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BetaNews.Com (5 non lus)

Nexus 7 wins, iPad mini loses

Publié: juillet 28, 2013, 10:44pm CEST par Joe Wilcox
Rest in peace, iPad mini. Google killed you. The question then: Is it murder or manslaughter -- or justified homicide, putting the Apple tablet out of our misery?

Three days using the new Nexus 7, I can't imagine why Apple let Google, and partner ASUS, seize back-to-school buying with the tablet. I don't refer just to the instrument of destruction but the means. The 2013 edition is widely available through major US retailers, including Amazon and Best Buy. By all indications there is inventory to meet demand, not the typical supply shortages, although the 32GB WiFi model is unavailable this weekend from many retailers -- but Google Play is stocked.

Now would be a really good time for Apple to launch a new iPad mini. Waiting to release iOS 7 is a mistake, but it's one I expect the fruit-logo company to make. I wouldn't recommend iPad mini over Nexus 7 to anyone. Last week, my daughter asked for the Apple tablet to take back to college. She can have the Android, and will later thank me for it later.

Google announced the tablet on July 24, with sales slated for the 30th, but they started early; on Friday. Outstanding, emotive marketing video "Fear Less", along with new textbook purchases and rentals, is sure sign Nexus 7's release timing is quite deliberate. Google knows parents and students will shop for tech tools over the next month. Nexus 7 isn't just launched, it's widely available here, as Google also ramps up distribution elsewhere.

Imagine students taking Nexus 7 to class who could have gone iPad mini. Marketing and distribution make the difference. Apple's tablet is the elephant in the room, from a market share perspective, and surely won't lose loads of weight because of Google's device. But any sales losses are unnecessary, if only there was a more competitive -- and affordable -- iPad mini ready for back to school.

Epic Competition

Let's compare the two tablets.

iPad mini specs: 7.9-inch back-lit IPS display (1024 x 768 resolution, 163 pixels per inch); A5 dual-core processor; 1GB RAM; 16GB, 32GB or 64GB storage; 5-megapixel rear-facing and 1.2MP front-facing cameras; Bluetooth; WiFi A/N; HSPA+/LTE (on three models); accelerometer; GPS; gyroscope; microphone; and iOS 6. Measures 200 x 134.7 x .28mm and weighs 308 grams.
- iPad mini 16GB WiFi: $329
- iPad mini 32GB WiFi: $429
- iPad mini 16GB WiFi/LTE: $459
- iPad mini 64GB WiFi: $529
- iPad mini 32GB WiFi/LTE: $559
- iPad mini 64GB WiFi/LTE: $659
Nexus 7 specs: 7-inch back-lit IPS display (1920 x 1200 resolution, 323 ppi); 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor; Adreno 320 graphics; 2GB RAM; 16GB or 32GB storage; 5MP rear-facing and 1.2MP front-facing cameras; Bluetooth (support for Bluetooth Smart), WiFi A/N; HSPA+/LTE (on some models); accelerometer; GPS; gyroscope; magnetometer; microphone; near field communications; wireless charging; and Android 4.3. Measures 114 x 200 x 8.65 mm and weighs 290 grams.
- Nexus 7 16GB WiFi: $229
- Nexus 7 32GB WiFi: $269
- Nexus 7 32GB WiFi/LTE: $349
The new N7 costs more than it's predecessor -- $30 for the starter WiFi, for example. Google's Nexus 7 price increase surprises but timing is perfect. The high-end LTE model, while costing more than its HSPA+ predecessor, is quite the value compared to the entry-level mini.

So for $349, you can buy a 7-inch HD tablet from Google, with fast processor, 32GB storage and LTE, or for $20 less a 7.9-inch iPad mini with 1024 by 768 resolution 16GB and WiFi. The comparable model to Nexus 7 is $559. For the budget-conscious, and who isn't when back-to-school shopping, Google's entry tablet costs $100 less than Apple's, but with superior processor and screen resolution.

Apple, or even most Android manufacturers, cannot compete with Google on tablet pricing. That gives Nexus 7 huge opportunity to gain market share, now that the screen is HD, global LTE is available, more retailers sell the device and service Google Now rises as the killer app.

Google doesn't make money from devices but from contextual content, services and advertising wrapped around them. So the company can keep margins thin on the hardware, unlike Apple which makes the majority of profits from hardware sales. The fruit-logo company can never compete on price and doesn't have a device ready for back-to-school buying. That's a sour crop for the season.

First Impressions

Colleague Alan Buckingham writes BetaNews' first formal review of the new Nexus 7, but I would be remiss not expressing something about the experience.

There's little to dislike about Nexus 7, unless you're attached to another platform, such as iOS, or insist on something larger. At 323 pixels per inch, the HD display awes the eyes. Meanwhile, like it's predecessor, the tablet fits comfortably in one hand, and two-thumb typing is easy.

I find the new Nexus 7, like it's predecessor, very comfortable to hold, and the tablet feels super light. It's a perfect throw-in-a-purse-or-backpack size. The more I use the tablet, the more the size feels right.

This is how much: My wife and I recently repurposed my daughter's old 32GB iPad 2 for around-the-house use, such as looking up recipes. The tablet is bulky for the purpose, but paid for and otherwise not used. A couple hours after receiving Nexus 7, I hauled down to Best Buy to trade in the iPad 2. I took in the tablet a couple weeks back and got a $200 offer, which I rejected. Ha! New offer: $170! No thanks to that! I Craigslisted for $250 and sold the Apple tablet Friday night. I'll use the cash to buy another Nexus 7, which is better suited to the task set to the iPad 2.

Google Now and voice search are major reasons. I can't overstate the value of the services on the form factor. The "Fear Less" advert is exceptionally good marketing. The video communicates many benefits, particularly from those two features, which, granted, are available on other Androids (and even iOS, if you like, but not as accessible). But they feel just right on Nexus 7. Think Star Trek TNG.

The Star Trek vision of responsive computing rapidly moves from science fiction to everyday reality. Google stands apart for pushing forward Star Trek-like human responsiveness. Now and voice search rise above others; you command actions and ask for answers, rather than tap with finger. The two services are a watershed development that fundamentally changes how people interact with tech products. Together, they make Nexus 7 special and particularly suited to students' needs -- or mine (or yours), in the kitchen and around the house.

Google's marketing tagline for the device is perfect for the benefits: "For what matters". The tablet's performance is snappy, the size just right for hands and fingers and supporting services exceptionally useful. All this while iPad mini offers last year's screen for next-decade pricing (think inflation).

Nexus 7 could be late-summer's surprise sleeper hit.

Tough luck, Apple.
Internet Explorer addon IExif lets you view EXIF data for web images

Publié: juillet 28, 2013, 6:49pm CEST par Mike Williams

EXIF metadata provides a great way to better understand digital images and how they were taken: the camera used, the lens, shutter speed, aperture, ISO and more. But browsing this information for photos you find online is normally rather awkward, as you’ll have to download each and every image, before manually opening it in your preferred viewer.

Fortunately, Internet Explorer addon IExif takes a simpler approach. Whenever you’d like to know more, just hover your mouse cursor over an image on the current web page, and IExif will extract and display its metadata (if there’s any available).

There’s support for viewing the following details: Shutter speed; Aperture; ISO; Exposure mode; Exposure compensation (if applied); White balance; Focal distance; Date and time taken; Camera model; Camera serial number; Lens model; Artist name.

The author also claims IExif is compatible with IE7, 8, 9 and 10. We only tried it on 10, but there were no problems and it seemed to work just fine.

If you test the program out yourself, keep in mind that it won’t work on locally sourced images; they have to be displayed within a web page. The author provides his own sample image for you to try, or you can browse any other web page which you’re sure has images containing EXIF metadata (if you don’t have anywhere in mind then the EXIF.org Digital Camera Sample Images page is a reasonable place to start).

IExif isn’t the most essential of browser addons, then, but it’s small, simple, free of adware or other marketing hassles, and carries out its single function very well. If you’d like an easier way to view EXIF data from within Internet Explorer then we’d give it a try.
On the futility of blocking porn and torrent websites, Immunicity style

Publié: juillet 28, 2013, 6:44pm CEST par Mark Wilson

Pornography has been in the news a great deal, and David Cameron's bid to make online porn "opt-in" has sparked a fierce debate in many quarters. The apparent aim of the proposed measure is to protect children and the responsibility has been moved squarely to the door of ISPs, just as with access to torrent sites. But is this fair?

The Internet is an important element of democracy. It should be a tool for free speech, free access to information and the ability to communicate worldwide free of charge. Freedom is at the heart of it. Creating a two-tier Internet in which some people are able to access all content, and others can only access a portion of it flies in the face of what the world wide web is all about. It is also dangerous.

If the aim of web censorship is to protect children, those aiming to offer the protection should be aware that those same children are not only very tech savvy, but also very fast learners. Put any restriction in place -- be it the requirement to use a password, the need to prove age, or forcing people to opt in -- and it will never be long before a method of circumvention is discovered.

A petition of the government, signed by tens of thousands of Internet users, not only asks that ISPs not be forced to block content, but also suggests that to implement such blocking would be inadvisable.

The petition posits the idea that bad parenting is the root cause of children accessing objectionable content. No one is suggesting that unrestricted access to illegal content such as child pornography should be provided, but for legal pornography (whatever one's view of it) it is suggested that education and good parenting are more important.

It's not difficult to follow the argument. Ultimately it should be parents who are responsible for how their children use computers and what they access online. This could take the form of physical monitoring of younger children, using control software where necessary, but parents also need to be teaching their offspring about responsible use of the Internet.

The proposed introduction of mandatory porn filters at ISP level seems ill thought out. If the idea is to stamp out online pornography by reducing its audience, this is likely to fail. It is possible that by making access to pornography opt in, web users will be embarrassed into not accessing it -- the idea of phoning the support line to ask "can you make porn appear on my PC?" is not one that is going to fill many people with delight.

But I would have not the slightest qualm about phoning my ISPs and requesting access to porn. Not because I am interested in accessing porn, but because I do not want my Internet access to be restricted. In filtering out porn, how could I be sure that whoever is doing the filtering is not also blocking access to other things, be it through a sense of morality, or by simply miscategorizing something?

I want unfettered access to the Internet. I am not willing to accept anything less than that, and certainly not because parents are unable to educate their children about how to be responsible online.

But even if porn blocks are introduced, they will very quickly -- or even instantly -- be proved moot. The likes of the Pirate Bay are now blocked by many ISPs. Has this done much to reduce overall levels of piracy? No. This is because of the speed at which the Internet is able to react to anything that is thrown at it. Your site has been taken down? Just launch a mirror somewhere else. Even if your site is blocked completely in certain countries, users are able to make use of proxy servers to bypass any restrictions that may be put in place.

The likes of Tor make it possible to access content that has been blocked, and while this and other tools are relatively simple to use, things look set to get a great deal easier.

Immunicity is the latest weapon in the anti-censorship arsenal. It is described as "simple Internet circumvention", and even for the non-technically minded, things are kept as simple as possible. It's little more than another proxy server, re-routing web traffic to bypass restrictions, but it has been designed with the average person in mind. It doesn't matter if users don't even know what proxy is, one setting change -- explained in words of very few syllables -- is all it takes.

The service is free and currently unblocks access to a huge range of torrent sites. And Immunicity is scaleable. Should porn blocking be introduced, it takes a very minor tweak server-side for access to be enabled. Anything that is or may be blocked can be made accessible in an instant.

So, Mr Cameron, you are free to attempt to block access to any section of the Internet you like, it will ultimately amount to very little. Playing the moral gatekeeper for the nation is not a role that will win many fans -- and there's always a way to get past the guard at the door.

Photo Credit: Pressmaster/Shutterstock
Five things Microsoft is doing wrong

Publié: juillet 28, 2013, 8:36am CEST par Robert Johnson

Microsoft is one of the largest tech companies on the planet. The multi-billion dollar devices and services company employs some of the most brightest scientists, software engineers and designers on the planet. It has demonstrated its ability to create some of the most compelling technologies in the market. Yesterday I discussed the five things I think the company is doing right.

But it's not all good for Microsoft, and there are plenty of questions need asking. Why, for example, is its mobile strategy sucking wind? Why is its web browser, one of the single most important pieces on a computing device these days, struggling to keep pace with other browsers in standards compliance and end user features? In this post I will focus on five areas where I think Microsoft is missing the boat.

Internet Explorer

I have a love/hate relationship with Internet Explorer. I love the fact that Microsoft is actively engaged with the development community to change the negative perception of this browser and I love the experience of using it in touch mode on a touch device. However, I pretty much hate everything else about it, especially its desktop counterpart. Tab syncing should have been in IE with version 10. And why can’t I at least send my browsing session from my PC to my phone (and vice versa) in the interim?

From a development perspective there is a lot of damage that has been done to the image of IE and Microsoft has no one to blame but itself: slow updates to standards compliance being chief among them. Even though Internet Explorer is being updated on a more rapid schedule (yearly it seems), standards are moving at such a blistering pace (although approval is slow) there needs to be more frequent updates so developers can test and push the envelope. From an end user perspective, IE is just now getting key features that have existed in other browsers for almost a year. There’s no real reason why we cannot see the same rendering engine across all Windows devices (including Windows Phone) and the Xbox 360/One before the end of 2013. IE has a ton of catching up left to do.

Natural User Interface Strategy (NUI)

I’m a firm believe that when entering a market that is already established, it’s a good idea to enter in such a way that you leap past the major players. When Microsoft entered today’s mobile market with Windows Phone back in October 2010, it needed a strong way to differentiate itself, get the attention of consumers and entice them to purchase Windows Phone.

For various reasons, this didn’t happen. Perhaps Microsoft relied on brand recognition and assumed that consumers would buy Windows Phone just because Microsoft created it. Unfortunately by that point, Microsoft had lost so much mobile mindshare to Apple and Google, there was no way that plan would work. How about that snazzy new UI as a differentiator? It’s certainly different, but proved that it was not enough to cause the masses to salivate over Windows Phone.

Something tells me the same mistake is being made with Windows 8. The new Windows UI is such a strong differentiator, perhaps consumers don’t know what to make of it and at first glance it probably feels so unfamiliar to them that the curb appeal is simply not enough to boost sales.

So how does Microsoft get the attention of consumers and boost sales of its devices? How can it overcome the little to no mindshare it has when it comes to mobile devices? I believe the tech giant needs a compelling feature that will differentiate its devices from the competition. Baking natural user interface technology into phones, tablets, laptops and monitors will leap Windows devices ahead of the competition and get the attention of the general public.

If you’ve been reading my stories long enough you'll know this is one area that I continually push for Microsoft to expand its efforts. I am convinced that one of the primary reasons (not the only reason) the Xbox 360 pushed ahead in sales numbers was because the introduction of Kinect changed the conversation in terms of how people interacted with video games and their television. Who cares if they mostly sit unused right now? The bottom line is that this technology got people’s attention and actually made their lives a little bit better although in small ways. With the Xbox One, Microsoft has taken this technology to new levels. All the data it has been collecting since November 2011 when Kinect first launched has helped to improve Kinect dramatically.

So why are we only seeing it in the Xbox One, and as a small feature of the cooking app in the Windows 8.1 preview? Microsoft can make fun of Siri all it wants in its iPad comparison commercials, but is has absolutely nothing to show for a feature that I am seeing more and more people use on their iPhones. Nothing.

Microsoft has the technology. It has the resources. It has the data. It has posted videos on YouTube demoing its Siri response, but it has produced no real answer. Apple and Google are not sitting on their laurels in this area. They are moving quickly to make interacting with their devices through talk better than ever.

Users can use speech to interact with Windows Phone and dictate text messages. There’s even the ability to do voice searches. But this functionality is nowhere near as good as Siri or Google Now. Microsoft needs to get its NUI act together and it needs to do it yesterday.

The Mobile Strategy

Apple had a pretty nice quarter with iPhone sales. And Samsung is looking like it will see an increase in phone sales as well. Microsoft? Well, that’s another story. Windows Phone is growing, but very slowly and not even near fast enough. Interest in tablets took a dive this past quarter. Put it all together and you have a very bleak situation for mobile devices from Microsoft. There’s not a lot to be excited about. No one seems to want these devices. As good as the Surface is the RT version is not selling very well and the $900 million inventory hit to Microsoft’s bottom line proves this point.

This will continue to be an area of pain for this company unless it figures out a way to get out ahead of the competition through device and UI innovation (NUI), and greatly improve how it communicates why consumers should purchase Windows devices instead of Apple or Android.

The Windows Phone update policy is pure madness. It’s not as bad as Android, but it’s not anywhere near as good as iPhone. It amazes me that this company cannot get updates out to all devices at the same time. I understand there are a myriad of Windows Phone device types among different carriers. But there’s no way to coordinate that any better than what we get now? Why is update 2 going out to only one type of device on one carrier?

Communication

When Microsoft launched Windows 8 it probably had the worst messaging a company could ever have when introducing new versions of a product with radical hardware and a completely overhauled UI. I didn’t mind the original Surface commercials with the dancing Surface users. I thought it was a great way to introduce us to a brand new product; but only for a few weeks. Why that campaign ran as long as it did is beyond me. I kept asking myself, why should people purchase the Surface? Is it only because it has a keyboard? Remember those Windows 8 commercials at launch? They were very similar. There was nothing that really explained why it was better than before and why consumers should go out and buy Windows machines. Although communication is getting better, there’s still more to do.

The problem with the original Surface and Windows advertising campaign is that they didn’t focus on features as well as they should. With an interface as radically different as Windows 8, there should have been a ton of messaging centered around how Windows 8 can actually improve our quality of life. Don’t just show kids pointing at touch screens or menus swiping from the side of the screen, show me how all my content goes with me everywhere. Show me how I can benefit from the built-in apps like the new cooking app. Show me how the new cooking app is really beneficial when I am baking a cake and I can’t touch my screen with my dirty hands but with something as simple as a swipe, I can navigate through the recipe. These are the things that can actually improve quality of life albeit in small ways. Tell me why my next purchase should be a Samsung ultrabook and not a Macbook Air.

Bing. I really like the Bing commercials, but perhaps it’s time to start keying in on the sidebar in some new advertising. There are times when I look for someone on Facebook and I cannot find them. So I type their name into Bing, and their Facebook profile shows up. I did this exact thing a week ago. Bing has the ability to mine lots of different sources for information which allows it to return data that Google can’t even come close to. Microsoft should be talking about that.

SkyDrive and Outlook commercials are cute. But people really don’t know that you can actually use Word, PowerPoint and Excel online for free. People don’t know that they can create documents in these programs right within SkyDrive, save them, and have them magically appear on phone, tablet, or PC. Tell me why I need to ditch Gmail and move everything solely to Outlook. Explain why SkyDrive is better for me than Dropbox.

The Xbox One fiasco was shocking. I’ll just leave it at that and say that I hope Microsoft learned its lesson.

As we transition into a new era of computing, it is absolutely essential that Microsoft’s messaging is flawless. There is no room for error when you are struggling to sell devices. No more cute commercials of dancing schoolgirls. Sell us on the features and pricing.

Windows/Surface RT

For well over a decade, Windows users were accustomed to clicking a small little start button at the bottom left of their screen to access all their applications and in some instances documents. Windows 8 changed all that. Many of you lost your cool and consumers the world over had problems with it too. But the start button wasn’t the only issue with Windows 8. The touch interface was better suited for touch devices, which almost all existing Windows users did not own.

So what happens when existing Windows users install Windows 8 on old hardware? Disaster. Of all the complaints I’ve had from Windows 8 users, they have all been because someone installed it on hardware not designed for it. Microsoft tried to make using the new OS mouse/keyboard friendly but users still complained. For those that had modern devices, they had a much better experience.

Switching between the new UI and the familiar desktop interface was another source of pain as many complained that the experience was too jarring. Microsoft is addressing this problem in 8.1 by allowing users to install the same background image for desktop and Start screen modes. I wish Microsoft would go much further and actually redesign the desktop to look much more similar to the new Windows UI design language. Perhaps this is in the works.

It’s good that Microsoft is finally addressing these issues but something tells me this may not be enough to get people’s attention. The perception of Windows 8 is not very good right now. Microsoft needs features and hardware that will get the attention of consumers and get them in the stores buying Windows devices.

One of the biggest "what the hell" situations right now exists with Windows RT and its desktop mode. Microsoft needs to do much more here. Why is it still there? If the goal is to eventually allow full blown desktop use, this needs to be communicated sooner rather than later. At this time we know nothing. All we can do is speculate that the reason for the desktop is because of Office. If indeed Windows RT is a glimpse into the future of Windows, the BUILD conference would have been a great time to communicate about the future of RT. Consider that boat missed.

Not only does Microsoft need to address the usability concerns, it needs to get Windows 8 onto better hardware and fast. The launch quality (and quantity) from Windows hardware partners was lackluster. The only option I could recommend to friends in the market for a new machine was the Surface and even then I had some reservations. I use Surface RT and I find it a very capable device for content creation and consumption. I plan on purchasing the next version of the Surface Pro if Microsoft can solve the battery life problem. OEMs need to get their act together. Microsoft needs to aggressively expand the Surface accessory line with a new docking solution.

A big problem with Windows devices right now is pricing. Hopefully with the launch of 8.1 we will begin to see small devices around 7-8 inch size that are competitively priced. The new Surface RT price is what I feel the device should have been introduced at. Microsoft would have lost a ton of money per device, but at least there could potentially be several million devices out there providing free advertising. Microsoft needs to get as many of these devices into the hands of as many people as possible. Techies can gripe and moan about performance and screen resolution all day long, what regular users care about is whether or not they can check Facebook and write a paper for class.

Slow sales of Windows 8 and Surface are a collection of poor device selection, poor messaging, usability problems, and pricing. Do slow Surface sales imply people don’t want tablets or that tablets are not PC’s? I don’t think so. Microsoft should not give up. It needs to stay the course because it has some really compelling experiences to offer consumers.

Conclusion

Microsoft gets a lot of undeserved negative criticism. But there are some areas where the negativity and angst towards the tech giant is very much warranted. I picked five areas: Internet Explorer, Natural User Interface (NUI), Mobile Strategy, Communications, Windows/Surface.

You may have additional areas where you think Microsoft is getting it wrong. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Photo Credit: Arcady/Shutterstock
Video Image Master Express lets you extract frames from videos or create video slideshows

Publié: juillet 28, 2013, 8:35am CEST par Mike Williams

Extracting a series of frames from a video can be a great way to summarize its contents, but getting the precise results you need is often a challenge. We recently looked at Free Video to JPEG Converter, for instance, and while the program was easy to use, it had limited extraction options.

If you need more power, then you might prefer the free Video Image Master Express. It provides a host of ways to define exactly how your frames should be extracted, and as a bonus it can also combine still images of your own into a simple video slideshow.

After an easy installation (no adware to worry about), the program launches with a straightforward interface. There are two main tabs – "Video > Images" covers frame extraction, "Images > Video" creating slideshows -- and clicking either of these displays all the relevant options.

Choose the "Video > Images" option, for instance, and you’re first able to load your source file. Simple sliders then allow you to choose the section of video which you’d like to use.

The program provides many ways to define which frames should be extracted. You can opt for every Nth frame, for instance, or one frame every X seconds. And you’re able to set a total number of frames, leaving Video Image Master Express to choose an evenly spaced set.

There’s an option to extract a frame every time the scene changes. This isn’t too smart, or accurate (it’s just triggered whenever the change between frames is greater than a percentage value you define), but it’s good enough for many purposes, and is way more than we expected from a free tool.

You even get the ability to create composite images, single JPEGs which each contain multiple frames in whatever number of rows and columns you need.

A host of post-processing options then help you deliver the best results. The images can be resized, for instance; rotated, or flipped; if you don’t want to export JPEGs then there are plenty of other formats available, and you can define the output file names, too.

By comparison, the "Images > Video" function looks relatively weak, but if you occasionally need to build video slideshows then it might be useful. You can import single images or entire folders, then reorder them as you like; there are options to set the output video size, and its frame rate; and you can add a custom soundtrack, as well as configuring its volume and tempo.

We have one or two small issues with the program. There are a few extraction options which aren’t entirely clear: what’s the difference between extracting a "Total" of five frames, and an "Express Total" of five frames, for instance? We’re not sure, and the rather basic help doesn’t explain.

For the most part, though, Video Image Master Express does a great job, particularly in extracting frames from videos, and if that’s a task which interests you then we’d recommending giving the program a try.

Photo Credit: Spectral-Design/Shutterstock