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BetaNews.Com (6 non lus)

You knew this right? Apple buyers are wealthier

Publié: février 20, 2012, 8:51pm CET par Joe Wilcox

Most Apple products aren't exactly comparably low-priced, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that customers have higher incomes -- considerably more. Still, by how much is about as startling as the sticker shock a Dell Inspiron buyer gets when shopping MacBook Pros. I'm surprised Apple doesn't post a trauma team with security guards (unless perhaps Apple Store employees are registered EMTs) inside its retail shops; surely someone suffers cardiac arrest from the prices.

For some reason NPD and Nielsen issued data within days of one another looking at device buyer demographics -- hence why I'm posting about price at all. Beyond the press release data, which you can read in a few paragraphs, I wondered about Macs and iPads, seeing as analyst firms Canalys and DisplaySearch insist that tablets are PCs. So I asked Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, about US demographics.

"From an income perspective, about 44 percent of people who bought an Apple product -- that's iPads and MacBooks -- had over a $100,000 income vs 26 percent of the entire market", he says. Wowza. Selling prices are absolutely a factor. iPad starts at $499 and sells for as much as $829. By comparison, Amazon's Kindle Fire is $199. Then there are Mac laptops, which start at $999 and cost as much as $2,499.

Among these same buyers, 24 percent are 55 or older versus 29 percent for non-Apple computers and tablets. "Apple buyers are definitely a little bit younger in that range", Baker observes. "The income is more telling, because younger people can have more money but older people can't be younger".

But ages are closer when singling out tablets. "iPad owners are a little older -- by about a year", Baker says. That's a mean age of 50 vs 49. "Apple way over-indexes in older people. They're more willing to spend for that perceived extra cost of Apple. Everyone thinks that Apple is dominant among young people, and that's just not the case". The income gulf drops a little, with about 42 percent of iPad owners having incomes over $100,000 vs 26 percent for other tablet buyers.

While NPD offers rich data on Apple devices, Nielsen looks at the broader US smartphone market -- without singling out iPhone. Among all age groups, "smartphone penetration" was highest among those making $100,000 or more. That's 75 percent to 80 percent for those ages 18 to 44, with the higher number among 25-to-34 year olds.

Photo Credit: Katherine Welles/Shutterstock
Who needs Dropbox when Windows 8 has SkyDrive?

Publié: février 20, 2012, 8:32pm CET par Tim Conneally

Apple's Mountain Lion isn't the only operating system gunning for Dropbox with native cross-platform cloud sync. Microsoft on Monday revealed its plans for SkyDrive which will include a new Metro-style Windows 8 app, integration into the Windows Explorer desktop, and the ability to retrieve any remote files (uploaded to SkyDrive or not) through SkyDrive.com for machines connected to the service.

"To build a SkyDrive experience on WinRT, we took an approach that we expect many web developers will choose to take on Windows 8. We built the entire app using modern web technologies like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5, and because of our recent updates to SkyDrive.com, we were able to use the same JSON APIs and JavaScript object model that the website uses. The only difference on Windows 8 is that we bind the results to modern controls that were built for touch. This is part of the reason it’s so fast, and the touch behavior works so well (and works on Windows on ARM too,)" Mike Torres and Omar Shahine, Group Program Managers for SkyDrive said on Monday.

Third-party application developers will also have the option to save files to the user's SkyDrive instead of locally, sort of like the way certain Android and iOS content creation apps have the option to save to Dropbox, Box, SugarSync, or other third-party cloud storage services.

An early version of the SkyDrive Windows 8 app will be bundled with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

The desktop application will integrate the user's SkyDrive into their Windows Vista, 7, or 8 Windows Explorer. With the application installed, users will be able to drag and drop files up to 2GB in size for direct upload to their cloud storage. If these files are then changed on the desktop, they will automatically be updated in SkyDrive.

Finally, the update to SkyDrive.com will add a "Devices" heading that lets users connect to any remote PC to access files that aren't expressly synced to their cloud drive. In order to do this, users will have to provide a second factor of authentication in the form of a code that is send to the user's mobile phone or alternate email address.

Microsoft on Monday did not explicitly talk about storage allocation, but Torres and Shahine did mention that "SkyDrive for the desktop will also provide the ability to sync up to your available quota of storage (and the ability to unlock more)," and Microsoft's demonstration video appears to show a 75GB capacity. With the Windows 8 Consumer Preview just around the corner, we're excited to see what the new SkyDrive has to offer.
Catalog Blu-rays, DVDs and DivX videos with Movie Label 2013

Publié: février 20, 2012, 7:45pm CET par Mark Wilson

While digital video formats are more popular than ever, most people still have large collections of DVDs and Blu-rays. One of the many advantages of digital video formats is that they are easily stored on removable hard drives and can be searched and cataloged in a variety of way.

Movie Label 2013 is the latest version of a movie cataloging tool that has been designed to place you firmly in control of your DVD collection, storing more information than is possible in the majority of similar tools that are available.

At its most basic, the application can be used to create a simple database of all of your DVDs and Blu-rays so even if you choose not to have your discs out on display you’ll never lose track of what you own. But this is an app that can also be used to catalog your DivX video files in the same way and keep track of which discs you have lent out to other people.

One of the biggest problems with any sort of cataloging software is the data entry side of things, but Movie Label 2013 makes things nice and easy – you can either scan the bar code of a disc and the data will be downloaded for you automatically, or you can perform searches that will populate data fields for you.

If all of this sounds like nothing special, the app has plenty of tricks up its sleeve. There are data fields that are simply not found in any other app and this is what sets Movie Label 2013 apart from the competition. Not only are you able to store details about the cast of shows and movies but you can also save information such as the type of equipment used on a shoot and attach details of awards that have been won -- this is great if you ever want to track down all of the movies starring a particular actor that have been nominated for Oscars. Additional options such as filming locations, advanced searches, a wonderfully redesigned program interface and a high level of customization mean that this is perfect for any self-respecting movie buff.

Weighing in at $39.95, it could be argued that Movie Label 2013 is a little on the expensive side -- but bear in mind that there is also a professional version available for almost double the price at $69.95 if you want to install the program on up to three computers, export data and create your own reports -- but it is pretty powerful.

Movie Label 2013 goes far beyond any other comparable tool, and while there is nothing to stop you from knocking up a more basic database in Access, this is far more feature-rich and good looking than anything most people would be capable of producing.

You can find out more by paying a visit to the Movie Label 2013 review page.

Photo Credit: Leigh Prather/Shutterstock
Take command of Microsoft Office Outlook

Publié: février 20, 2012, 7:09pm CET par Mike Williams

If last week’s Outlook Configuration Analyzer hasn’t helped to sort out your Outlook problems then you’ll probably need to resort to the usual manual troubleshooting approach, which for instance might involve launching the program with one of its command line switches.

You’ll first need to figure out which switch is appropriate, though, and then manually apply it to your copy of Outlook, which isn’t exactly convenient. But fortunately the free and portable OutlookParameterGUI does a good job of simplifying the whole process.

If you’re unfamiliar with these command line switches then you might start by browsing them via the program’s Parameter tab. Each one comes with a brief explanation, so, for example, you’ll read that starting Outlook with the /cleanprofile parameter “removes invalid profile keys and recreates default Registry keys where applicable”. Which sounds like a useful option if your installation has been damaged for some reason.

You really do need to read these explanations carefully, however, because some of the options will delete your Outlook customizations (/cleanviews will delete your custom views, say, while /cleanrules deletes client and server-based rules). But if you’re happy that a particular parameter suits your needs, then just click the Start button and OutlookParameterGUI will launch Outlook with it.

And as a bonus, there’s also a handy pane with some useful information about your Outlook setup: its architecture (32 or 64-bit), version number and service pack details, serial number (if you click Options > Show Serial) and more.

There’s nothing too out of the ordinary here, and you could of course manually apply the various command line switches yourself without downloading any extra software at all. OutlookParameterGUI does make the process easier, though, and at a mere 673KB won’t exactly get in your way, so on balance it more than justifies a place in your portable troubleshooting toolkit.
Sky Satellite TV app for Android arrives -- on 7 phones only!

Publié: février 20, 2012, 6:35pm CET par Mark Wilson

Subscribers to UK satellite TV provider Sky have just gained a new way to watch TV. Sky Go is a free app from the broadcaster that enables subscribers to access various channels on their Android phones at no additional cost. This is something that has been available to iPhone and iPad users for some time, and Android users now have the same option, although there is slightly patchy support for different devices.

In fact the app, at time of writing, is only compatible with seven handsets, all of which are phones -- it's not a great start. There is currently no support for any tablets, nor indeed support for any devices running Ice Cream Sandwich. This is something that will hopefully be addressed in future updates to the app as in the coming month there are Ice Cream Sandwich update scheduled for a number of the currently supported phones. A lack of support for larger screen tablets also seems like a serious oversight when the app is concerned solely with watching television.

The channels that you have access to depends on the type of Sky subscription you have, but there are total of 22 channels to choose from. This includes a number of sports and movie channels as well as arts, news and general entertainment. The app can be used over a WiFi or a data connection, but with a recommended minimum continuous connection speed of 500Kb per second this is likely to be something you only use when in range of a wireless network.

There are a few other restrictions to keep in mind before you get too excited about the app. If you live outside the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland, you’re not going to be able to make use of Sky Go and if you have rooted your phone, you are again out of luck. Despite a number of issues, if you are a Sky users, this app is a free perk so you may as well take a look to see if it could enhance your viewing experience.

You can find out more by paying a visit to the Sky Go review page.
Keep your hardware's software up to date with DriverIdentifier

Publié: février 20, 2012, 5:55pm CET par Mike Williams

If you’re looking for an application that can locate driver updates for you then there’s plenty of competition around. Much of this is from commercial packages, but if you’d prefer a free option then DriverIdentifier could be a reasonable choice.

Installation only takes a moment, for instance. And while we’ve seen reports that DriverIdentifier has installed browser toolbars by default in the past, our version (3.9) did nothing of the kind, just launching the program when setup was complete.

One click of the Scan Drivers button and DriverIdentifier went to work, identifying our installed devices and their drivers, and sending the information to a central database. A moment later a browser window opened with the program’s report: a list of our drivers including device name, manufacturer, driver version and date, and download links presented for any updates, where available.

While this is fine for the basics, you’re really getting nothing more than a static report. You can’t filter or sort your driver list, and there are no options to, say, download all the updates, or install them automatically.

And updating manually won’t always be straightforward, either. We clicked the Update link next to a mouse driver, for instance, and found six files on offer. One of these had the latest version and so seemed the obvious candidate, but if you didn’t want that for some reason then it may be hard to decide which was best. DriverIdentifier said both USB_Mouse_VT_090514.zip and USB_Mouse_VT.zip contained the same driver version, for instance, so what to pick? We had no idea.

If you’re a PC beginner hoping for an easy way to automate the process of driver updates, then, this program probably isn’t for you.

But of course the reality is that updating drivers is a complex business, not something which can be reliably automated. Sure, some tools try to find and install the right driver at a click, but they’ll occasionally get it wrong. DriverIdentifier does at least know its limitations, and that could make the program useful, if only as a quick check. So if you’d like to see if there are any updates available for your PC then it’ll probably be able to show you in just a few seconds; but identifying the right file, and installing it, is still something you’ll have to do yourself.

Photo Credit: Oleksiy Mark/Shutterstock