.
Up Close: Samsung's new Chromebook and Chromebox [video]

Publié: janvier 13, 2012, 5:40pm CET par Tim Conneally

While Samsung cut an imposing figure at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2012 with its huge flashy booth, the Korean electronics company managed to quietly display its upcoming second-generation Chrome OS devices without attracting tons of attention.

These new Chrome OS products include an updated Series 5 Chromebook which has 2GB of RAM, a 16GB SSD and a moderately faster CPU. It retains the smooth and ergonomic feel of the first generation Chromebook, but unfortunately also retains that device's somewhat cheap and plasticky feel. Samsung said the price will also remain the same.

The new product in the Chrome OS line is Samsung's desktop PC, known as the Series 3 Chromebox. This unit had six USB ports, headphone jack, Ethernet jack, DVI out and two Display Link ports, and was running Chrome 17.0.963.15. Inside is reportedly a dual-core Intel Celeron processor, with 2GB of ram and a 16GB SSD just like the refreshed Series 5 carries.

There is not yet a street date for either of these devices, nor has a price been announced for the Chromebox.
Murdoch on MySpace: 'We screwed up in every way possible'

Publié: janvier 13, 2012, 5:13pm CET par Ed Oswald

While his wife's Twitter account was fake, News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch's is indeed real -- and on Thursday evening his followers got some real talk on his feelings over the failures of MySpace. When the company bought MySpace for around $580 million in 2005, it was thought to be the gateway to expanding Murdoch's empire to the web. Remember at the time, MySpace was the leading social network and Facebook wasn't open to the public.

That was not to be. Almost immediately following the transaction, criticism began to build. Then upstart Facebook began to catch fire, eventually matching MySpace's traffic three years after the merger.

Since then, Facebook hasn't looked back, and MySpace languished. The value of the site fell dramatically, and was sold last June for $35 million -- a 94 percent discount of the original purchase price.

Murdoch lamented the failure in a tweet from the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show. "Many questions and jokes about My Space", he writes. "Simple answer -- we screwed up in every way possible, learned lots of valuable expensive lessons".

How exactly News Corp screwed up with MySpace is up for debate. Some may argue that the company failed to innovate on top of its platform, while Facebook was busy enhancing the service and finding ways to keep users on the site and maintain user interest. Others may debate that MySpace's failure to find an identity may have contributed to its downfall.

Then again, the Internet has a short attention span -- and the simplest answer is that MySpace just fell out of style with the Web consumer.

Either way, Murdoch is determined to learn from his failures. "Last day here", he writes as he, prepares to leave Consumer Electronics Show 2012. "Most top Newscorp execs will huddle to review their own digital efforts and plan forward".

Those comments sure sound like News Corp is willing to try again, but it appears they'll be much more careful this time.

Photo Credit: stocklight/Shutterstock
Privacy group demands FTC investigate Google search changes

Publié: janvier 13, 2012, 4:59pm CET par Ed Oswald

The chorus of opposition to Google's recent search changes grows louder, with Electronic Privacy Information Center urging the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation into whether or not Google is violating users' privacy with the new feature.

Google settled with the FTC in March over its failed Buzz service, submitting to privacy audits for a period of 20 years as a result. EPIC is specifically concerned with personal data, photos, posts, and contact details being included in search results.

"Google's business practices raise concerns related to both competition and the implementation of the Commission's consent order", EPIC executive director Mark Rotenberg argues in a letter to the FTC.

Despite the backlash, Google continues to maintain that its social search additions are only to make searches more relevant to the user. While this may be true, the company has arguably handled the situation in the worst way possible, only exacerbating the criticism through public statements that at times seem combative at best.

Following Twitter's comments slamming Search Plus Your World, Google CEO Eric Schmidt seemed uncomfortable answering questions over claims that the company did not have the necessary permissions to add the data of its competitors.

When SearchEngineLand's Danny Sullivan told Schmidt that the data needed was already publicly available, he shot back "That's your opinion", without explaining why this data would not be useful to the user.

Indeed, anecdotal evidence shows that Facebook and Twitter results have been suppressed as the search engine favors Google+ results, only adding to the chorus of criticism.

Photo Credit: Santiago Cornejo/Shutterstock
Need Microsoft Office on iPad? Try OnLive Desktop

Publié: janvier 13, 2012, 3:36pm CET par Mark Wilson

While there are a lot of claims made about how tablet computers such as the iPad could be used as complete replacement for desktop computers, there are a number of obstacles that get in the way of this. There are a number of mobile versions of well-known desktop applications available, but these tend to be far more limited than the software you are used to using and there is also the problem of transferring files between devices to bear in min. These are problems that OnLive Desktop can help with, providing iPad users with a fully functional version of Microsoft Office to work with.

This is not a standalone office suite, nor is it a remote access tool in the traditional sense -- rather it is something of an amalgamation of these two ideas. OnLive Desktop provides you with a Windows 7-style interface along with a remotely hosted version of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, which is a million miles away from the office suites that can be found in the App Store. Here you are working with a remotely hosted version of Office, which means that you have access to the full gamut of features.

No cloud-based service would be complete without a smattering of storage space, and OnLive Desktop comes complete with 2GB of space that you can use to save your files. Microsoft’s famous Office suite translates well to the iPad’s touchscreen and while iPhone users may feel left out by the lack of support for their device, the smaller screen would simply be too awkward to work with.

The free version of the app is well worth taking a look at, but for anyone looking to carry out serious work on an on-going basis is going to want to consider upgrading to one of the paid-for services. Opting for a Pro account, at a cost of $9.99, will not only give you more storage space to the tune of 50Gb, it also comes with priority access to the OnLive servers. In addition to this, you have the option of installing additional software, also you are not given a free rein and OnLive do have some restrictions in place. There are also enterprise package available and these can be customized to suit your needs.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the app by paying a visit to the OnLive Desktop review page.
Get gestures in all your Windows apps with StrokesPlus

Publié: janvier 13, 2012, 2:30pm CET par Mike Williams

As Opera has shown, mouse gestures can be a great addition to a browser, providing a simple way to move through your history, open and close tabs, reload pages and otherwise navigate around the program, just by making small and simple mouse movements.

The concept doesn’t have to be restricted to a single application, though. Download StrokesPlus and you’ll be able to use mouse gestures throughout Windows and all your installed software.

The program comes with plenty of built-in default gestures. Holding down the right mouse button while moving the mouse diagonally from north-east to south-west will minimize a window, for instance; moving in the opposite direction will maximise it. Drawing a C will close a program, a P effectively toggles the Play/Pause button within Media Player, and there are plenty of others to adjust volume, centre windows, launch particular applications, cycle through running programs, and the list goes on (click Actions on the StrokePlus system tray menu to see for yourself).

If you have problems with any of the default gestures, though, they can be reconfigured to suit your needs, and you can also add as many new actions as you like.

And these actions can be surprisingly powerful, as they work by launching Lua scripts. So you can launch applications, display message boxes, carry out conditional testing, send keys to a program window, and more. To get the best out of this it’ll help to have some previous scripting experience, but the examples will help you get started. Once you’ve seen that you can launch Notepad with a Lua command like this, for instance…

acRunProgram(“c:\\windows\\notepad.exe”,”",0, 3)

… then it’s not difficult to guess how you might use that to run something else.

But perhaps best of all, despite all this power StrokesPlus remains exceptionally lightweight. It doesn’t interfere with Windows (in fact, it’s portable), and if it gets in the way at any point then you can temporarily disable it in a couple of clicks. And its resource use is tiny, with the program typically consuming only around 270 KB of RAM on our test PC, very impressive for such a powerful tool.

Photo Credit: ARENA Creative/Shutterstock
Save big on security software and system utilities

Publié: janvier 13, 2012, 12:54pm CET par Mark Wilson

January is traditionally a tight month for finances after all of the expenses of Christmas, but it is also the time of year when there are great bargains to be grabbed. Head over to the Downloadcrew store and you’ll find all manner of great deals with huge savings to be made on big name software.

You may have decided to put yourself through a new health regime for 2012 and there’s no reason your computer shouldn’t be given the same treatment. Look no further than TuneUp Utilities 2012 [3-PC, 1-Year], which will help you to keep your system optimized and you can save 62 percent off the MSRP when you buy the software for just $18.95. Small businesses can make an even greater 75 percent savings when buying TuneUp Utilities Business Edition 2012 [5-PC, 1-Year] for just $19.95.

If you have resolved to make more of your digital media collection in the new year, CyberLink PhotoDirector 2011 may be just what you’ve been looking for. This is a seriously powerful photo editing tool that includes support for RAW images and boasts a range of features to rival Photoshop. Buy the software now for just $44.95 -- a saving of just 55 percent off the MSRP -- and you will receive a free upgrade to PhotoDirector 2012 v3 when it is released in February. You may well also have video files you want to take care of and if this is the case, take a look at CyberLink Video & Photo Collection 1.0. For $99.95 – a saving of 33 percent -- you can grab yourself a super powerful photo and video editing package which includes a range of incredibly 3D effects.

2012 is a year in which security is going to be more important than ever. To help fi8ght the threat of viruses, look no further than AVG Anti-Virus 2012 [1-PC, 1-Year]. For an amazingly low price of $5.95 (saving you a staggering 85 year off the usual price) you can get yourself a copy of this highly acclaimed antivirus tool. For just a little extra, AVG Internet Security 2012 [1-PC, 1-Year] offers you AV protection as well as parental controls, online backup and more -- all for just $12.99. For extra peace of mind, AVG’s ultimate protection package AVG Premium Security 2012 [1-PC, 1-Year] is available for just $19.99. This includes the added bonus of identity protection and Quick Tune optimization to help speed up you system, and all for 71 percent off the MSRP.

If looking after the performance of your computer is of interest, AVG PC Tuneup 2012 [1-PC, 1-Year] is available at the discounted price of $11.99, and if you have more than one computer to take care of, you should take a look at AVG PC Tuneup 2012 [3-PC, 1-Year] which you can buy for just $19.99 -- saving you 60 percent. Looking for online storage? AVG LiveKive 2012 [UNLIMITED storage] includes all of the cloud storage you could possibly need and you can save yourself a massive 70 percent when you buy an unlimited package for just $14.95.

Feel like trying your hand at DJing? MAGIX Digital DJ 2 may be just what you have been looking for. Available at the discounted price of $29.99, saving you 40 percent, this powerful music tool can be used to mix tracks like a pro on a set of digital decks. Sticking with the creative theme, MAGIX Music Maker MX is available at a 33 percent discount for just $39.99. with a huge collection of samples, loops and effects to work with, you’ll find that it’s incredibly easy to create something truly impressive that you can share online with others. You can save more than one third off the MSRP when you buy MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX for just $45.99, and when you do so you are equipping yourself with everything you need to edit and enhance your home video footage.

Returning to the security theme, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2012 [1-PC, 1-Year] is available at the bargain basement price of $4.95 -- a gigantic 80 percent savings. You might also be interested in Webroot Internet Security Complete 2011 [3-PC], which can be used to protect up to three computers against viruses, spam and ID theft. The low price of $9.95 represents a huge 88 percent saving off the usual MSRP, and an even greater saving is to be found withWebroot Internet Security Essentials 2011 [3-PC] with a 90 percent savings bringing the price down to just $5.95. Both of these program include a free upgrade to SecureAnywhere.

Anyone looking to protect valuable data should take a look at Genie Timeline 2.1 Professional is an innovative backup tool that makes it easy to safeguard your valuable files. Available for just $9.95, you can save 83 percent off the MSRP when you buy this great tool today. Multi-computer households can take advantage of an 83% saving off Uniblue PowerSuite 2012 as for just $19.95 you can equip yourself with an advanced tweaking and optimization tool. Finally for this roundup, Laplink PCmover Professional v6 is a great tool for anyone making the move to a new computer. For a mere $29.95 (a saving of 50 percent), you can buy this incredibly useful tool that will help you to move your files, installed applicationsand settings from one computer to another with a minimum of effort.

Don’t forget, these are just some of the highlight from the store – there are plenty more bargains to be found so head over to the Downloadcrew Software Store to see what you can pick up today!

Photo Credit: Gunnar Pippel/Shutterstock