Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » septembre 28, 2012

BetaNews.Com (12 non lus)

CHENGDU Yiwo releases EaseUS CleanGenius Free 3.0.5 for Windows

Publié: septembre 28, 2012, 11:52pm CEST par Nick Peers

Chinese software developer CHENGDU Yiwo has released EaseUS CleanGenius Free 3.0.5. Despite the version number, this is actually the first release of CleanGenius on the PC platform, and follows in the wake of the paid-for EaseUS CleanGenius for Mac.

Despite sharing the name, CleanGenius is a very different beast on the PC, combining more than 20 disparate cleanup, optimization and privacy tools in a single program. While the vast majority of these are free, some features -- including scheduling options and automatic optimisation -- are restricted to a paid-for Pro license.

CleanGenius 3.0.5 bundles up its functionality in a single panel, with buttons inviting the user to perform two levels of scan for potential items to clean up. These in turn contain a number of individual modules, each of which can be disabled to allow the user to choose exactly what items they wish to clean up.

The tool also prominently features three buttons on its main page: Privacy Protect provides a selection of privacy scanning tools, while Turbo Boost promises to significantly increase performance by disabling a large number of potentially unwanted Windows Services. A Utilities Box button provides access to the rest of the program’s toolkit via a series of sections.

Other tools include driver backup, disk defragment, startup manager, file shredder and context menu editor. Also included for free are tools for encryption and splitting files, viewing and managing processes and a file unlocker for deleting stubborn files.

Tools restricted to Pro users include Registry cleaning and defrag, plus a cloned file finder for weeding out duplicates. Pro users can also configure the program to run on a schedule and automatically switch on Turbo Boost at startup.

EaseUS CleanGenius Free 3.0.5 is a freeware, function-limited tool for PCs running Windows XP or later (including the forthcoming Windows 8). A Pro license costs $29.95 and can be purchased from within the program itself.

Photo Credit: Dino O./Shutterstock
Let the porting begin: Open webOS 1.0 launches

Publié: septembre 28, 2012, 10:53pm CEST par Tim Conneally

It's been ten months since HP open sourced webOS, the attractive Web-based operating system that proved to be the last hurrah for smartphone pioneer Palm. Today, the Open webOS team announced the availability of Open webOS 1.0, the first official build of the open source platform for both desktop and embedded environments.

This release includes support for the Enyo2 core application framework, the Nyx portability layer, support for the latest Qt framework and WebKit engine. It also includes the OpenEmbedded build system for embedded Linux environments, and also a desktop build. It also has the signature webOS "card-based" user experience and core apps (Web browser, email client, calendar and contacts, clocks and memos).

Chief Architect, Steve Winston shows in the video below a build of Open webOS 1.0 that has been ported to the HP TouchSmart All-in-One PC.

All of the packages released today can be downloaded here, so if you're looking to bring the elegant webOS to a new form factor, hop to it!
AMC cajoles DISH subscribers with free 'The Walking Dead' streaming event

Publié: septembre 28, 2012, 8:57pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

Welcome to weird news Friday! We went from Apple CEO Tim Cook's iOS 6 maps apology to a Steve Jobs sculpture made from his trash. Now this: AMC launches a bizarre retaliatory campaign against DISH Network. Following a contract disagreement, DISH killed AMC on its service. Now AMC uses hit TV show "The Walking Dead" to kill DISH. Who are the real zombies here?

The only living beings may be AMC marketers, who cleverly disguise payback as promotion. Starting today, DISH customers can sign up to stream the first new zombie episode when it airs October 14. Prominently displayed: "This is a one-time only event for DISH customers. Switch TV providers now to see the rest of Season 3 of The Walking Dead".

But there's more! AMC also operates a "Switch from DISH" site, where existing subscribers can change providers. That site went live before the contract expired in July.

In another sign of attack, AMC speaks for DISH but does so in an uncredited statement:

"To gain leverage in an unrelated lawsuit, DISH has decided to deny their customers access to AMC shows including 'The Walking Dead'...DISH has stated it has no plans to bring back AMC. DISH customers who want to watch the entire season at the same time as the rest of the country should switch television providers now. Time is running out".

DISH takes a different position. The day before pulling AMC, Dave Shull, DISH's senior veep of programming said: "A significant portion of any pay-TV bill goes to fees for content providers like AMC Networks. AMC Networks requires us to carry low-rated channels like IFC and WE to access a few popular AMC shows. The math is simple: it's not a good value for our customers".

DISH brought in ASX.TV, HDNET Movies and Style to replace the AMC channels. Shull claims that AMC has devalued its programs by offering so many television programs on services like iTunes, while providing fewer compelling movies.

Unquestionably, AMC original programs like Mad Men and The Walking Dead appeal -- I watch them? Don't you? Eh, perhaps don't answer if a DISH subscriber.

But I'm fussy. The Walking Dead just isn't as lively as the early episodes. The show spent too much of last season on the farm. Boring! Now, judging by the last episode aired, the cast is headed off the farm into prison. I guess that about sums up where AMC sees DISH subscribers.

Will you switch?
Cloud's a highway, but I hit some speed bumps on the post-PC road

Publié: septembre 28, 2012, 8:19pm CEST par Randall C. Kennedy

Call me a pioneer. Those who have followed my contributions of late will have noted that I'm somewhat of a post-PC fanatic. I've taken it upon myself to blaze a trail into an IT future that features virtually no Microsoft or Intel technologies. Along the way, I've managed to stitch together a fairly functional post-PC solution. However, my journey has not always been a smooth one, and I will forever carry the scars of slings and arrows gone by.

For example, as I write this I'm sitting in the nearly empty family room of the new waterfront condo my wife and I just bought near Manalapan, FL. And as is often the case with a new property, I have yet to set-up any sort of Internet access -- nor do I plan to do so since we'll only be staying in the property for a few days before returning to Mauritius.

All of which puts me in the difficult position of using a cloud-oriented device (Android tablet) in an entirely disconnected state. In fact, just yesterday I was caught flat-footed when my realtor called looking for the phone number of the tree removal guy who was supposed to grind a stump left near the pool at my old property. I knew I had his number somewhere in Gmail, however, the Android Gmail client simply would not cooperate. I couldn't search. I couldn't manually navigate my various folders/labels. Nothing.

Had I been working in my pre-post-PC "mobile" environment -- HP Mini 2140 running Windows 7 and Office Outlook 2010 with an offline .PST file -- this wouldn't have happened. Nor would I have found myself cursing at the keyboard this morning while trying to draft a quick article for BetaNews. That's because all of the wonderful auto-correct and auto-spell check features of the various Android "soft" keyboards mysteriously disappear the moment you connect an external keyboard. So as I peck away in QuickOffice, I have to pay special attention to my spelling/grammar lest I commit some embarrassing faux pas.

Again, this wouldn't be an issue if I were still using Windows/Office. In fact, it isn't until you fully immerse yourself into the post-PC lifestyle that you start to see all the places where the seams are still a bit frayed. Little niggly things, like the inability to handle some common file type that arrives in an email, drive you crazy. And though there are often workarounds -- for example, uploading the file to some cloud service and then re-downloading in a different format -- they won't help you if you're in a situation where you have limited or no connectivity.

All of which makes me squirm violently at the thought of going all-cloud, all the time like my fearless, Chromebook-toting colleague, Joe Wilcox. The world is still a fairly disconnected place, especially once you venture into the third world. Which is why the success of key post-PC technologies, like tablets, has been limited mostly to first world regions like North America and parts of Europe/Asia. So while I applaud Joe's boldness in fully embracing cloud computing, I know that at least some offline capability will remain a bottom-line requirement for me.

Have I fallen off the post-PC bandwagon? Hardly. I still value the raw mobility of the tablet form factor, and I'm willing to put up with the occasional bump in the road if it means I can simply grab my computing environment in one hand like a small day planner and walk out the door. For me, the "clamshell" form factor of the traditional laptop has completely lost its luster.

In its place: A modular solution that promises to only get better over time.

Photo Credit: Dudarev Mikhail/Shutterstock
MRU-Blaster helps protect your privacy

Publié: septembre 28, 2012, 7:10pm CEST par Mike Williams

"Most Recently Used" lists are generally a good feature in applications, as they allow you to reload recent documents without having to remember exactly where they’re stored.

But, of course, there are also privacy implications with doing this. And so if you don’t want other users of your PC to see exactly which documents you’ve been accessing recently, you may want to use a third-party tool, like MRU-Blaster, to wipe them all away.

After a quick and uneventful installation (no adware annoyances here), the program launches with a simple, straightforward menu. Clicking "Scan" displays the number of MRU lists it’s found, and you can then view each individual item, or clear the complete set with a click.

How effective is it? The authors report that the MRU-Blaster database can "find and remove over 30,000 MRU lists". Sounds good, although the program’s been around for a long time, and we’d hazard a guess that some of those lists won’t be relevant to many people. And there are perhaps clues to that in the program’s settings, which have entries for Quattro Pro, WordPerfect and Visual Studio 6.0. (The last version was released in May this year, so it runs just fine on modern PCs, it’s just that older lists don’t appear to have been removed.)

To get a feel for the program’s effectiveness, though, we ran the very latest CCleaner on a test 64-bit Windows 7 PC, turned privacy options to the maximum and allowed it to clean our system.

Then we ran MRU-Blaster on the system, and clicked Scan. Would it pick up anything CCleaner had left? Yes, as it happened, around 250 items; the program clearly does still have some use in finding and removing Windows and application MRU lists.

It’s not all good news. We’re not sure why you have to install the program, for instance -- it’s probably simple enough to be portable.

And for some reason MRU-Blaster repeatedly found the same four items, even after we’d cleaned them. A bug, or maybe those entries can’t be deleted? We’re not sure.

If you’re particularly interested in finding and removing MRU lists from your Registry, however, there’s no doubt that MRU-Blaster provides a quick and easy way to help. Although whether it’s as good at clearing up after Office 2013 as WordPerfect or Quattro Pro remains to be seen.

Photo Credit: Liv friis-larsen/Shutterstock
Sorry, Tim Cook, apology not accepted

Publié: septembre 28, 2012, 6:45pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

Apple's CEO is "extremely sorry" about the "frustration" the company's homegrown maps app "has caused our customers". Sorry isn't good enough because it's directed at the wrong place. Apple replaced Google Maps in the newest version of iOS on September 19, and even Cook admits "we fell short on this commitment" to "make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers". Simply stated: Apple Maps app sucks, but he apologizes about the wrong thing.

Cook's letter of apology should go further and get to the root problem: Why Apple ditched Google Maps in the first place. Before his death, Steve Jobs told his biographer that Google's Android essentially is a stolen product, a copycat: "I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this". Apple bombs Android competitors with patent lawsuits, risking fallout in the form of legal precedents that could hurt all tech companies. Apple's dumping Google Maps, and also YouTube, from iOS are warfare tactics -- and bigger than copying concerns when looking at local search as future ad revenue opportunity. Apple customers are collateral damage from nuclear fallout that is the new mapping app.

Misdirection

What exactly is Apple's priority? Competitors or customers? Microsoft lost its way chasing Google. Now Apple charts similar path. Four months ago, I started a personal Apple boycott because of abusive patent litigation but weeks ago expressed desire to end it if the company stopped the thermonuclear war. Other people are angry, too. At Google+, #boycottapple typically ranks highly among trending topics.

Something else: Why didn't Cook apologize sooner? Rage against iOS 6 Maps started with the first reviews about 10 days ago. As a journalist, I always ask this question: Who benefits? That applies to today's letter to Apple customers. Who benefits from Cook's apology? I see some social network postings praising him for coming clean. I might agree if he had done so, say, during the first three days of negative responses -- when mainstream journalists asked questions but got few answers.

Instead, Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller gave non-response: "We launched this new map service knowing that it is a major initiative and we are just getting started with it. We are continuously improving it, and as Maps is a crowd-based solution, the more people use it, the better it will get".

Apple is a company for which brand image, and marketing supporting it, is paramount. An admission of guilt soon after iOS 6 released risked overshadowing iPhone 5's September 21 launch in 9 countries. But a week later, as the handset goes on sale in 22 more countries, the maps controversy has gone on long enough to be a real marketing problem.

BetaNews commenter arcana112 calls Apple's map strategy "arrogance in its purest form. At this stage they feel that they can literally throw anything at their customers and they will gladly eat it up".

Perhaps Apple execs expected the company's typical Teflon coating -- favorable blog, news and social media response -- would be protection enough. Instead, iOS 6 is a wildfire of controversy that needs to be extinguished.

Last week, I asked: "Will Apple Maps keep you from upgrading to iOS 6?" So far, 54 percent of you answered yes. Only 21.34 percent will upgrade, which coincidentally is exactly the same number that don't have iOS devices. But I asked the wrong question. More appropriate: Will Apple Maps keep you from buying iPhone 5?" Surely Apple is concerned with that answer.

The point: Cook's apology is self-serving. It's not about customers, but Apple. The same can be said about the thermonuclear war.

Wrong Direction

iOS 6 Maps is a surprising experience, shocking for anyone accustomed to Apple usually delivering above-average one. Colleague Wayne Williams calls Apple Maps a "huge downgrade" in his review of the product. My experience isn't much better, as expressed in my iPhone 5 review. Across the web, torrents of complaints rage about Apple's product -- that it's a downgrade from Google Maps, places are misidentified and directions go the wrong way. Testing iOS 6 maps, I searched for "fashion valley" inside San Diego's Fashion Valley Mall and got a map for Skin Valley in Paris.

Customers wouldn't be here, if Apple partnered more than competed. I'm amazed Apple allows as many Google apps as it does on iOS, with Chrome being most striking. Not that it's by any means fair play. Apple favors mobile Safari, which is the only default browser and one given a speed advantage over rival products. By the way, in June I asked "Will you swap Safari for Chrome as your primary mobile browser?" Fifty-six percent of you answered "yes".

It's unfair to totally blame the thermonuclear war. Apple is well-known for controlling customer experiences end to end. Mapping is one of the most-used applications, particularly as more people rely on smartphones for navigation and local search. About three-quarters of US smartphone owners use location-based services, with mapping programs ranking among the highest, according to Pew Research.

Obviously Apple wants to control the user experience. But why not go in stages, by introducing Apple Maps but keeping Google's product, too? Then customers have a fall-back option while Apple improves its product over time -- and that's what it takes. Apple can't match Google's rich product overnight.

BetaNews reader bitslasher observes:

They rushed it out, and in the process tarnished their brand and reputation. When the iPhone was in development it was delayed for years until it felt it was ready. What would have been the harm in waiting for another year? IMHO going out with something half-baked is worse than going out with nothing at all. No one would have been any the wiser and in a year it would have been a lot better, no doubt.

So why not go slowly? It's a question of Apple priorities. Google Maps is a parasite. Writing for the Washington Post, Dominic Basulto smartly asks: "Remember what algorithms were to search? That’s what maps are to mobile". Yes, absolutely. Apple decided to cut off Google Maps completely to make way for its own product, even if hugely inferior.

Mobile is the future of computing, and smartphones lead the way. IDC predicts shipments of smart devices -- connected PCs, smartphones and tablets -- will reach 1.2 billion units this year. Smartphones make up 59 percent of the segment. These mobiles are more personal and more present (meaning nearly-always carried) than PCs. Eyeballs are potential ad dollars that Apple surely wants to tap long term. The advertising tie-in to local search through maps is mindboggling. Apple wants a cut of that pie, to control it.

Writing for All Things Digital John Paczkowski uses unnamed sources to chronicle the process leading to Apple dumping Google Maps and rushing its homegrown product to market. Google wanted more branding, Apple demanded turn-by-turn navigations, he claims. The only real certainty: Apple wasn't willing to go on providing the best experience to customers, choosing instead to put other priorities first. C`mon, what good are turn-by-turn navigations if they lead people to the wrong destination?

Cook's apology is as misguided as the directions Apple Maps gives.
Artist steals Steve Jobs' trash, turns it into sculpture, world continues spiral into hell

Publié: septembre 28, 2012, 6:37pm CEST par Tim Conneally

I'm sorry, guys. I'm sorry. I have to apologize up front for even passing this story across your screens today, but it's one of those things that I just cannot overlook.

Los Angeles art house Cory Allen Contemporary Art announced yesterday that it is "re-pressing" the Steve Jobs figurine that Apple snuffed out of existence two years ago, but this second version adds a new wrinkle: is made out of porcelain and "a recycled resin made up of Steve Job’s residential trash the artist collected from the tech icon’s home several months before his death last year. "

Yes, you read that correctly. Trash. Taken from Steve Jobs' house.

Now, I have a problem with the American public's reception of Apple products. They think they're somehow more than just mass produced things. We see it on BetaNews every day. Joe Wilcox will write an article about Apple and people inevitably find some way to take the whole thing personally. Many people seem completely unable to separate their personality from the stupid devices they use.

The real problem is that this fanaticism causes the for-profit media to continue covering Apple like it is the most important thing on Earth. When we write about Apple, it's because the market demands it, not because we particularly care. We have to pay our bills, and for some reason, people keep clicking on the Apple stories.

The same thing apparently goes for art, too. Make a worthless vinyl figure of Steve Jobs without his permission, attract a cease and desist order…Boom, you've got yourself a profitable art career with an artificially scarce consumer icon. The original figures were trading for more than $2,500 on eBay after Apple legal stepped up to M.I.C Gadget.

So now that Jobs is gone, they have gone ahead and rehashed the same idea while the public still has its head up its ass over Apple. Of course, the artist who created this particular figurine, XVALA, frames it as an icon of social criticism.

"The artist created the sleek sculpture to be mass produced in an appropriate work environment, encouraging Apple to impose the same standards on Foxconn or to completely disconnect their working relationship," Cory Allen Contemporary Art said on Thursday.

XVALA's entire schtick is a soft-headed criticism of Internet technology, saying the same things that we all said years ago like "Tweets are graffiti," or "Fear Google," or "Once you're on Facebook, you're never off." Last year, he said he's making "Post-PC art."

It appears he just repeats hackneyed tech buzzwords in an ironic way, which I suppose is cool, because I do that every day.

"God damn, this sandwich is so Post-PC, it makes me wanna B my own D."

But I digress. Though XVALA is perennially compared to street artist Banksy, his art mimics the urban sedition pioneered by Crass in the late 1970's, and the mass-produced pop idolatry most famously devised by Warhol in the early to mid-1960's. This guy appears to be taking a well-worn method of social criticism, and applying exclusively to Silicon Valley technology. Of course, we've all heard these criticisms coming from software engineers from the beginning. He's late to the party both stylistically and rhetorically.

So when these statuettes go up for sale on October 13 in Los Angeles, by all means, go ahead and buy a bunch of them, but you're going to have to hope Apple issues a cease and desist on them, because that's the artist's stock in trade.

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
Acer Iconia Tab A700 gets a dose of Jelly Bean

Publié: septembre 28, 2012, 6:18pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

Say goodbye to Ice Cream Sandwich and hello to Jelly Bean! Acer's flagship Android tablet, the quad-core nVidia Tegra 3 Iconia Tab A700 gets an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean adrenaline shot in Europe, with extended availability likely to follow in the near future.

According to XDA Developers members, the Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean update for the Acer Iconia Tab A700 tablet is available only in Germany at the moment. The update brings along a few notable changes, the biggest of which obviously is operating system upgrade in itself, but it is reported that Google Chrome as well as Acer Cloud are included in the update among the usual Google Currents, Play Books and Play Music. Allegedly, there is an effect on touch sensitivity as well which, according to the same user that reported the changes, is an improvement over the previous version.

The update does cause an issue with McAfee VirusScan Mobile that is reported to crash after the Jelly Bean update, but this appears to be the only issue at the moment that will likely get fixed soon as well. It was rumored two months ago, but now owners of the Acer Iconia Tab A700 can enjoy Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
Apple apologizes for iOS 6 maps

Publié: septembre 28, 2012, 3:38pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

This morning, Apple posted an apology from the CEO about iOS 6 maps, which replaced the mature Google product available in the five previous versions of the operating system. Complaints about misidentifications and misdirections flooded the web, starting with the software's release on September 19.

The letter, posted on Apple's website and signed by Tim Cook, is a rare mea culpa. Ironically, Cook's temporary remedy: Use map apps like Bing or do what colleague Wayne Williams suggested yesterday -- create a shortcut to Google Maps web app. Wayne's Apple Maps review shows exactly what's wrong with the experience he describes as a downgrade.

The apology:

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO

Is this apology good enough for you? It's not for me, and I'll explain why in a follow-up post.
Happy Birthday Google (belated)

Publié: septembre 28, 2012, 4:23am CEST par Paul Weber

If you went to Google.com today, you probably noticed the logo was replaced with a fun little birthday cake animation celebrating 14 years of incorporation. Google was incorporated on Sept. 4th 1998, but chose today to celebrate the birthday. What does it matter when they celebrate, after all, Google has had a great year.

In April, Google released a concept video about Project Glass, fancy glasses with computers in them. In May, the search giant closed the purchase of Motorola Mobility. During the annual developer conference in June, Google made a lot of announcements, among them: Android 4.1, Nexus 7 tablet, Nexus Q and creepy but useful Google Now. The fun: skydiving, bicycles and rappelling down the side of a building. Big surprise: event participants could purchase a developer version of Google Glasses.

But September has been huge -- and appropriately so for the birthday month. Cumulative Android device sales passed iOS -- 500 million to 400 million -- with IHS iSuppli predicting 1 billion next year but Apple's platform not reaching the number until 2015. Daily Android activations now top 1.3 million. Android is the most popular mobile OS with 64.1 percent global sales market share, according to Gartner.

Just yesterday, Google announced there have been 25 billion downloads from Google Play, and 675,00 apps available.

But the big thing, perhaps most appropriate for the birthday, is Google's share price, closing at $756.50 today. The stock reached a record high of $764.89 earlier this week. That's higher than Apple, which closed at $681.32 and this month set a record high of $705.07.

You can’t ignore the bad, however. The whole debacle over the Street View spying continues to affect Google. Apple removed YouTube and Google Maps from iOS 6. Marissa Mayer left the company to become CEO of Yahoo, in mid July. Later that month, Google suspended Nexus Q sales. The company's top executive in Brazil was even arrested yesterday.

Whether you like it or not, Google is an important part of our daily lives. The company has 91 percent of search market share worldwide and uses the money it makes from advertising to provide more services that are free -- Android, Chrome, Maps, Translate, YouTube, Blogger, Voice and some that are free to consumers, but that businesses can pay to use with support: Gmail, Google Drive/Docs and Google Calendar.

It is now possible to live almost your entire digital life with Google, particularly if using a fancy Chromebook or Chromebox to access search, Gmail, Drive and Calendar to be productive, Google Wallet for all your purchases and, if you live in Kansas City, the Google Fiber, Gbps Internet service.

Fourteen years have passed since the company began to change the Internet, so much so that Google is now a verb -- and almost a way of life.
LinkedIn identifies the top-10 endangered office tools and trends

Publié: septembre 28, 2012, 1:39am CEST par Wayne Williams
The office workplace is continually evolving. New technologies and trends -- like cloud computing and BYOD schemes -- are becoming more and more popular, but not every firm is willing to embrace the future, and many are stuck firmly in the past.

LinkedIn, the world’s largest social network for professionals, surveyed more than 7,000 members across the globe and asked them which of the current office tools and trends they expect to be extinct in five years’ time, combining the answers to produce the following top 10:
1. Tape recorders (79 percent)
2. Fax machines (71 percent)
3. The Rolodex (58 percent)
4. Standard working hours (57 percent)
5. Desk phones (35 percent)
6. Desktop computers (34 percent)
7. Formal business attire like suits, ties, pantyhose, etc. (27 percent)
8. The corner office for managers/executives (21 percent)
9. Cubicles (19 percent)
10. USB thumb drives (17 percent)
While some of the responses, like tape recorders and fax machines, are on fairly safe ground, there are some rather more wishful answers in the list. It would be nice to think by 2017 all businesses will have outlawed cubicles and neck nooses, but somehow I’m not convinced.

The survey also looked at up-and-coming trends that professionals expect to become much more popular in the future. The list included tablets (55 percent), cloud storage (54 percent) and flexible working hours and smartphones (tied at 52 percent). More fanciful responses included having a clone or assistant (25 percent), office areas lit by natural sunlight (25 percent), somewhere to take a nap (22 percent) and a mute button for silencing co-workers (19 percent).

There's a nice infographic summing it all up here.

What trends and tools would you like to see phased out over the next five years? And similarly, what new business practices do you think should be adopted in their place? Leave your comments below.
Chromebook changed my life

Publié: septembre 28, 2012, 1:27am CEST par Joe Wilcox
Four months ago, I put aside (and later sold) MacBook Air for the Samsung Series 5 550 second-generation Chromebook and never looked back. They say three times is a charm, and that proves true with my third foray using a laptop running Chrome OS. The first two proved life-changing, as I adopted a partial cloud computing lifestyle. Now I live a vigorous, charmed cloud life, which includes Android embrace.

Chromebook isn't easy, because it demands a thinking reset. I had to put aside concepts about everyday computing, fear of losing Internet connection and perceptions about hardware configurations and what's good enough performance value. Something else: When I started this journey, in December 2010, Chrome OS wasn't good enough, because there weren't enough supporting cloud apps. That has changed dramatically, because of Chrome Web Store and how much desktop-like utility Google now brings to cloud services like G+ or YouTube.

There are many ways here I will recount how Chromebook changed my life, but one demands more immediate attention. For more than a year before the 550 arrived, I felt unsettled about Apple's relentless attempts to thwart innovation by litigation -- those damn patent lawsuits. But I didn't feel technologically empowered enough to do what my mind demanded: Boycott Apple. I planned to try by switching to an ASUS Pad 300 Android tablet in late May. Google contacted me about Chromebook just as I prepared to start that journey. Six weeks later, I had replaced MacBook Air with Chromebook, iPhone 4S with Galaxy Nexus, Apple Mail with Gmail and generally abandoned my long Apple lifestyle -- declaring independence on July 4th. My mom and wife use Chromebook, too.

Trial and Triumph

I first used Chromebook in December 2010, when Google dispatched 60,000 Cr-48 test models to willing early adopters. The portable challenged my concepts and compelled me to think more about storing stuff in the cloud and consuming more app services in the browser. Then the first commercial Chromebooks, from Acer and Samsung, launched on June 15, 2011. I tested one right away, but didn't begin my next important journey until July 31, 2011, when I switched over to using the Chromebook as my primary, and later only, PC. I kept that up until the first week of October, when, because of disappointing performance, Chromebook retired.

The journey resumed in late May, as previously mentioned, and continues to this today. The 550 Chromebook is my only computer and delivers all the performance I need. But making the leap required shedding concepts. By the specs, Samsung's second-generation Chromebook is hugely underpowered: 1.3GHz Intel Celeron 867 processor (dual-core); 12.1-inch matte display (1280 x 800 resolution; 300 nit); 16GB solid-state drive; Intel HD graphics; 4GB SDRAM; webcam; two USB ports; DisplayPort; WiFi N; 3G (on some models); Gigabit Ethernet; 4-in-1 media card slot; and Chrome OS. The operating system stack supports Bluetooth, which therefore can be added by dongle; I did for my wife, who demands a mouse.

I would never pay for a modern Mac or Windows PC specced this way, yet here I am happily moseying along on a Chromebook that performs handsomely. The portable boots up or wakes from sleep in seconds; recovers from crashes about as fast (not that there are many); and handles all the tasks I need from it, pleasantly.

Moving back to Chromebook was like putting on a new pair of shoes that fit right and offer adequate arch support, unlike the older pair. Chrome OS is as familiar as Google's web browser, and I already had moved some of my life to cloud. Now I've taken up residence.

Before adopting the Chromebook lifestyle four months ago, I:
- Primarily used desktop applications -- now the browser consuming app services
- Used Chrome, Firefox and Safari -- now just Chrome across devices with seamless sync
- Stored all my files to local hard drive or USB disk -- now they reside on Google Drive
- As previously mentioned, primarily used Apple products -- now my computing soul belongs to Google
- Used iTunes to listen to music stored on a USB drive -- now stream my library of 13,000 tracks from Google Music
- Relied on a PC password to protect locally stored data -- now 2-step verification on all cloud sites that offer it
My computing lifestyle transformed over the summer, but the process really started in December 2010 when first using the Cr-48.

Cloud Cover

I chose to write about Chromebook today because of midway timing. Four months ago last week, I started this new journey while one year ago next week the old one ended. I'm miffed that, with my bad luck, over at The Verge Louis Goddard today posted "Life with a Chromebook: three months of love and hate in the cloud: Can one man survive without 'Counter-Strike' and Photoshop?" Timing is coincidental, damn it. His story popped up in my Google+ feed this afternoon, but I won't read it until after posting mine.

But his headline is good segue to applications. Under other circumstances, a Chrome OS portable wouldn't be an option for me, and that easily could be the case for you. Chromebook is not for:
- Demanding gamers
- Software developers
- Heavy video producers
- Professional photographers
- Desktop software-dependent software users
- Anyone who can't maintain a persistent Net connection
I don't much game and don't develop software. YouTube provides all the video-editing features I need. Cloud photo-editing apps more than meet my requirements, although they would better satisfy if supporting camera RAW. Most any software capabilities I need are satisfied by web services. AT&T U-verse provides nearly always-on Internet connection (there has been one outage, when all San Diego went dark, since our household started using the service in February 2008). I'm an easy Chromebook candidate today, but you might not be.

You can comfortably use Chromebook as an everyday business PC, as long as your stuff is accessible from the browser and supports Flash and adopted or open browser standards -- of course, you need persistent web connection for most things (but not always as there are offline apps). Most people using a traditional PC would need constant connection, too. Google's tight integration to its services and the surprisingly good choice of third-party web apps are major reasons why Chromebook can be good enough. Chrome OS satisfies all I need to do on a daily basis.

But that's a simplification. I've used desktop software my entire computing life. Letting go concepts that cloud services couldn't be enough proved challenging at first, particularly for intensive tasks like photo and video editing. My preconceptions limited how rapidly I received cloud benefits. Need helped me to push the limits.

For example, I process a good dozen images for BetaNews every day. That requires a photo editor, and to my surprise there are several good ones. I typically use iPiccy. There's an Instagram extension, and I recently started using the clever and cute PicMonkey, too.

Typically, photo-editing is faster in a browser than in any desktop software I used on MacBook Air. Yeah, scratch your head at that -- and think. In the cloud, the heavy computing is done on the server. With desktop software, your PC bears the burden. The difference is striking in other ways. As I type, 19 Chrome tabs are open, and Chromebook is as fast and responsive as if there was only one. iPiccy is among the open tabs, and I don't see any performance hit from this or others with cloud services replacing desktop application functions.

Restating: Accepting this benefit meant a change of mindset. Because I had a firm concept about which experience should be better. That presented a barrier to my realizing the many cloud benefits or willingness to step from the perceived safety of earth -- leap off the cliff, so to speak -- into the cloud.

Jocular Journey

Chromebook is by no means perfect, just more than good enough for my particular computing needs. Google releases a new version of Chrome OS about every two months (soon after the newest browser build enters the stable channel). I've actually seen three updates since May, and each brought improvements or remedied quirks. Example: I had to crank volume control nearly full to get loud enough sound from my Bose speakers, now it's good enough less than half way. Another example: Google Drive integration is available, from the file menu.

I'm not a big fan of the mixed desktop and browser motif, something Google introduced weeks before the 550 Chromebook released. The Chrome Web Store, which was laughable a year ago rocks today -- and presentation is pleasant and much more navigable.

But Google offers the biggest benefits, as it improves other services and provides integration points to them. I want even more. For example, the only share option for photos is to Picasa. What about Google+ or other services?

Still, I am hugely satisfied with Chromebook. Battery life is exceptional, the matte screen readable outdoors in direct daylight and some models (well, mine) have Verizon 3G radios with 100MB free bandwidth a month.

I've written quite a number stories about my journey. Among them:
- "Windows 8 sports a spunky new UI, while Chrome OS gets an apps list", Aug. 22, 2012
- "Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook is good enough for you", May 31, 2012
- "Is Samsung Chromebook Series 5 550 worth spending $549?", May 29, 2012
- "Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook first-impressions review", May 29, 2012
- "I'm giving up Chromebook", Oct. 2, 2011
- "I shacked up with Chromebook", Sept. 3, 2011
- "Samsung Series 5 Chromebook first-impressions review", June 24, 2011
- "Chrome OS is only a failure to people living in the past", May 17, 2011
- "Chrome OS: The Ghost of Netscape rises to haunt Microsoft", May 12, 2011
- "Google's Chrome OS laptop saved my butt", March 1, 2011
- "A week with Google's Chrome OS laptop, Day 7: Settling in for the long haul" (see story for links to other six in the series), Dec. 20, 2010
- "Who really needs a Chrome OS laptop?", Dec. 12, 2010
What can I say. I like. I like.

But it's not enough. In many ways, I like Android more and get huge utility from the even larger selection of apps and touchscreen devices. What I really want is an Android-Chrome OS. Perhaps that's the next journey. Say, Google, can you take a hint?

By the way, I embedded the video above because the dad uses a Chromebook, and I relate. My daughter started college last month. But she won't give up her four year-old aluminium MacBook.