Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » mars 25, 2014

BetaNews.Com (9 non lus)

Overcome an alien invasion and get in shape at the same time with BattleSuit Runner Fitness

Publié: mars 25, 2014, 8:46pm CET par Wayne Williams

As much as I enjoy running, I often need help and motivation to get started, and keep going, and Zombies, Run! has been my savior. I’ve mentioned the fitness app several times in the past, but if you’re not familiar, it’s a sort of interactive radio play, in which episodic stories unfold in-between tracks from your playlist as you run, transforming a real-world jog into a journey through the zombie apocalypse.

Season 3 of Zombies, Run! is out next month, but I’ve found a new running app to keep me occupied until then. BattleSuit Runner Fitness is available for both Android and iOS and is quite similar in that the missions unfold in-between your running songs, but in this game you’re DeltaSuit, an exosuit-wearing commando battling against an alien invasion.

When I first encountered the app I’ll be honest, I didn’t have any great expectations. The presentation is lacking, and graphically it’s not very polished. Fortunately, there’s a free trial version so I figured I might as well give it a go anyway. I’m glad I did.

Although the graphics are poor, the audio quality is excellent, and very professional. The cast of characters are all very different and highly memorable.

Where it currently differs from Zombies, Run! is the length of the narration. There’s an awful lot of exposition at the start, and it takes ages before you hear the first song in your playlist. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the developers are considering slicing it up into smaller, more bite sized chunks.

Before each run (or walk, if you prefer) you can select your playlist, and set the approximate workout time. The minimum duration is 30 minutes, so no really quick jogs around the block.

During your run you’ll collect resources and engage in enemy battles which can lead to your battlesuit picking up damage. The battles take place over your playlist, and are actually pretty cool. Every so often, you’ll be prompted to speed up or slow down to achieve a task. You’ll also occasionally have the chance to activate your battlesuit’s "supercharge mode" by sprinting for a short while. You can adjust the supercharge difficulty level, depending on how easy or otherwise you find it.

The resources you collect along the way can be used to repair and upgrade your battlesuit in-between runs in the app’s workshop.

There are only nine missions in the paid version, but more are coming soon, and the developers are keen to keep improving the app. I’m only a short way into the story at the moment, but I’m really enjoying it so far.

Another thing the app has in its favor is the price -- the full version costs just $0.99.
Microsoft makes source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows publicly available for the first time

Publié: mars 25, 2014, 8:00pm CET par Wayne Williams

Microsoft has teamed up with the Computer History Museum (CHM) to make the original source code for two of its most historic programs publicly available for the first time. MS-DOS, the 1982 Disk Operating System for IBM-compatible personal computers, and Word for Windows, the 1990 Windows-based version of popular word processor.

“The museum has done an excellent job of curating some of the most significant historical software programs in computing history", Roy Levin, distinguished engineer and managing director, Microsoft Research says. “As part of this ongoing project, the museum will make available two of the most widely used software programs of the 1980’s, MS DOS 1.1 and 2.0 and Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1a, to help future generations of technologists better understand the roots of personal computing”.

In 1980, IBM approached a small company based in Seattle who had previously provided them with a BASIC language interpreter, and asked if they would be willing to work on an operating system project code-named "Chess". The Seattle firm, Microsoft, licensed an operating system from Seattle Computer Products and this later became the foundation for PC-DOS and MS-DOS.

Shortly after the release of its operating system, Microsoft released the first DOS-based, mouse operated version of Microsoft Word in 1983. At that time anyone who was using a word processor was likely using WordPerfect -- I certainly was -- and it wasn’t until 1989, that Word for Windows finally became a massive hit. "Within four years it was generating over half the revenue of the worldwide word processing market", Levin says.

"MS-DOS and Word for Windows built the foundation for Microsoft’s success in the technology industry," says Levin. "By contributing these source codes to the Computer History Museum archives, Microsoft is making these historic systems from the early era of personal computing available to the community for historical and technical scholarship".

"We think preserving historic source code like these two programs is key to understanding how software has evolved from primitive roots to become a crucial part of our civilization," Len Shustek, CHM Chairman adds.

Other ground breaking historic source codes available in the CHM include APPLE II DOS, IBM APL, Apple Macpaint and QuickDraw, and Adobe Photoshop.
Rocking the dorm room -- Spotify offers student discounts

Publié: mars 25, 2014, 6:48pm CET par Alan Buckingham

Students are sometimes in need of breaks on prices, as school eats into the time required for a job. To that end, many software and hardware makers offer discounts to allow those we consider our future to be able to attain what they need in order to get through classes. But that isn't all that's required, unwinding with some entertainment is also sometimes necessary.

Now Spotify wants to help out, offering discounts for students. The service has announced it is cutting the price in half, slashing $9.99 down to $4.99 for college students.

"We are pleased to announce that college students in the United States can now purchase Spotify Premium for $4.99. This new plan goes into effect immediately and can be redeemed here", Candice Katz of Spotify says.

Spotify Premium offers ad-free streaming, access via computer, mobile and compatible home theater gear, and (claimed) better sound quality. All of this will work through a partnership with SheerID. Effective immediately, students can begin taking advantage of the discount through Spotify Student.
Initial thoughts and impressions from the HTC One (M8) launch event

Publié: mars 25, 2014, 6:46pm CET par Siamak Masnavi

Earlier today, Mihaita Bamburic wrote about HTC's new smartphone, the One (M8). Here, I am going to convey my initial thoughts and impressions after some hands-on time with the device.

With all the leaked specs, photos, and videos of the HTC One (M8) preceding the announcement, I was worried, before coming to the London launch event, that I would not be too impressed when I finally got the chance to see the phone for real. Thankfully, I was wrong.

HTC has managed to take a great phone, 2013's multi-award winning HTC One (M7), and improve it in several key areas.

First, although the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor was quite fast already, HTC's decision to use a 2.3 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in the M8 makes the M8 as fast as any of its recently announced top rivals, i.e. LG G Pro 2, Sony Xperia Z2, and Samsung Galaxy S5.

Second, by increasing the size of the Full HD (1080p) screen from 4.7 inches to 5.0 inches, while causing the pixel density to decrease slightly (468 ppi vs. 440 ppi), HTC may have settled on what is likely to be the optimum screen size for most of its target audience.

Third, the increase in the resolution of the wide-angle front camera from 2MP to 5MP means that the M8 may now be the best phone in the world for taking selfies or for video chats (e.g. via Skype or Google Hangouts).

Fourth, even though the primary rear camera, sadly, still only has a 4MP sensor, the inclusion of the secondary rear camera, which is responsible for capturing depth information in the scene, means that after you have captured a photo, you can use the camera app's UFocus feature to change which part of the picture is in focus (and which parts get blurred).

Fifth, the bigger battery (now 2600 mAh) and more efficient use should lead to up to 40 percent longer battery life than before.

Sixth, the M8's new amplifier and the 20 percent louder speakers should result in an even more enjoyable experience when using the dual front-facing speakers to listen to music or watch movies.

And finally, the support for secondary storage in the form of a microSD card slot (allowing up to 128GB cards to be used) provides plenty of room for books, photos, music, and movies.

If you already have the 2013 edition of the HTC One, you may not feel that the main improvements I have listed above are sufficient to warrant an upgrade to the 2014 model, but after spending the past hour playing with the HTC One (M8), I feel that it would be a very worthy upgrade for anyone who has anything older than a 2014 flagship phone from one of HTC's main rivals.
What really happens when you press Ctrl+C? Clipboard Format Spy has the answers

Publié: mars 25, 2014, 6:35pm CET par Mike Williams

In theory, the Windows clipboard seems very simple. Select something, press Ctrl+C and it’s copied there; click somewhere else, press Ctrl+V and it’s pasted. Easy.

Then again, sometimes you’ll try to paste something and find the formatting is messed up, or you just don’t get what you expected. What’s happening? The free Clipboard Format Spy may be able to help.

The program provides a real-time view of the contents of your clipboard. To see how this works, highlight some text in Notepad, and press Ctrl+C. Clipboard Format Spy updates immediately to show any changes.

What you’ll notice immediately is there’s not just a single object. Your clipboard now contains a "text" object, some "OEM" text (usually the same), a Unicode version, and a Locale object which describes your text language. Double-clicking any of these displays their contents.

Now open Internet Explorer, visit a web page, then copy a mix of text and graphics to the clipboard. You still get plain and Unicode text copies, but this time there are Rich Text Format and HTML versions, with embedded graphics. An "msSourceUrl" gives you the address of the copied page, and again you can view any of these by double-clicking, or by choosing a specific option from the right-click menu ("View as binary", "View as text", and so on).

Why so many objects? When a program copies something to the clipboard, it doesn’t know whether you’ll need plain text, Unicode, simple formatting, graphics or anything else. Typically it’ll save multiple versions of the same object, and when you paste the data somewhere, the receiving application will choose whatever it thinks is best.

This isn’t always a great idea. If you’ve a copy of Google Earth installed, launch it, browse somewhere and click Edit > Copy Image. You might expect the program to copy a single image to the clipboard, but in fact there are nine: two DIBs (device-independent bitmaps), and seven others in various formats (JPG, PNG, BMP, PPM, XBM, JPEG and XPM). If a program does this with very high-res images then it could chew up a lot of RAM.

It’s a similar story with some other graphics tools. Open your preferred image editor, copy something to the clipboard and see what actually gets stored (it’s usually more than you’d expect).

Viewing this doesn’t have any great practical benefit. Clipboard Format Spy is mostly a programming demo showing how the clipboard can be monitored, so doesn’t have the extras you’d expect from an end-user tool. The main screen is text-only, for example (you only see graphics if you open them manually), and it can’t save a selected object to disk.

If you’d like an easy way to see how the clipboard is really being used, though -- or want to troubleshoot some odd clipboard issue -- then Clipboard Format Spy should work very well. Go take a look.
CCleaner improves Opera browser support, Registry cleaning

Publié: mars 25, 2014, 6:32pm CET par Nick Peers

Piriform has issued the latest monthly update to its Windows cleaning tool with the release of CCleaner 4.12 and CCleaner Portable 4.12. After the excitement of last month’s release, version 4.12 is a more sedate affair.

Chief among its new features is wider support for the new Blink-based version of Opera, which joins various other tweaks, improvements and fixes.

Version 4.12 now adds a Saved Form Information cleaning option to its Opera cleaning tools, and it’s now also capable of working with pre-release versions of the browser through added support for the Opera Developer Channel.

The Registry cleaning tools -- which should always be used with extreme caution -- gain two improvements with this release, to the ActiveX and Class Issue sections respectively.

The Intelligent Cookie Scan tool is now able to recognize -- and preserve -- Facebook and Twitter cookies, while cleaning tools have been added for Xilisoft Video Converter and DVD Ripper, dBpoweramp and SyncBackFree.

Existing cleaning tools that get minor improvements include Vuze, Orbit Downloader, CA Anti-Virus and Microsoft AntiSpyware.

Those who purchase a Professional license also gain improvement management of the Scheduler tool with this latest build, which is rounded off with usual unspecified minor bug fixes and user interface tweaks.

CCleaner 4.12 and CCleaner Portable 4.12 are available now as freeware downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later. A Professional version offering additional features including real-time monitoring and complete system cleaning is available for $24.95.
Meet HTC's new One (M8)

Publié: mars 25, 2014, 4:09pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

After a string of unexciting smartphones, last year, HTC wowed Android fans all over the world with the One. For the first time, in my opinion, a smartphone powered by the little green droid looked attractive. It did not take part in the silly specs race, as, at the time, the display was not the largest in its class, the processor was not the fastest around and it was not even the most compact Android smartphone given its specs. However, it performed well and offered unique software features, which, combined with the stunning looks, made it one of the best-received smartphones of the year. Sadly for HTC, it was not quite the sales success the company hoped it would be.

Because the original One set the bar so high, it will be interesting to see how its successor will stack up. It has pretty high expectations to live up to. Luckily, we do not have to wait long to find out, as HTC just took the wraps off the new One (M8). The name is not as inspiring, but it does pack a fair punch.

The Design

The exterior has been the strong suit of the original One. It combined premium materials -- metal, polycarbonate and Gorilla Glass -- with an attractive design. The One (M8), despite what its name suggests, does not represent a radical departure, as HTC used the same types of materials and only altered the look slightly.

It is now more rounded, which should make it more pleasant to hold in the hand, taller and with asymmetrical speakers. It looks similar on the back as well, with the only major difference being the secondary camera which allows users to refocus snapped photos. The buttons are also in the same place. The power key should be, however, placed on the side of the device instead of on the top, where it can be more difficult to press.

The Specs

First off, the One (M8) is bigger. That is due to the large, 5-inch display (as opposed to the 4.7-inch panel found on the One) with a now-standard resolution of 1080 by 1920. It comes in at 146.3 x 70.6 x 9.35 mm and 160 grams (taller, wider, thicker and heavier than the One, and not that far off from the Samsung Galaxy S5, which measures 142 x 72.5 x 8.1 mm and weighs 145 grams).

It is also faster, as it employs a 2.3 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, that is backed by 2 GB of RAM and a 2,600 mAh battery. HTC does not mention the processor sample which powers its new smartphone, but the likely candidate is MSM8974AB. The One (M8) also offers two storage options, namely 16 GB and 32 GB as well as a microSD card slot alongside each model. The latter is a welcome feature, as users can easily (and cheaply) add more capacity.

On the back of the One (M8) is the Duo Camera setup, which is comprised of two dedicated cameras. The main one is a 5 MP shooter with an f/2.0 aperture, which should ensure great low-light photos, accompanied by a secondary one which enables refocusing (the concept is similar to the Lytro camera and the Nokia Refocus Windows Phone 8 app). On the front there is a 5 MP camera with wide-angle lens and HDR. On both sides, the One (M8) is capable of 1080p video recording. It also features BoomSound stereo speakers on the front.

Other specs include the usual suspects: 4G LTE cellular connectivity, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0 LE (Low Energy), NFC (Near Field Communication), DLNA, GPS, and a microUSB port.

The Android Bit

As you might expect, Android 4.4.2 KitKat is HTC's operating system of choice for the One (M8). The Taiwanese maker has customized the distribution with Sense -- it is at version 6.0 now. The skin adds branded apps and services, like BlinkFeed. The smartphone does away with hardware (capacitive) buttons, as it has soft keys instead on the front. A Google Play Edition of the device will also be available, sporting a version of Android 4.4.2 KitKat that is closer to AOSP.

When and How Much?

The One (M8) will be available, starting today, in US and Canada and, "by the end of April", across the globe . Available color options include gold, gray and silver. The price of the handset will vary depending on the market and local taxes, but it will cost $199.99 at US mobile operators. That is on par with what its predecessor went for at launch.
Google teams up with Ray-Ban to gain some cool for Glass

Publié: mars 25, 2014, 3:06pm CET par Mark Wilson

After trying to drum up more interest in Glass by dispelling some myths believed to have built up around the wearable tech, Google is looking to push things even further, gaining a little cool cred by teaming up with Luxottica the group behind well-known names such as Ray-Ban and Vogue. Teaming up with such a premium brand could be key to the success or failure of Glass, and Google is keen to push Glass as being the next step in the gradual evolution of eyewear.

At the moment, there are more than forty different looks for Glass (once the various frames, colors and styles are factored in), but it is hoped that the new partnership will result in even more designs. Love them or not, Ray-Ban and Vogue are names you will be quite familiar with, and it seems as though this is something that Google is keen to latch on to -- although it is, of course, a household name in its own right. "Luxottica understands how to build, distribute and sell great products that their clients and consumers love -- something we care deeply about at Glass, too," purrs Google on its Google+ page.

But it is the infrastructure that Luxottica already has in place that is likely to be of particular interest: "Luxottica’s retail and wholesale distribution channels will serve us well when we make Glass available to more people down the road".

Will the tie-in with a luxury brand be the move that increases interest? It's difficult to say at this stage, but it is interesting to note that Google chose to announce the partnership with the high-end name just days after spending time trying to cast off the label of being expensive. "Glass is only for those privileged enough to afford it" is the myth Google was keen to get rid of. Is entering into a relationship with a company responsible for expensive brands the best way to back this up? Perhaps not. Or maybe it's an indication that there will be various models of Glass available when it gets a full launch -- one for the everyday person, and one for those with slightly deeper pockets.

Image Credit: javi_indy/Shutterstock
Watch HTC's new One unveiling live

Publié: mars 25, 2014, 2:52pm CET par Wayne Williams

HTC is set to show off its new One smartphone at 11 AM ET in NYC today, although thanks to various leaks, we already know a fair bit about it, including that it will have a larger 5-inch display, be powered by a 2.3GHz Snapdragon processor, and sport a brushed stainless finish. The company also accidentally revealed that the smartphone will be available in a Google Play edition.

We’ll obviously post all of the details regarding the new device as soon as it’s officially revealed, but if you want to follow the announcement as it happens, HTC is kindly live streaming the full event.

To follow along, just go to HTC’s live streaming page here. If you arrive too early, you'll be faced with a countdown clock.

The original HTC One launched a year ago, to a decent amount of critical acclaim. Sadly, consumers weren't so impressed, and sales were lackluster, so it will be interesting to see if, or how, HTC can turn things around with this new model.