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BetaNews.Com (8 non lus)

YouTube lands on Roku 3

Publié: décembre 17, 2013, 7:26pm CET par Alan Buckingham

It seems as if we should have reached this moment long ago -- like, perhaps, when the Roku debuted? The little, inexpensive set-top box seems capable of doing most anything, with the obvious exception of acting as your DVR. But, until today, it was incapable of playing content from the most popular streaming video service on the internet.

There are some stipulations with this release -- well, one major one, at least. That is the simple fact that the brand new YouTube app appears only on the Roku 3. "We’re bringing you the YouTube app (or 'channel' in Roku-speak) today on the Roku 3 in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Republic of Ireland", announces YouTube's Sarah Ali.

Google has gone all out, with full HD streaming of YouTube videos on the living room device. In addition, like other Roku apps (or "channels") you'll get a send-to TV option within the remote control app for your phone or tablet, as well as your subscribed channels.

The Roku 3 is one of several devices available from the manufacturer, and retails for $99.99, though it's currently on sale for $10 off, if you are looking for a last minute gift.
Google and HP recall 145,000 Chromebook 11 chargers for fire hazard

Publié: décembre 17, 2013, 5:32pm CET par Brian Fagioli

As someone who has lived through a home fire, I am very anxious about it. Any time I smell a neighbor's fireplace, I will investigate. I am still haunted by the night that I lost all of my belongings -- standing barefoot in the street watching the brave firemen fight the blaze.

When Google stopped sales of the HP Chromebook 11 due to a faulty charger, I was faced with a major conundrum. I love using that computer, but now I was scared to charge it. Even though Google suggested charging it with any other microUSB charger, I was still too concerned to leave it charging unattended. Plus, when I did use a different charger, I got a warning message that the charger was underpowered and charging would take longer. Finally today, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announces an official recall of the dangerous charger.

The commission says "this recall involves chargers that were sold with the HP Chromebook 11. The charger is black with outlet pins, measures 1.75 inches by .75 inches, and has a 6-foot long cord with a micro-USB connector on the end. The model number of the charger is MU15-N1052-A00S, which is stamped on the face of the battery charger that has the outlet pins".

Sadly, this was not just a theoretical issue, actual incidents were reported. A total of 9 people had an incident with the charger malfunctioning. One owner received a burn, while another person's pillow was damaged. Luckily, no one has been killed and no homes have been lost.

Affected owners should contact Google for a free replacement immediately at (866) 628-1371. However, I tried calling and was told that due to a timing issue, they were not yet ready to take requests and to try again later. In other words, YMMV.

[Update]

You can now request a replacement charger here.

Image Credit: Christian Delbert / Shutterstock
Amazon Web Services rolls out Kinesis to all users

Publié: décembre 17, 2013, 3:51pm CET par Ian Barker

Since it launched in 2006 Amazon Web Services has become a major player in the cloud computing sector. It's now aiming to move further into the big data arena with the rollout of Amazon Kinesis. Kinesis (from the Greek word meaning movement) is a managed service to handle the real-time processing of high-volume streaming data.

By using Amazon Kinesis customers will be able to store and process terabytes of data from hundreds of thousands of sources each hour. This will enable them to write applications that take action on real-time data -- things like website click-streams, marketing and financial transactions, social media feeds, logs and metering data, and location-tracking events.

Because it's available as a managed service, Kinesis should cut down on the development time needed to handle big data through more traditional approaches like Hadoop. Kinesis-enabled applications will be able to drive real-time dashboards, generate alerts and contribute to decision support systems.

Developers will also be able to take advantage of AWS's Auto Scaling to build flexible processing clusters. Kinesis integrates with third-party tools, including popular open source products, too so that developers have the freedom to select their own preferred method of data processing.

"When we set out to build Amazon Kinesis, we wanted to eliminate the cost, effort, and expertise barriers that have prevented our customers from processing streaming data in real-time," says Terry Hanold, Vice President, Cloud Commerce at AWS. "We've gotten great feedback from our preview customers, and it's inspiring to see the innovative ways customers are using Amazon Kinesis, across applications as diverse as gaming, mobile, advertising, manufacturing, healthcare, e-commerce, and financial services".

Companies that have been trialling the product include digital marketing platforms Bizo and MediaMath and Finnish social game developer Supercell. Sami Yliharju, Services Lead at Supercell says, "We are using Amazon Kinesis for real-time delivery of game insight data sent by hundreds of our game engine servers. Amazon Kinesis enables our business-critical analytics and dashboard applications to reliably get the data streams they need, without delays. Amazon Kinesis also offloads a lot of developer burden in building a real-time, streaming data ingestion platform, and enables Supercell to focus on delivering games that delight players worldwide".

Amazon Kinesis is available now in the US East Region and will be rolled out across other AWS regions over the next few months.

Photo Credit: Stephen VanHorn/Shutterstock
Fedora 20 is here -- an early Linux Christmas present

Publié: décembre 17, 2013, 3:14pm CET par Brian Fagioli

Many Linux users have been holding their breath in anticipation for the 20th version of Fedora Linux, codenamed Heisenbug. While not the most popular distribution overall, it is the distro of choice for one influential user -- Mr. Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel. Not to mention, many other users around the globe.

Sadly, version 20 has missed its deadline a couple of times. While those delays were disappointing, it was also appreciated. After all, you do not want a buggy operating system, do you? Luckily, Santa Claus came a little early to the Linux community -- the final version of Fedora Linux is here now!

Red Hat Inc, owner of the Fedora Project announces "the general availability of Fedora 20, code-named 'Heisenbug', the latest version of the free, Linux-based Fedora operating system. Developed by a diverse global community, Fedora 20 celebrates 10 years of the Fedora Project's innovation. This release brings several key features to enhance usability, performance, and provide developers with additional functionality".

"Fedora 20 continues Fedora's history of delivering innovative technologies ahead of the curve, bringing to bear new features that better enable virtualization and cloud computing within the operating system. Additionally, Fedora 20 builds upon community feedback, delivering advanced maturity features to address the needs of the most advanced users", says Robyn Bergeron, Fedora Project Leader.

While there are many changes under the hood (you can see a list of the changes here), the most apparent to home users will be the updates to the desktop environments, Gnome (3.10) and KDE (4.11). Both have been updated with bug fixes and new features. Gnome gains two new apps -- Music and Maps.

If you are a Windows user new to Linux, please know that the desktop environment or DE, is what you will visually interact with. KDE is reminiscent of Windows 7 (Start button, menu), Gnome is more like Windows 8 (hot corners, tablet focused). It's a matter of preference as to which you prefer, but I lean heavily towards Gnome, which is the default Fedora UI.

Another huge addition to Fedora 20 is official support for ARM as a primary architecture. Yes, there were Fedora spins in the past that would run on ARM hardware (my Raspberry Pi runs it), but this is the first time it has been dubbed a "primary architecture". This is important as ARM based processors are becoming more prevalent thanks to smartphones and tablets.

I know what I'll be doing tonight -- upgrading to Fedora 20 and enjoying the improvements in Gnome 3.10. Are you planning on upgrading too? Tell me how it goes in the comments.

Photo Credit: Marisha/Shutterstock
Google Zeitgeist -- 2013 in search

Publié: décembre 17, 2013, 3:13pm CET par Alan Buckingham

It's hard to believe it's been 12 months since I last wrote about Google's year-end video. That one featured the tragedy of Hurricane Sandy and the thrill of Felix Baumgartner's amazing leap from the stratosphere. At the time, we had no idea what the next 365 days held in store for us. Now, as the year winds down, Google has put together another of its annual summaries to illustrate what we been through.

Many companies release lists in late December, with lots of nice statistics, but Google, using the power of YouTube, wraps up everything in a nice tidy video.

"In our annual Year-End Zeitgeist ('spirit of the times'), we reflect on the people, places, and moments that captured the world’s attention throughout the year. This year marks our most global Zeitgeist to date -- with 1,000-plus top 10 lists across categories like Trending People, Most-Searched Events and Top Trending Searches from 72 countries", says Google senior vice president Amit Singhal.

You'll find moving footage of Nelson Mandela, who was sadly taken from us this year, experience again the atrocities of Typhoon Haiyan and the Boston Marathon bombing, jet off into space, and meet the newest member of the royal family. It seems the year was more eventful than we perhaps thought.
Be yourself… but be all you can be!

Publié: décembre 17, 2013, 3:12pm CET par Lisa Dyble

I believe that every individual possesses within them the innate ability to be great. To me, being great means being yourself... to the power of 10. It means tapping into your full potential so that you can be all you can be.

In today’s digital era, there are a myriad of opportunities for expressing your inner greatness and allowing it to shine forth for all the world to appreciate. Self-publishing has become easier than ever, whether that be via personal blog, social media, website or ebook.

Since 2008, I’ve been encouraging women from all walks of life to unleash their greatness potential. I am the author, designer and webmaster of positiveimpressions.ca, a non-profit, ad-free networking support site that I operate on my personal time because I care about people and want to make a positive difference in their lives. While the site is targeted primarily to women, much of the content is non-gender specific. Topics include personal fitness, health and nutrition, personal development and personal style, which apply equally to men and women.

In addition, I recently published Sleeping with the Enemy, a modern day love story that combines embezzlement, murder, passion and deceit with a light hearted look at that crazy little thing we call love. Because it was my first publishing venture I used the services of a professional self-publishing company, but with iTunes, Kobo and other online book retailers now accepting self-published work from individuals and providing detailed instructions for how to upload it to their store, I could have also done it on my own.

Telling your own personal story in your own personal way is easier than you might think. There is a large community of caring individuals on the World Wide Web who are generously sharing their knowledge and experience for the benefit of people like you and me. Much of what I learned about php coding, MySQL database structure and website development in general came from programmers who operate support sites similar to mine. Like me, their primary motivation is to help others be successful.

If you’re not sure how or where to begin, I can assure you that Google is a great place to start. Odds are very good your search will lead you to someone who’s been there before and is willing to share what they’ve learned. Whether it’s fact or fiction, for profit or not, in support of an existing cause or the start of a new one, you can pursue your passion in the digital world. Doing so will help you maximize your greatness potential and be all you can be.

Photo Credit: paffy/Shutterstock

Lisa Dyble is an author/webmaster who strives to empower women to maximize their full potential in all areas of their lives. Her projects can be viewed at positiveimpressions.ca and lisadyble.com.
Apple releases OS X 10.9.1 Mavericks

Publié: décembre 17, 2013, 2:44am CET par Mihaita Bamburic

While using the initial OS X 10.9 Mavericks release on my 2013 Apple MacBook Air I noticed major issues with Gmail accounts in the built-in Mail app. Emails were not syncing properly, resulting in a malfunction of the archiving feature and other similar problems. Apple issued an update shortly after launching its new Mac operating system, that aimed to cure the Gmail woes.

Today, Apple released another update for Mavericks, which brings OS X to version 10.9.1 and, among other changes, incorporates improved support for Google's consumer email service in the Mail app and fixes for custom Gmail settings.

OS X 10.9.1 Mavericks also irons out other bugs pertaining to the available Mail app functionality, as the update now improves the reliability of search and Smart Mailboxes, and fixes contact groups, in the said piece of software.

Safari sees an update as well, bumping the version number to 7.0.1. The browser gets bug fixes related to the form functionality (will no longer become unresponsive while the user fills them on certain sites), improvements for Credit Card Autofill and VoiceOver, and periodical updates for Shared Links. Also, VoiceOver should now speak sentences which contain emoji.

Other changes include fixes for Japanese keyboards, which will not retain a previously used language, Local Items keychain, which will not unlock following multiple prompts, and iLife and iWork, which will now update on non-English installations.

OS X 10.9.1 Mavericks can be installed via the built-in App Store software. The update is also available for download from Apple's site.
I love Google, so I bought an iPad Air

Publié: décembre 17, 2013, 2:35am CET par Brian Fagioli

Despite their similarities, Android always seemed to exist to be the opposite of iOS. In other words, if Apple's mobile OS was popular culture, Google was a counter-culture. In the earlier days, Android had copy and paste, removable batteries, expandable memory, the ability to tinker, but many of those differences are virtually gone -- through Apple's additions and Google's subtractions. It was because of those differences, that I entered into the Google ecosystem with Android -- Ihave been rather happy. Lately however, I have been a bit unhappy with the direction of Android. Locked bootloaders, lack of SD card slots, non-accessible batteries. Sure, these things are technically not a part of the Android OS, but they are a part of the overall experience. While iOS doesn't offer these things either, at least Apple was upfront about that from the start.

When Apple announced the svelte, yet powerful iPad Air, I was immediately in love. The dark holo theme of Android is just utterly depressing. Conversely, the iPad Air is bright and beautiful, thanks to iOS 7. My problem though, was that I was deeply entrenched in Google's world -- I was worried about moving to a competitor's platform. I love Google services like Gmail, Google Maps, Chrome and YouTube. Quite frankly, I cannot live without those things. Despite these fears, I bought an iPad Air and couldn't be happier. Not only is the build quality better than any Android tablet, the overall experience is better thanks to the superior UI. Not to mention, all of my desired Google apps are on iOS and they look and work better on Apple's operating system too.

Google+ for instance is much smoother and offers colorful bars at the top when refreshing. There are many style cues that make you think that Google app developers prefer Apple's platform. I even discovered a beautiful app called "YouTube Capture" that is not even found on Android. It is a wonderfully useful app for vloggers as you can record and edit YouTube video on the go. Why this is not on Android, I do not know -- it is mind boggling.

While Safari looks better than Chrome (personal preference), I chose to make Google's browser my default. It simply makes things easier, as I can sync my bookmarks, passwords and settings across Windows and Android too. When it came time to message my friends and coworkers, I found that Hangouts was available too. It works just as well as on Android.

Amazingly, Google Now is even here. By installing the Google Search app, I can access the same card-based system as on Google's operating system. This also felt much smoother on iOS. All of my sports scores, weather and traffic updates were as to be expected.

Of course, the iPad now comes with mobile versions of Apple's premium apps for free too. While Google now offers the functional Quickoffice for free, it is no match for the premium experience of iLife -- Pages, Numbers and Keynote. These apps were previoyusly $10 each, so to get them for free is an amaing value. Also available for free is iLife, which includes iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband.

So, the question for Android users is, what is the point? If you can use iOS and have access to both Apple's and Google's apps, why not make the switch? In other words, why not have the best of both worlds? I love my new iPad and it is the best Google experience on the market. If the iPhone 6 has a bigger screen, I may have to switch my smartphone allegiance too.