Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » janvier 24, 2013

BetaNews.Com (12 non lus)

Microsoft Q2 2013 by the numbers: $21.5B, 76 cents EPS

Publié: janvier 24, 2013, 10:17pm CET par Joe Wilcox

Late this afternoon, Microsoft answered a question oft-asked by investors this month: What's up with Windows 8? The new operating system, which launched October 26, was supposed to lift sagging PC sales and demonstrate the capability to successfully compete with so-called post-PC platforms like Android and iOS. Now we know more. Windows & Windows Live revenue passed Business, making the OS division most-valuable again.

For fiscal second quarter, ended December 31, Microsoft revenue was $21.46 billion, up 3 percent year over year. Operating income: $7.77 billion, a 3 percent decrease. Net income was $6.38 billion, or 76 cents a share.

Average analyst consensus was $21.53 billion revenue and 74 cents earnings per share, for the quarter. Revenue estimates ranged from $19.94 billion to $23.32 billion, with estimated year-over-year growth of 3.1 percent -- mighty modest for a holiday quarter when new PC and phone operating systems launched and Microsoft released its first tablet, Surface RT.

Shares dipped by 2 percent in early after-market trading, falling to $27.06 from the $27.63 close. Like Apple yesterday, Microsoft beat earnings consensus but missed on sales.

When adjusting for the impact of Office and Windows upgrade offers (meaning non-GAAP view), revenue grew by 5 percent to $22 billion, operating income by 4 percent to $8.3 billion, and EPS by 4 percent to 81 cents.

"Our big, bold ambition to reimagine Windows as well as launch Surface and Windows Phone 8 has sparked growing enthusiasm with our customers and unprecedented opportunity and creativity with our partners and developers", CEO Steve Ballmer boasts. "With new Windows devices, including Surface Pro, and the new Office on the horizon, we’ll continue to drive excitement for the Windows ecosystem and deliver our software through devices and services people love and businesses need".

Windows & Windows Live revenue rose 24 percent year over year to $5.88 billion, buoyed by a deferral from the previous quarter. Without the extra lift, revenue still increased by 11 percent.

Microsoft's Perception Problem

As I've oft said, in business, perception is everything. To many people, Windows is Microsoft and the fate of one influences the other. Perception is a devil. Take Apple, for example, which reported $54.5 billion revenue and $13.06 billion net income yesterday. Today, shares closed down 12.35 percent, in part on perception that growth days are over, despite simply huge quarterly numbers. Microsoft's problem is by no means comparable, but Apple's situation makes a point. If investors so punish the company for such a great quarter, what can negative or positive perceptions about Windows' future do?

Microsoft is no longer bound to Windows, despite marketing hype about "reimagining". In October, CEO Steve Ballmer described the company's new direction as "devices and services". The Business division, with flagship Office, generally generates more revenue than Windows & Windows Live, and last quarter Server & Tools did, too. The company is in process of removing dependence on Windows as top to its hugely successful vertical applications stack built around Office and server software and now extended through cloud services, such as 365, Azure, Skype and SkyDrive among many others. Windows is still hugely valuable, and anchors a huge ecosystem, but Microsoft can transcend the OS.

The problem: Public sentiment says something else -- that Windows can't compete in the post-PC, what I call connected-devices, era. If Windows can't, neither can Microsoft. I don't agree. Microsoft's apps, datacenter and server software already are primed to serve multiple devices -- not just the PC -- and that's a longstanding development strategy now far advanced. Microsoft is ready to move beyond Windows, and the holiday quarter PC shipments show such a future is inevitable. Windows won't go away but stand alongside other platforms rather than being the overwhelmingly dominant one.

Business and Server & Tools succeed for many reasons, and they will continue to do so as long as enterprises stay the course buying annuity contracts. Combined, more than half the two groups' revenues come from volume-licensing contracts with Software Assurance.

Companies get the license and annually pay 25 percent or 29 percent of the full price to get upgrades (or even to exercise downgrade rights) over two- or three-year periods. Software Assurance insulates Microsoft from economies' ups and downs and those for PC purchases. If ever businesses back away in mass from annuity or subscription contracts, that's the day to seriously worry about Microsoft's future.

Whither Windows 8

Where the flagship operating system matters most is where Microsoft tries to take it: touchscreen devices, such as hybrids and tablets, with Surface RT and Pro serving as reference-designs for OEM partners to emulate. The Redmond, Wash.-based company announced plans to port Windows to ARM processors in January 2011, then followed up with the tile-based Modern UI that unifies ARM and x86 operating systems, including Windows Phone. Pundits poo-poo PC shipments, which stank in Q4, as evidence Surface and Windows 8 are failures. I ask: By what measure? Seems to me, Microsoft already changed Windows' course to embrace a broader range of devices, with a unifying UI. Transitions like this take time to succeed, or fail.

There is need. Had Microsoft not made-over Windows, the problem wouldn't be perception but crisis very real. Three legs support the profit center, and Windows bound to traditional PCs would be one cut off. Instead, Windows 8 holds future device promise. Much depends on the devices the company and its partners produce and apps and services supporting them. Honestly, looking at holiday PC lineup, Surface RT is about the only thing looking good. OEMs failed to deliver compelling products that get people buying.

PCs continued their more-than-year-long collapse during fourth quarter. Windows 8 gave no meaningful lift. Shipments fell 4.9 percent year over year, according to Gartner. For all 2012: down 3.5 percent. Manufacturers shipped 90.3 million and 352.7 million units for the respective time periods. IDC offers grimmer perspective: PC shipments fell 6.4 percent for Q4 -- two points more than forecast -- and 3.2 percent for the year.

Consumers aren't buying Windows PCs like they used to, and their infatuation with iPad, some other tablets and smartphones, is spreading. "Tablets have dramatically changed the device landscape for PCs, not so much by 'cannibalizing' PC sales, but by causing PC users to shift consumption to tablets rather than replacing older PCs", Mikako Kitagawa, Gartner principal analyst, says, speaking about Q4 PC shipments.

She no longer believes that PCs and tablets will coexist for a meaningful time. "There will be some individuals who retain both, but we believe they will be exception and not the norm. Therefore, we hypothesize that buyers will not replace secondary PCs in the household, instead allowing them to age out and shifting consumption to a tablet".

Combine that with the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) to work movement, and the future looks grim. Or does it? Microsoft already has its apps, cloud and server businesses primed for BYOD, as I've written here before. Then there is broader context, for those calling Windows 8 a flop because PC shipments fell in Q4. Apple got hit, too. Analyst consensus was for 5.2 million Macs shipped, but only 4.1 million did. Yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook laid blame on late delivery of new iMacs. He said that Mac shipments would have been otherwise higher.

I don't find that credible. But let's assume for a moment he's right. iMac is an expensive beast, starting at 1,299 and selling for as much as $1,999 in standard config. If Apple can command such selling strength, why can't Microsoft OEMs? They should, by releasing innovative hybrid desktop and portable designs that capitalize on Windows 8's best features. I contend they did not in fourth quarter.

Something else to consider when looking at the PC market and future of Windows. In a compelling rebuttal to claims the PC is dying, Derrick Wlodarz, who owns a computer repair business, makes an observation often ignored: "Whereas customers of mine were getting 3-4 years out of machines back in the early 2000s, they now push their PCs to 4-6 year replacement cycles without much sweat". Major reason: Older hardware has more than enough processor and graphics power to meet modern needs.

"Now, a Windows Vista or newer PC could likely run on for five, six, seven or possibly more years without much issue. And this is the untold trend that I see in my customer base", he asserts. "Solid, secure operating systems installed onto well-engineered computer hardware equals a darn long system life".

So if the PC in the den or office is good enough and not in need of replacement, why not buy a new smartphone or tablet? Remember: Microsoft pushes ahead with solutions for both these categories. Then there is fourth quarter to consider, where Windows delivered solid growth -- now if only the broader ecosystem could capitalize upon it.

Division Highlights

Microsoft reports revenue and earnings results for five divisions: Windows & Windows Live, Server & Tools, Business, Online Services and Entertainment & Devices.

Windows & Windows Live. Revenue soared 24 percent year over year despite weak PC sales, surely buoyed by low-cost Windows Pro upgrade price that ends January 31. A $622 million deferral helped lift revenue to $5.88 billion. Without it, revenue would have grown by 11 percent.

To date Microsoft has sold 60-million Windows 8 licenses.

OEM revenue grew by 17 percent, outpacing the broader PC market.

Server & Tools. "We see strong momentum in our enterprise business", Microsoft COO Kevin Turner says. "With the launch of SQL Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012, we continue to see healthy growth in our data platform and infrastructure businesses and win share from our competitors. With the coming launch of the new Office, we will provide a cloud-enabled suite of products that will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility".

Revenue rose 9 percent, or $347 million, to $5.19 billion. As previously mentioned, the division is insulated against economic maladies, because about 50 percent of revenues come from contractual volume-licensing agreements.

New bookings increased by 15 percent. Meanwhile System Center revenue grew by 18 percent and SQL Server by 16 percent.

Business. "We saw strong growth in our enterprise business driven by multi-year commitments to the Microsoft platform, which positions us well for long-term growth", Microsoft CFO Peter Klein says. "Multi-year licensing revenue grew double-digits across Windows, Server & Tools, and the Microsoft Business Division".

Despite touted growth, revenue fell by 10 percent year over year to $5.69 billion. However, when removing adjustments for Office upgrade offer and pre-sales, revenue grew by 3 percent.

Bookings increased by 18 percent and multi-year licensing by 10 percent. However, consumer revenue fell by 2 percent.

Like Server & Tools, Business division is largely insulated against sluggish PC sales. Sixty percent of revenue comes from annuity licensing to businesses.

Online Services Business. Online services revenue rose by 10 percent, or $109 million, to $823 million. However, the division remains unprofitable. Search and display ads drove up online advertising revenue by 15 percent.

Entertainment & Devices. Microsoft shipped 5.2 million Xbox consoles, down from 8.2 million a holiday quarter earlier. As a platform, Xbox 360 revenue fell 29 percent, or $1.1 billion.

Xbox Live subscriptions now exceed 40 million.

Windows Phone sales are up 4 times year over year, which is a polite way of saying they're not good enough. If they were, Microsoft would say how many.

Users made 138 billion Skype calls, up 59 percent year over year.
Do you think that all smart people actually work at Nokia, Qualcomm, and the X-Prize Foundation?

Publié: janvier 24, 2013, 6:00pm CET par Robert X. Cringely

Third in a series. This is my response to the message from Qualcomm Tricorder X-Prize director Mark Winter, who said my objections to his contest design were without merit.

Let me make a point here: this isn’t about me receiving $10 million. We all know that’s not going to happen. It’s about designing a contest that actually encourages innovation. Please read on as I explain.

I appreciate your position, Mark, and might have sent the same reply were I standing in your shoes. However, I am sure I’ve uncovered exactly the sort of poor contest design that may well doom your effort. As such I will go ahead and publish the letter I wrote to Paul Jacobs so my readers can weigh-in on this issue. Certainly it will make your contest more visible.

Bill Joy used to say “not all smart people work at Sun Microsystems,” and by this he meant that there is plenty of useful brainpower outside every organization -- brainpower that is likely to see the germ or find the flaw in any strategy. Well not all smart people work at Qualcomm, Nokia, or the X-Prize Foundation, either. And what worries me about this is the inflexibility engendered in your announcement, which actively discourages the participation of prior art. Why would anyone with something well in hand wait 35 months? For that matter, what makes you think that 35 months from now this prize will even have relevance? What if it doesn’t? Do you just cancel it and say “never mind?”

The proper way to have designed this contest was by setting a goal and an overall ending date, not a date six years out to begin evaluation. If anyone accomplishes the contest tasks prior to that date, they should win. Your design assumes every entrant is starting from scratch. It also assumes every entrant is amateur, because no business these days would plan a 35-month R&D effort toward a single product. Ask Nokia and Qualcomm about that one.

Some of this thinking is simply not thinking while some of it is self-serving thought. You make the point that the X-Prize Foundation is in the business of running these contests, which suggests to me that a 6-7 year time frame probably suits the business model of the Foundation much more than it does the pursuit of this type of knowledge. We’ve seen this before from your organization, notably with the Google Lunar X-Prize, which also seems to have been designed to fail.

Note: In the case of the Google Lunar X-Prize, the X-Prize Foundation changed the rules several times including at one point inserting a delay of more than a year before the “final” rules would be set -- a year during which entrants were supposed to blindly continue raising budgets of up to $100 million.

What I read in your message is an unwillingness to consider changing the contest rules. This is ironic given the immense likelihood that over time you will do just that for any number of reasons. This seems to happen on most of the X-Prize competitions at one point or another. This is the ideal time to correct an obvious flaw, so why not do it?

Or do you think that all smart people actually do work at Nokia, Qualcomm, and the X-Prize Foundation?

All the best,

Bob Cringely

Reprinted with permission

Photo Credit: Creativa/Shutterstock
Guess which country leads the world in botnets?

Publié: janvier 24, 2013, 5:59pm CET par Alan Buckingham

Botnets are frequently in the news, most recently with Red October. Many of us think, perhaps smugly, that these things are based in locations like China and Russia, but the truth is, while some of the computers themselves may be there, these massive, distributed networks are being controlled from a location much closer to home for many of us -- the United States.

Benjamin Cruz of McAfee reports that the United States not only leads the world in this category, but has more than double the number of Russia and China combined. In fact, the two nations we frequently blame for attacks fall into fourth and tenth place on the list that Cruz published. British Virgin Islands and the Netherlands trail the United States, respectively.

How does McAfee know this? Cruz explains that "with millions of McAfee endpoints and network security appliances sending information to McAfee Global Threat Intelligence (GTI) in the cloud, coupled with a vast collection of malicious binary and proactive research, McAfee Labs has a clear view of botnet threats around the world".

Why the United States? That question is not answered in the report, so speculating would be useless. However botnets are frequently used for sending spam email and spreading viruses, both of which generate revenue and the country does have a great history of "entrepreneurship".

Organized crime has also made the jump to the cyber world, using many of the same strong-arm tactics it used in the past. Threatening to take down sites with a DDOS attack if "protection" money isn't paid. And yes, with the right sites, it works -- a person running a gambling site does not want to go down on Superbowl Sunday.

Occasionally these botnets are taken down in a high-profile, newsworthy way. However, it is perhaps an endless battle that will not be won until users learn to secure computers better and operating system and software makers work out the final kinks in the code. Or, in other words, probably never.

Photo Credit: Oxlock/Shutterstock
Apple approves penis-measuring app for iPad and (less well-endowed) iPhone users

Publié: janvier 24, 2013, 5:44pm CET par Wayne Williams

Apple used to be quite picky about what apps it let through into the App Store, but it’s relaxed the rules in recent times, and now we’ve reached the point where an app that lets you measure your member and see how you compare in the length and/or girth world rankings is perfectly fine.

Condom Size bills itself as an educational app designed to help users determine the proper condom size they need. It also includes educational tips, fun facts about condoms, and more.

Measuring length involves pressing your erect penis against the side of the screen while girth requires the use of a piece of string. When you’ve finished measuring, the $0.99 app will tell you the condom size you need, recommend a make and brand of prophylactic, and tell you how you compare for length and girth in the world. It helpfully points out that above 100 percent means you are larger than average and under 100 percent means… well, it’s not the size that counts, right?

Naturally the world ranking tables are not to be taken too seriously as it’s just possible users may have, ahem, massaged their measurements a little.

Apple’s store policy -- what is and isn’t allowed -- has always been a bit hit and miss and apps are occasionally pulled after being approved, usually in the wake of unfavorable reports in the press. Popular photography app 500px, which had been available since October 2011 and downloaded almost a million times, was removed from the App Store by Apple earlier in the week after customer complaints over "possible child pornography".

Since Condom Size contains no images, and is essentially just a measuring and education tool, it’s likely to be allowed to stay in store, for now.

Editor's Note: Android users can measure up, too. The app debuted on Google Play last year. Who says the best apps are developed for iOS first?
X-Prize Foundation answers my tricorder competition complaints

Publié: janvier 24, 2013, 5:07pm CET par Robert X. Cringely

Second in a series. This message from the X-Prize Foundation is in response to the letter I sent Qualcomm's CEO.

They seem to feel the contest is fine as-is and my objections are without merit.

Dear Bob,

I am the Senior Director in charge of this competition and I appreciate receiving your letter of interest dated January 11. First, let me offer you my highest level of encouragement for your creation of a SIDS monitoring device. As you know, medical technology is one of the most difficult areas to make significant progress in. To make something really work and pass through all the regulatory hurdles in this space is challenging as you point out. Second, my sincere personal condolences on the loss of your child. I understand and respect your total commitment to solve this challenging problem and admire your dedication and passion to address this urgent need.

We announced the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE in January 2012 and spent a year refining the guidelines and structure of the competition, which includes the winning parameters, registration fees, rules and a timeline. The guidelines were finalized and released this month after receiving input from the scientific and medical communities, companies working in this space, and the general public. We are asking teams to develop a medical device that will allow consumers to diagnose a set of 15 diseases and monitor 5 vital signs, independent of a healthcare provider or facility. While we recognize that there are a number of unique new technologies, including yours, that address important public health concerns, we could not include every one of them in this competition. We did choose a range of core and elective conditions that are widely recognized as being significant for public health in North America and also offered a wide range of sensing and interpretive challenges.

As of today there isn’t an integrated personal health device on the market that does everything that we’re requiring in the guidelines. That is the essence of the competition and sets the stage for a unified solution that can capture data from many types of sensors, potentially including yours. As with many innovation competitions and Prizes, there is a registration fee required to participate. The registration fee, which is $5,000 until April 10th, helps us cover operational expenses such as numerous team and judging summits, ongoing communications to many stake holders, comprehensive device testing and judging processes that are essential to staging a fair and objective competition.

Please realize that we are a competition that intends to drive innovation and help to usher in a new digital health marketplace. We are not investors and in fact, we are not even the Judges who will act totally independent of us in determining the finalists. Our goal is stimulate an influx of consumer devices on the market in the near future. Even if you decided not to compete, the overall effect of these competitions will help to lift all boats in the digital health space, including yours we believe.

I encourage you to consider entering the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE and/or Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE, or join a current pre-registered team and incorporate your device into their submission. Although SIDS is not one of the defined conditions in the requirements it does not mean that the inclusion of your technology would not be advantageous to existing teams who all seek to commercialize their solutions. Inventing, developing, funding and bringing to market medical technology is a very difficult endeavor and a team approach may help. At the X PRIZE Foundation, one of our jobs is to provide a forum for sharing ideas, concepts and new technologies that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. That has been a guiding principle of this and all our competitions. We hope that you will consider becoming involved on this basis.

If you have additional questions or would like to speak further, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely

Mark Winter

Senior Director, Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE and Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE

Reprinted with permission

Photo Credit: tanewpix/Shutterstock
There's something missing from Qualcomm's Tricorder contest

Publié: janvier 24, 2013, 4:43pm CET par Robert X. Cringely

First in a series. I wrote a letter to Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs. This went out January 11th and was delivered on the morning of the 14th.

The response will be my next post.

Dear Mr. Jacobs:

As a professional blogger I’d normally be posting this letter on my web site but this time I’ll first try a more graceful approach. You see I have a beef with your Qualcomm Tricorder X-Prize and I want you to make some changes.

In 2002 my son Chase died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) at age 73 days. I wrote about it at the time and received great support from the Internet community. My pledge to do something about SIDS manifested itself in a research project that came to involve online friends in Canada, Israel, Japan and Russia as well as the United States.

Our goal was to create a device that would plug into a power outlet. It would identify and wirelessly monitor all mammal life forms in a room, gathering data about whatever babies, dogs or old people were there, detecting as they entered and left the room and setting off a loud alarm if anyone stopped breathing or their heart rate dropped below a certain threshold. SIDS can’t be cured, you see, but it can be cheated and all that requires is judicious use of a 120 dB alarm to scare the baby back into consciousness. No parental intervention is even required.

Making the product a wall wart meant no batteries needed changing. Making it wireless meant no sensors needed to be attached or removed. It would be a no-brainer, completely plug-and-play.

And we did it.

It took four years but we completed a working prototype. We were going to call it the Tricorder and I even bought the Tricorder domain.

But then we ran out of money, lawyers and medical experts told us there were liability issues, that gaining FDA approval would take years and millions, though why that should be the case for a non-contact device we never understood. By this time, too, I had three young sons and a so-called career to manage so we put the project aside. That was in 2006.

Then last week you announced a $10 million prize seeking almost exactly what we had already built. But your prize rules say I have to pay $5,000 so that 35 months from now you’ll look at the work we have already done.

How stupid is that?

We can claim your prize in 30 days, max, by porting our old code to Android or IOS (our team includes a crack tablet developer who is also an MD and specializes in medical apps). Why shouldn’t we be allowed to? This would give us the funds to finally complete our work and eradicate SIDS. How many lives won’t be saved because of these silly rules?

So please correct this error by changing your prize to allow the immediate recognition of scientific achievement. I’m sure you’d rather succeed earlier than later. The good publicity that will come from a quicker award will be no less sweet. After all, it will have pulled from obscurity technologies that might have been lost forever.

All the best,

Bob Cringely

Reprinted with permission
Twitter’s first video tweet shows how to make steak tartare in six seconds

Publié: janvier 24, 2013, 3:32pm CET par Wayne Williams

The first video tweet using an app from Vine, the start-up Twitter acquired last year, has appeared on the micro-blogging site. Originally created and sent by Dom Hofmann, co-Founder and CEO of Vine, it was then posted by Twitter boss Dick Costolo and dutifully retweeted by a couple of hundred people.

The embedded video, like all clips sent using Vine, lasts six seconds, and shows the steak tartare creation process -- with optional sound -- in a loop. While this could prove rather maddening if you have lots of Vine clips visible in your stream, it’s easy enough to hide away.

The Vine app will be available as an iOS exclusive initially, but an android version is expected to follow shortly afterwards. The recording process is as simple as pressing the screen and then letting go when you’re done. Vine will have an Instagram element to it, and let you follow other users and search for clips from people they know.

How Twitter plans to deal with the inevitable deluge of offensive or pornographic clips isn’t currently known.

Steak tartare in six seconds. vine.co/v/bOIqn6rLeIDvia @dhof

— dick costolo (@dickc) January 23, 2013

Update: And Vine's just gone live at the Apple Store.
Symantec announces a change of direction

Publié: janvier 24, 2013, 2:31pm CET par Wayne Williams
Symantec might have reported quarterly earnings that beat expectations, but the firm accepts it needs to do something if it is going to continue to thrive in a changing marketplace. So new CEO Steve Bennett has announced a change of direction for the anti-virus firm.

No, the company’s not suddenly going to start making Angry Birds knock-offs, but what it does intend to do is shift its focus on to 10 key areas that will result in the combining of existing products and services and the creation of a range of new, more comprehensive alternatives. The ten areas it intends to work on are:
- Mobile workforce productivity
- Norton Protection
- Norton Cloud
- Information security services
- Identity/content-aware security gateway
- Data-center security
- Business continuity
- Integrated backup
- Cloud-based information management
- Object storage platform.
The future solutions will, Symantec says, focus on three core customer needs -- 1) make it simple to be productive and protected at home and work; 2) keep businesses safe and compliant and 3) keep business information and applications up and running.

According to Steve Bennett, "We want to enable people, businesses and countries to focus their energies and time on achieving their aspirations, instead of being consumed with how to keep their digital lives safe and protected. This is a story about more focus and better execution by Symantec to make things better and easier for our customers and partners. Our path is straightforward: Offer better products and services tailor made for customers, and make it easier for them to research, shop, buy, use, and get the help and support they need".

As well as improving and combining existing products and services, Symantec plans to develop new and more innovative ones. With that aim in mind, it intends to increase its investment in both research and development and home-grown innovation.

The change of direction also means a restructuring of the company. As well as the creation of a new "Office of the CEO" group, Symantec aims to reduce the number of executives and middle management positions and give front-line employees greater power and flexibility to deal with customer’s needs.

The first new integrated modular offerings for customers are expected to surface over the course of the next 6-24 months.

Photo Credit: rangizzz/Shutterstock
Convert videos from over 60 formats with Any Video Converter Free 5.0.2

Publié: janvier 24, 2013, 12:45pm CET par Nick Peers

AVCLabs has released Any Video Converter Free 5.0.2 a major new version of its freeware video transcoding and conversion tool for Windows. The new build sports a radically overhauled and simplified user interface, plus promises faster, more powerful performance.

AVC Free promises to effortlessly convert videos from over 60 formats, with presets for popular mobile devices such as Android and iOS phones included. It’s also capable of downloading YouTube videos and includes limited video-editing tools.

The most obvious change in AVC Free 5.0.2 is the revamped user interface, which enjoys a much-needed refresh and update. The new UI is designed to be simpler to use, split into two tabs for converting and playing video.

Users simply click the Videos button to add new video (files can also be dragged from a file-management panel or the user’s desktop), or Download to enter YouTube URLs for video downloading.

Once the videos have been selected, users choose a preset from the Preset Output dropdown menu, which includes a wide number of devices from Apple mobiles to Sony’s PS3 console. There are also common video format presets.

Once selected, all clips can be fine-tuned via three option screens: Basic, Video and Audio. These include options for trimming clips and there’s also a screen capture function built into the preview window for taking screenshots of selected clips. Other options include the ability to merge all selected clips into a single video file.

Any Video Converter Free 5.0.2 is the first major new release of the free version of AVCLabs’ editing tool for three years, when version 3.0.2 was released. Its jump in version number is down to the fact the commercial version of the program has been undergoing regular development during that period.

The latest build also takes full advantage of NVIDIA CUDA acceleration (which must be manually enabled in the program settings) to convert videos up to six times faster using compatible NVDIA graphics. AVC Free 5.0.2 also promises to make use of multi-core processors for faster conversion times.

In our limited tests we appear to have uncovered one bug -- when attempting to convert a video file to MPEG2 format for burning to DVD, a pop-up appears halfway through the process advertising the paid-for version. When this is closed, the progress bar indicates the conversion has failed, but checking the converted folder reveals the file has indeed been converted; however, this pop-up seems to prevent DVDs from being burned directly using the program. Whether this is expected behavior or not is not yet known.

Any Video Converter Free 5.0.2 is a freeware download for PCs running Windows XP or later.

Photo Credit: cybrain/Shutterstock
Track down missing software product keys with Weeny Free Key Recovery

Publié: janvier 24, 2013, 12:37pm CET par Mike Williams

Having to reinstall software is never exactly fun, but it gets particularly annoying if you’ve been unfortunate enough to lose the CD case, email or whatever else contained that application’s product key. Especially if the developer isn’t able to send you a reminder.

Even if you can’t find any record of the product key, though, you may be able to use a product key finder such as Weeny Free Key Recovery to recover it from your existing installation.

At first glance, the program doesn’t seem too impressive. It’s easy to use, yes -- just launch it, and all the supported product keys are displayed right away -- but the problem is that the "supported" list is a little short. On our test PC, for instance, it only displayed the keys for Windows 7, Office 2010 and Axialis IconWorkshop 6.0, and the author’s website only lists a few more applications: Photoshop, AutoCAD, Call of Duty, and so on.

What’s more interesting, though, is an extra option called "Scan Plus". Click this button and Weeny Free Key Recovery will scan your system looking for records which it thinks might be product keys -- Registry or file settings which use likely keywords, for instance -- before displaying them for you.

As this technique is really just a form of intelligent guessing, we weren’t surprised to see that it often made mistakes. And our final report included lots of junk entries, with many entries like the following.

Defiant Technologies DiskDigger
licenseaccepted = True

LinuxLive Advanced
skip_keyboard_detection = no

MirWoj MWSnap Settings
WarnKeys = 1

Can you see the license-related information there? We can’t, either.

But, amongst the high volume of junk, there were also real product keys for Macrium Reflect, VMware Workstation, Cyberlink PowerProducer and more. And because the program is using a generic detection technique, it could find keys for many other apps, even those which aren’t supported by apparently more powerful key recovery tools.

The important word here is "could", of course: there are no guarantees. But if you’re looking to recover a product key and similar tools haven’t been able to help, give Weeny Free Key Recovery a try: its "Scan Plus" option just might be what you need.

Photo Credit: mkabakov/Shutterstock
Microsoft brings the Live Tile experience to SkyDrive

Publié: janvier 24, 2013, 1:47am CET par Alan Buckingham

Windows 8's new Start screen evokes many emotions from customers, with most falling on either the love or hate side with almost no middle ground. However, one thing that can be agreed on is that the screen has no shortage of information. Users are bombarded with messages from Facebook, email, weather and countless other endlessly updating tiles. Now Microsoft has added one more to the perhaps overloaded mix.

Today the company announced it is pushing an update to the SkyDrive app for Windows 8 that will bring the live tile features to the cloud storage and sharing platform.

In an announcement earlier today Microsoft's Mike Torres outlined the new feature. "The SkyDrive app from the Windows Store will start showing you notifications on the live tile when you add new files to your SkyDrive". In other words, this should not be a constantly flickering icon that will be in your face. Torres went on to explain that "whenever you add new files to SkyDrive, the app tile shows you relevant details. If you add a document, you’ll see the document name, along with when it was added, and what folder it’s in. If you add photos, the tile gives you a nice view of those photos".

I honestly like live tiles. When I walk away from my computer I switch to the Start screen so that when I return, or even pass by, I see relevant information. Its easier than clicking on different tabs. I also realize that I very well may be part of a minority in saying that.

As for the update, it is promised to be rolling out today -- apparently on a gradual basis, so don't panic if you don't have it yet. I don't either. Hopefully soon.

Photo Credit: Pete
What's behind the big Apple sell-off?

Publié: janvier 24, 2013, 1:34am CET par Joe Wilcox

Investors gutted Apple in after-hours trading today, following somewhat mixed fiscal first quarter 2013 results. As someone who owns no stock, I cock my head in wonder. Apple revenue for a single quarter topped Google for all 2012 ($54.5 billion and $50.18 billion, respectively). The fruit-logo company generated $13.06 billion net quarterly profit.

But there's a brutal bloodbath underway as I write. Apple is down 10.72 percent, to $458.90, in after-hours trading. That's from the close of $514.01. So what's the problem here? It's a sum of many that creates nervousness about the long-term. I say: Can't anyone be satisfied with what is arguably the best results posted by the next couple big techs combined? Apparently not.

I lay out the reasons in no particular order of importance. They all matter.

1. Apple missed revenue consensus, which was $54.73 billion. The Street expected more.

2. Apple changed reporting metrics. CFO Peter Oppenheimer says they're designed to give clear view ahead and to be less conservative. Yeah, but for years, the Street loved conservative guidance. Uh-oh, that new less-conservative guidance ($41 billion to $43 billion) is below analyst consensus ($45.63 billion).

3. Earnings-per-share guidance is out in the new reporting method. The immediate question: What is Apple hiding in the one hand, while Oppenheimer talks greater transparency in the other?

4. Mac sales fell about 1 million units short of consensus, and Apple's excuse about late-delivery of iMac rings false. Past mix greatly favors portables, like 2-to-1. A million more iMacs would likely put desktops ahead, and there's nothing in previous quarters to remotely suggest such an occurance. But we can't estimate anymore because Apple also removed breakdown between desktops and laptops in the new reporting. What's more transparent about that?

5. Sequentially, Mac sales sucked. Unit sales fell by 18 percent and revenue by 17 percent -- that's off a weak comparison. Like the rest of the market, Apple's back-to-school season was abysmal. If the holidays were good to Mac, the numbers don't show it.

6. iPad missed consensus, too. The Street expected 23.5 million to 24 million but Apple shipped 22.9 million.

7. iPad mini is a vampire, sucking away sales from the larger, higher-margin model and Macs, too. By my math, iPad average selling prices fell 12.3 percent quarter on quarter -- from $535 to $467. But there's more! Year over year, iPad ASPs are down $101, Oppenheimer admits. Only Apple's inability to manufacture enough minis to meet demand kept matters from being worse.

8. Oppenheimer says that iPad margins will fall even more during fiscal second quarter. Uh-oh.

9. iPhone missed consensus, which was about 50 million. Apple shipped 47.8 million.

10. iPhone 5 was supply-constrained for most of the quarter and iPhone 4 for all. That raises serious questions about what the market is willing to pay and future impact on margins. On today's call, execs assured analysts that margins and average selling prices are about the same as a year ago. Yes, but with the iPhone 5 launch glow ebbing, for how long? iPhone 4 is free to customers, and carriers pay less for it.

Photo Credit: Luis Louro/Shutterstock