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Soccer, ah football, comes to Windows 8

Publié: mai 20, 2013, 4:07pm CEST par Alan Buckingham

It may not be 'America's pastime', but Microsoft still proudly announces that it is making a deal with Major League Soccer to bring the sport to its Windows 8 customers. The sport known as soccer in the US, but football to most of the rest of the world, joins the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and the National Hockey Leagues on Microsoft's latest operating system.

The announcement came at yesterday's game between the Los Angeles Galaxy and New York Red Bulls held at Red Bull Arena. The MLS Match Day app is not new, only "improved". This new version features exclusive content and this season’s schedule, standings, highlights, play-by-play, roster lineups, game stats, goals, cards and substitutions.

There is also Live Tile integration that allows users to customize to their favorite team in order to see updates of news, current scores and more.

"MLS supporters are young and active, and technology plays a central role in their lives,” says Kathy Carter, president of Soccer United Marketing, MLS’ commercial arm. "This new partnership with Windows 8 will allow MLS fans to interact with best-in-class software, new devices and apps that will super-serve their fandom" she goes on to point out.

In addition to giving soccer fans, who happen to be Windows 8 customers, a new experience, Microsoft has another motive in this partnership. Fans will be able to try out Windows 8 on the Microsoft Surface tablet in-stadium at more than 40 games during the course of the season.

With the NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS all on board it seems time for the NFL to get into the internet era. The league still remains a holdout on game-streaming, despite other leagues embracing the concept. Instead, users must rely on third-party services, such as ESPN to get scores.

Photo: KatAlekStudio/Shutterstock
Sony Xperia Tablet Z finally hits the shelves

Publié: mai 20, 2013, 3:48pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

Four months after Sony unveiled the Xperia Tablet Z, the Japanese maker announced that the fondleslab is now finally available to purchase worldwide through online and brick and mortar stores. Despite the fact that the Xperia Tablet Z hits the shelves later than initially planned -- March 1 -- the company says that this hasn't affected consumer demand.

"Xperia Tablet Z has received an incredibly positive response since it was announced and this is demonstrated by the strong pre-orders the product has received", says Sony's Tomokazu Tajima. The tablet touts some attractive specifications, namely the IPX5/7 and IP5X ratings for waterproofing and dustproofing, respectively, the low weight of only 495 grams and the 6.9 mm thickness.

The Xperia Tablet Z sports a 10.1-inch TFT display with a resolution of 1920 by 1200. Power comes from a 1.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor backed by an Adreno 320 GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), 2 GB of RAM and a 6000 mAh battery. The tablet ships with 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot which can extend the storage capacity by a further 32 GB (for a total of 48 GB or 64 GB).

An 8 MP back-facing camera capable of 1080p video recording is available on the back, while on the front the Xperia Tablet Z sports a 2.2 MP shooter that can also record 1080p video. Other noteworthy specs include 4G LTE cat3 (100 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload speeds) and HSPA+ cellular connectivity. The device measures 266 x 172 x 6.9 mm.

The Xperia Tablet Z goes for $499.99 in 16 GB trim and $599.99 for the 32 GB version. Available colors include black and white, however the latter can only be had on the more expensive model.
Hornil StylePix is a powerful yet easy-to-use free image editor

Publié: mai 20, 2013, 3:18pm CEST par Mike Williams

Designing a great image editor has always been a tricky balancing act. It’s important that the program has real power, plenty of useful functionality, and delivers more than you’d expect in every area. But at the same time, it should ideally be lightweight, easy to use, the kind of tool you can be using productively in just a few minutes.

Most image editors fall short in at least one area, of course, but there are occasional exceptions. And Hornil StylePix is a great example. This lightweight and portable program concentrates on the core editing essentials -- transforms, color and image corrections, painting, text tools and more -- so isn’t weighed down with functions you’ll never need. But the features you do get are very well implemented, with a host of powerful options helping to deliver far more control than you might expect from a free tool.

Just launch the program and clues to its extra functionality are immediately obvious. There are bulky toolbars top and left, a thumbnail browser, multiple panels and some very lengthy menus, and browsing these reveals extra capabilities everywhere you look (the Filter menu has 13 entries, for instance, and clicking the Color option alone provides another 18).

This doesn’t mean StylePix is complex, though. The interface is generally well designed, and in our experience the program’s extra features don’t get in your way. If you’re in a hurry then you can carry out all the usual basic edits -- crop, resize, rotate, color tweaks, brightness and contrast correction, text and annotation options -- just as quickly as with anything else.

Life gets more interesting when you move beyond the basics, though, because StylePix just has so much to offer. So if you just want to draw a line on a photo, say, then you could simply click the Line button and drag your mouse across the image. But you can also customize this by choosing the line type (straight or curve), the color (solids, presets, gradients and more), width, alpha blend, blending mode and a whole lot more.

Similarly, if you need to add a caption to an image then you could just select the Text tool, click on the photo and start typing. But if you need more, then you can choose your preferred typeface, its size, width, kerning or tracking, paragraph alignment and so on. Once you’ve defined your caption, then it’s added as a vector, which means you’re able to reposition and resize it to suit your needs. And if you want to edit that caption later, it’s not a problem – click it, select whatever you want to change -- right down to individual characters -- and you can resize that, change color or generally tweak whatever you like, without affecting anything else.

The program is just as comprehensive elsewhere (selection types include auto selection, color range, rectangular region, circular region, lasso region, polygonal region, layer selection, channel selection and quick mask, for instance), and StylePix also includes plenty of features to help keep this manageable. The Batch Processing option, for instance, combines multiple actions to speed up operations, so for example you can add several layers (including watermarks) to a set of images in a single operation.

If there’s one area where StylePix is a little underpowered, it’s probably in the program’s file format support. It can open the standard file types (JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF and so on), plus a few less common extras (ICO, WMF), but there’s no support for RAW or PSD files.

Otherwise, though, Hornil StylePix works very well, delivering a host of editing, selection, drawing and annotation tools in a straightforward and easy-to-use interface. Give it a try.
Ziff Davis snaps up NetShelter from inPowered

Publié: mai 20, 2013, 3:14pm CEST par Wayne Williams

NetShelter, a digital advertising network that focuses on tech publications, has been purchased by Ziff Davis for an undisclosed sum.

The name and activities of the company may not be familiar to you, but it’s responsible for delivering nearly 16 billion ad impressions per year on 150 consumer and business tech sites, including BetaNews, SlashGear, TechSpot, CrackBerry, Android Central, MacRumors and Neowin.

The purchase makes a lot of sense for Ziff Davis and adds at least 155 million global readers to the company’s growing ad sales portfolio.

Vivek Shah, CEO of Ziff Davis, said: "The acquisition of NetShelter fully returns Ziff Davis to the dominant market position in the technology vertical. We will combine our best-in-class ad targeting capabilities and trading desk expertise with what our marketers need most today: High-quality, high-impact inventory that's available at scale on trusted sites frequented by tech enthusiasts."

Photo Credit: bloomua/Shutterstock
Yahoo buys Tumblr for $1.1 billion

Publié: mai 20, 2013, 2:52pm CEST par Ian Barker

As has been widely rumored over the last few days, Yahoo has paid $1.1 billion for blogging platform Tumblr. In recent times this is the most paid for an Internet acquisition since Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion last year.

Founded by David Karp in 2007 from a bedroom of his mother's New York apartment, the attraction of Tumblr has always been its clean interface and ease of use, which allows people to be up and blogging within minutes. The service has around 217 million users worldwide and is the 24th most popular site in the US according to research company Quantcast. The company employs 175 people and claims to have more than 100 million blogs.

Tumblr has been slow to attract advertisers though, earning $13 million in 2012 when it had hoped to have revenue of $100 million by 2013. Yahoo brings the opportunity to attract more advertising but this may be at the expense of the site's sleek look. In the past Karp has been critical of the way other sites implement ads. Like Facebook and Google+, Tumblr already allows brands to set up their own pages. At the moment Tumblr embeds sponsored posts into the main stream in a way that’s subtle but also effective -- particularly on the smaller screens of mobile devices.

A more overtly commercial approach isn't likely to go down well with the free thinking creative types that Tumblr attracts. Initial reaction to the news on the web points to a lot of unhappy Tumblr users.

Yahoo, headed by ex-Google executive Marissa Mayer, will be seeking to use Tumblr to sprinkle some corporate stardust on its aging brand by adding social media and a mobile-friendly platform. It will also be looking to the acquisition to attract younger users to other Yahoo products and get the company back in touch with the cool kids. However, this deal may invoke a sense of deja vu in anyone who remembers Yahoo's purchase of Geocities in 1999. At the time Geocities was the third most visited site on the web but under Yahoo's ownership it withered and died, shutting up shop a decade later.

Mayer says on the new Yahoo blog (on Tumblr of course) that Tumblr will continue to operate as a separate company with Karp as CEO and she promises, "not to screw it up".

Addressing the Tumblr community David Karp says, "Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn't changing. And our mission -- to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve -- certainly isn't changing. But we’re elated to have the support of Yahoo! and their team who share our dream to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas. Tumblr gets better faster with more resources to draw from."
Jolla announces its catch of the day -- a Sailfish OS smartphone

Publié: mai 20, 2013, 2:08pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

On Monday, Finnish company Jolla announced its first smartphone running Sailfish OS, called Jolla. The handset, which features mid-range hardware specifications, is available to pre-order for EUR399 and will ship by the end of the year.

So what do you get for EUR399? The company refrains from providing detailed hardware specifications, but says that the Jolla packs a 4.5-inch display and is powered by a dual-core processor. The handset comes with 16 GB of internal storage alongside a microSD card slot, an 8 MP back-facing camera with autofocus, a removable battery and 4G cellular connectivity (only in supported markets). The Sailfish OS is "Android app compliant".

The smartphone is available for pre-order only in a limited number of European countries, including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and United Kingdom. Jolla says that more local markets will be added to the list "very soon".

Prospective buyers can pre-order the smartphone today with no upfront cost (and purchase it later). Folks can also pay EUR40 in advance for a "priority pre-order status" limited edition Jolla and a branded T-Shirt.

For only EUR60 more on top of the aforementioned option, prospective buyers also get an exclusive "Other Half" (presumably a back cover) and a EUR100 voucher to pay for the Jolla. If you're into perks, this is the way to go.

With limited initial availability and considerable upfront cost (there is no carrier support at the moment), the Jolla is not meant to make a dent in the smartphone market, which is dominated by a myriad of Android devices and Apple's iPhones. Instead the handset is designed to raise awareness among consumers for Sailfish OS and provide a testing platform for developers.
HandBrake update makes it easier to convert videos into any format

Publié: mai 20, 2013, 11:58am CEST par Nick Peers

Popular cross-platform, open-source video transcoder HandBrake 0.9.9 has been released, and despite the version number increment is actually a major update. HandBrake allows users to convert video from a wide variety of formats -- including DVD and Blu-ray -- into MP4 or MKV files with support for .H264 and FFmpeg codecs.

Highlights in the latest release include support for the .H264 codec’s preset, tune and profile options, Blu-ray (PGS) subtitle support, additional video framerates and filter modes, improved audio remix and an updated user interface.

Core improvements include the addition of support for Blu-ray (PGS) subtitles, which can be burned in, passed through to MKV (but not MP4) and are capable of working with Foreign Audio Search.

The deinterlace and decomb filters both gain an additional option -- "bob", which doubles the framerate to reduce artefacts -- and users gain four additional framerate settings: 30, 50, 59.94 and 60 fps.

Audio remix support has also been improved, with additional mixdowns including 6.1 and two 7.1 settings. Users can now also upmix "better-than-Stereo" sources to 5.1 surround sound, and gain the option of discarding one channel from stereo sources to create a single mono source based on left or right only.

Version 0.9.9 also allows the select of higher audio bitrates as well as lower audio samplerates where appropriate, plus supports audio dithering (TPDF) when converting to 16-bit FLAC. DTS audio decoding is now handled by libavcodec, which adds support for DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete.

The graphical interface has also been overhauled -- the Windows build has now been rewritten in WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) to work more consistently across a range of devices, and users will notice that new fonts have been implemented along with a subtle redesign. All builds gain new Retina-friendly icons and an updated program icon.

The program has introduced support for the x264 codec’s preset, tune and profile options. These can be found on the Video tab, but users preferring the greater flexibility offered in earlier versions can restore this by "Use Advanced Tab instead". In conjunction with this change, the built-in presets have also been updated to take advantage of the new option, with "increasingly suboptimal and irrelevant Legacy presets" being dropped.

We discovered that one side-effect of the new build is that custom presets lost certain settings, specifically those on the Filter tab. We recommend users make a careful note of existing settings before installing the update.

Platform-specific changes include HandBrake 0.9.9 preventing Mountain Lion from going to sleep during encoding and scanning, plus users can now drag and drop files into the main window or on to the program’s dock icon to scan them. It also updates Growl support to version 2.0.1, so HandBrake can now use the Notification Center when Growl is not installed.

Also updated to take advantage of HandBrake 0.9.9 is VidCoder 1.4.20, which takes the HandBrake core and overlays a more user-friendly front end. The latest version of this Windows-only software -- also available in 64-bit -- takes the latest HandBrake 0.9.9 core, but also adds tweaks of its own, including support for a new portable build and support for adding a custom video player. The full release notes can be read here.

HandBrake 0.9.9 is available now as a free, open-source download for Windows, Linux and Mac. Recommend system requirements include a 64-bit Intel Mac running OS X 10.6 or later, or Windows Vista, 7 or 8 with Microsoft .NET Framework 4 installed.
Sweet! Official new themes give Windows 8 a global makeover

Publié: mai 20, 2013, 10:19am CEST par Mark Wilson

Desktop themes are so often catered for by third party tools that it’s easy to forget that Windows has built in support for theme packs. If you’re short of inspiration, don’t trust your own photography skill, or just can’t be bothered to browse Flickr for a new image, a new batch of themes direct from Microsoft could be what you need to breathe new life into your desktop.

There are five new themes in total, four of which have a travel connection. The Alaskan Landscape theme features photography from Kyle Waters -- a total of fifteen images. There is more of a seasonal feel to two New Zealand Landscapes themes.

The Queenstown theme is cool and wintery, while the One Tree Hill theme is far more summer inspired. Both themes showcase the work of photographer Ian Rushton. Continuing the seasonal theme, and completing a previous collection, is Swedish Spring.

Rounding off the new download selection is something rather more cartoony. The Delectable Designs theme offers a tasty selection of desktop images inspired by snack time -- cupcakes, cookies, coffee and more are all on hand to help you build up an appetite

The new themes, and others, can be downloaded from the personalization section of the Microsoft website, but you can find out more about the new releases at the Windows Experience Blog.