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BetaNews.Com (8 non lus)

How to get an extra 15 GB of OneDrive storage for free

Publié: septembre 20, 2014, 11:24pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

There is plenty of competition in the cloud storage space, but, unfortunately, for the most part any massive changes are limited to paid plans. They get bigger, they get cheaper, but the free tier, which most users get first, remains largely as limiting as it has always been. Sure, we get a couple of extra gigs for free here and there, but it's all smoke after all, meant to lead us right to the money grabbers. (And who could blame providers for trying to make money?)

Now, Microsoft is doing something rather interesting, as it gives OneDrive users nearly twice as much storage in the free plan, bumping the limit from a so-so 15 GB to a respectable 30 GB. The reason? Well, it's a damn clever one -- the extra freebie is meant to help Apple users who are having trouble with iOS 8 upgrades due to low available storage. Because this is an oft-discussed issue, it is bound to generate some free advertising for Microsoft and OneDrive.

However, Microsoft is not restricting the offer to iOS users, as it is valid for Android, Windows and Windows Phone users too, who can also thank Apple for being cheap (well, you get the gist).

There is a caveat -- Microsoft says that this is a limited time offer, lasting only until the month ends. And all you have to do, to take advantage of it, is enable the auto upload feature in any of the OneDrive apps (for Android, iOS, Windows and Windows Phone; OneDrive for BlackBerry 10 OS was not mentioned). What if the feature is already enabled? Well, then you won't have to do a thing as you are given the extra space automatically.

Look at OneDrive's Storage page and you will see 15 GB listed next to "Camera roll bonus" -- that's how the extra free storage is accounted, and added to your plan. That bonus would normally be much smaller, just 3 GB, after enabling the auto upload feature, bringing the tally to 18 GB (not quite double the free storage for every OneDrive user, as Microsoft claims in the blog post announcing the offer).

Users who were grandfathered into the 25 GB free plan -- back when OneDrive was called SkyDrive -- can also take advantage of this offer. Being one myself, I quickly went to the Storage page to verify this and, indeed, it shows I have 40 GB of free storage in total (excluding the so-called "Enthusiast bonus" and the "Referral bonus").

Photo Credit: Mmaxer/Shutterstock
10 things you should know before buying iPhone 6 or 6 Plus

Publié: septembre 20, 2014, 6:37pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

Launch day is over, and now the weekend warriors descend on Apple and cellular carrier stores looking to buy iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. Expect mayhem everywhere. Not since 2010 has there been such long lines for or insanity about a new "i" device. I expected nutsville, even with preorder option, but nothing like this.

To be honest, the frenzy defies logic and there must be some kind of mob mentality driving it. I am reminded of Windows 95's nearly 20 years ago. Some people will point to past iPhone launches as being as big or bigger. No. iPhone 4 was the last gigantic debut weekend, before Apple started taking preorders, a mechanism that shifted sales away from the big day. iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are much larger when factoring in those 4 million first 24-hour preorders (and others) ahead of September 19 store openings.

If you're prowling about for either of Apple's newest handsets, I present 10 things you should know (in no order of importance):

1. iPhone 6 Plus is even bigger than you think. Unless already using a phablet, you will find the Plus-size device to be just that. It is ginormous. I stood alongside a woman in a Verizon store yesterday as she compared her iPhone 4S to to the 6 Plus and gasped: "It's so big!" Strangely, the store only displayed the larger handset, which was sold out. She almost bought the 5S, until another customer pulled out the 6. "Oh, that's good", she said.

2. Good luck finding iPhone 6 Plus. The thing is sold out pretty much everywhere. I randomly called Apple Stores this morning, and none had the thing. You can wait or go smaller, which is my recommendation for the majority of buyers. By the way, shortages feed the Apple marketing machine -- and I question how often they're deliberate. Short Plus supplies ensure lots of blog posts, news stories, and social shares, which are worth millions in free marketing.

3. It's a design feature, not a flaw. For reasons that make no sense to me, the new iPhones have roundish rather than flat sides. In my handling iPhone 6, it's a slippery sucker as a result. No phone has ever made me worry about drops. I bought my first cell phone in 1997 and have never busted one, but holding Apple's handset makes me as jittery as watching the latest "Paranormal Activity" installment. If you need a case to use a super slim smartphone isn't there something you should question about the design?

4. So, yeah, you really want to slap a case on the back. Apple's cases -- five in leather and six in silicon -- are excellent choices and really are the only ones in stores today. They feel great and provide the grip that should be on the device but isn't. What an upsell gimmick, eh? So add at least $35 to your purchase price.

5. Do spend the extra $99 on AppleCare+. The plan extends the warranty to 2 years and gives you up to two breakage/damage replacements for $79 each. Given that these phones are larger than what existing iPhone users are accustomed to, the slickness of the aluminum back, and questionable roundish sides, drop risk should concern everyone.

6. Try buying at your cellular carrier store first. With past launches, the carriers sold out pretty fast. But in my checks around San Diego yesterday, they generally had iPhone 6 all day with much shorter lines. Outside Apple Store Fashion Valley, hundreds of people waited three hours after opening, while only a half-dozen at the Verizon shop less than a mile away. In the evening, long lines remained at Apple but not at the carrier, which still had 64GB gold and 128GB white iPhone 6 available.

7. If you're creative, you can still buy even if not eligible for upgrade. For example: If you have home phone service with Verizon. The carrier also will sell you the Ellipsis Android tablet for $250, from which line you can buy discounted iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. That will save you about $200 off the full, no-contract price.

8. Don't buy either of the 16GB models. You will regret the decision later on. Spend the extra $100 for 64GB. It's what Apple wants you to do it anyway, otherwise 32GB would be the smallest option (damn, retail tactics). The 16 gigger lets the company keep the $199 entry price but, by comparison, makes the four-times capacity model a better value -- long as you don't mind spending more. To emphasize: You will want the extra storage. Just ask anyone trying to scrape off 6GB of free space on older iPhones to install iOS 8.

9. Expect problems setting up with Apple ID and restoring apps. As I often say, sync is the killer app for the cloud-connected device era. But in observing two different iPhone 6 models, iCloud sync either needs work or labors under the load of way too many people setting up new devices all at once (hopefully the latter scenario). My restore from backup is slow that a day after receiving the phone, it's not done. So I tried manually installing from the App Store Geez. Should Beats or Pages take 12 hours to download? As I write, they're not installed yet.

10. And finally, iPhone 6 is better than you think. The iSheep -- as the Android Army and other fanboys call them -- can only grow in numbers now. Because iPhone 6 is arguably superb (except for the little dropsy thing). The device feels great, looks better than in the photos, and performs outstandingly in all the ways that matter most (my full review will explain why. I strongly recommend the 64GB model for most buyers, many of whom will be Android Army deserters.
Microsoft postpones Xbox One launch in China

Publié: septembre 20, 2014, 6:29pm CEST par Wayne Williams

Microsoft was set to officially start selling its next generation games console in China on September 23, but it appears the tech giant’s plans have gone somewhat awry.

Late on Friday the company issued a statement admitting that the launch was being postponed. "Despite strong and steady progress, we are going to need more a bit more time to deliver the best experiences possible for our fans in China," Microsoft said, somewhat cryptically.

"At Xbox, we pride ourselves on delivering first rate gaming and entertainment experiences and to allow us to deliver on that promise we need to reschedule the launch of Xbox One," Microsoft continued.

Microsoft didn’t give a reason for the delay, but is still pushing ahead with its plans. "Working with our partner, BesTV, we look forward to launching in China by the end of this year".

Microsoft states that customers in China who have pre-ordered the console will be among the first to receive it, and "will also get an added bonus".
Grabilla 1.23 adds scrolling window captures

Publié: septembre 20, 2014, 6:06pm CEST par Mike Williams

All-in-one free screengrab tool Grabilla has been updated to version 1.23 with the ability to capture scrolling windows.

This is ideal if you need to capture a long web page or other document. There’s no need to take and edit multiple grabs, as the program should handle everything for you.

These captures are a little more complex to set up than with some of the competition; you can’t just click on a window and leave Grabilla to scroll this itself.

Here you must draw a freehand rectangle within the window and scroll it manually. Grabilla apparently takes multiple grabs as you scroll and stitches everything together when you stop.

Does it work? We tried this out with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Word 2013 on a Windows 8.1 system and it produced full-length captures with no problem at all.

We had no luck with Adobe Reader, though, a significant issue as we’d expect a lot of users will want to capture scrolling PDFs.

We were also unable to capture scrolling graphics in Paint.NET, or documents where we scrolled horizontally.

Scrolling captures still need some work, then, but if you're mainly interested in grabbing web pages or office documents then the program already works well, and of course it has plenty of other features too: still captures, video screen recording with audio, capture to animated GIFs, image annotations, easy sharing online.

Grabilla 1.23 is available now for Windows XP and later.
Will you be prepared if disaster strikes?

Publié: septembre 20, 2014, 11:04am CEST par Chuck DeLouis
No one ever wants to focus on worst-case scenarios. However, the unfortunate fact of the matter is this: terrible things can happen. Tornados, hurricanes, fires, blizzards, and floods -- they can damage and destroy both personal and intellectual property within seconds. That’s why preparation for the aftermath of such disasters is crucial -- and with September being named National Disaster Preparedness Month, what better time to formulate a plan of attack than now?

According to the National Federation of Independent Business, about 30 percent of small businesses will experience some sort of natural disaster. Even worse than the consequences that often follow in the wake of such catastrophes is the fact that complete restoration of important data, files, and applications is not always guaranteed. All too often, businesses that fail to properly prepare for disaster lose critical information and assets. The end result? A business that is past the point of recovery and instead must rebuilt itself from the ground up.

The National Archives and Records Administration in Washington deduced that roughly 60 percent of companies that lose data would shut down within six months of the disaster. The administration adds that 93 percent of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more filed bankruptcy within one year of the setback. A scarier statistic yet -- research conducted by the Contingency Planning and Strategic Research Corporation shows that about 96 percent of all business workstations are currently not being backed up at all.

So what are you doing to protect your business’ important data from tragedy? Are your professional assets 'insured', so to speak? Having a plan or strategy in place is a necessary first step to facing a crisis head-on. Being prepared to handle the worst before it happens is imperative for a full restoration of your business post-disaster.

Keeping the following things in mind will help to ensure that your business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) plans are properly in place to protect assets as needed:
1. Assess your systems and regulatory requirements. It’s important to know what you’re working with when it comes to BCDR, so take the time to conduct a thorough assessment of your business’ needs, as well as the type of equipment you’re using.
2. Put together a complete BCDR plan, including tech specs and schedules. Having a comprehensive strategy on how to optimally deal with disaster can ensure that important tasks and responsibilities are carried out properly.
3. Determine an RTO (recovery time objective), RPO (recovery point objective) and RGO (recovery granularity objective). Putting goals and expectations in place for before, during and after a disruptive incident can help make the process of data restoration smoother.
4. Run tests and optimize based on results. Make sure that your BCDR plan is always up-to-date with your business, equipment and the goals you have set for recovery after a disaster.
Running a business is complicated enough, without having to worry about the effects of disastrous situations. Do yourself and your business a favor -- formulate a plan before disaster strikes. Find a cloud backup and disaster recovery solution that fits your business, and begin backing up all of your imperative files as soon as possible. After all, it’s a sink or swim world out there, so do what you can now to ensure that your business stays afloat.

Image Credit: Gow27/Shutterstock

As the head of the Product Management team at Intronis, Chuck DeLouis, is responsible for all product decisions including strategy, requirements, and roadmap. He brings with him more than 30 years of software management experience and has a deep technical expertise in databases and data security. More than ten years of that time was spent in PM, driving innovation, disruption, and revenue growth.
Smartphone market share and usage by country

Publié: septembre 20, 2014, 9:30am CEST par Sameer Singh

With the arrival of the iPhone 6 (and 6 Plus), this may be a good time to review smartphone market share and usage share trends around the world. As these data points reflect the tail end of the iPhone's product cycle, we should expect a market share bounce over the coming months. On the other hand, movements in usage share are unlikely to be as sharp.

As always, market share data is sourced from Kantar and usage share data is from Statcounter. My rationale for using these particular metrics was laid out in my last post on the topic:

Because of the regionally fragmented nature of distribution, some view global market share figures with cynicism. My argument was that market share patterns by country could give us a better understanding of these trends. While market share of shipments is certainly a leading indicator for install base (and consequently, usage), it only gives us a part of the story. Contrasting regional market share and usage share (as a proxy for install base) may give us an even better understanding.

Usage share (or browsing share) isn't an ideal proxy for install base as it could be skewed towards higher end devices. However, trends in usage share could give us a fairly good understanding of the underlying install base.

While this is only helpful for countries where both sets of data points are available, there are few major markets that are excluded (India and South-East Asia being notable exceptions). Now, here are the metrics for each country.

The Big Two

US: Android Hits New High Ahead of iPhone 6 Launch

As expected, the iPhone saw a cyclical decline ahead of the iPhone 6 launch. But the chart also shows that the iPhone's market share began declining YoY in late-2013. This suggests that T-Mobile's and AT&T's unsubsidized "value plans" have had some impact. This combination of factors has led to Android hitting an all-time high in both market share and usage share. The iPhone 6 launch will certainly have an immediate effect on this trend. It will be interesting to watch the scale of this impact.

China: Lucrative Market for iPhone, Android Dominates Volumes

In terms of pure volume, the Chinese market has been dominated by Android (or AOSP, as some prefer to call it) for years. Of course, China is the largest smartphone market in the world by such a large margin here that it is lucrative to even be a niche player here. This brings us to the iPhone -- The iPhone has continued to lose market share to Android, mainly because of massive volume growth at lower price points. However, both the iPhone and Android have increased usage share at the expense of legacy platforms like Symbian. The iPhone has seen a notable drop in market share and usage over the past few months, but this came at the end of the iPhone 5S product cycle.

Europe

UK: Android Usage Continues to Climb

Over the last few years, the UK has been one of the most predictable markets in the world in terms of market share. It is one of the iPhone's strongest markets across the globe and is quite cyclical as a result. Usage share, however, is a different story. The iPhone's usage share has remained roughly flat over the past couple of years. Meanwhile, Android has seen its usage share double over the same time frame. I have to wonder if this has been caused by increased uptake of high-end Android devices or an outcome of increasing quality at lower price points. We should be able to figure this out based on the impact of large screened iPhones.

Germany: Business as Usual

The charts paint a pretty clear picture. No explanation necessary. The iPhone 6 launch should tell us if this is purely driven by screen size or if there are other factors at play.

France: iPhone Sees Cyclical Decline, Windows Phone Remains Alive

The iPhone has seen a notable decline in market share over the last few months, owing to the upcoming iPhone 6 launch. Interestingly, Android's usage share overtook the iPhone's in Q1 of this year, after the iPhone 5S launch. Large screened devices typically encourage more browsing, so it will be interesting to watch the impact of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. This has also been one of the few markets where Windows Phone shows up on both the market share and usage share charts. While its market share performance has fluctuated, its usage finally cracked the 5% mark.

Italy: Android Leads, Followed by iPhone and Windows Phone

The iPhone has never been a particularly strong player in Italy, but it is interesting to see the lack of a pre-launch decline. Android has dominated market share for a few years now, but Windows Phone appears to be staying alive at the ~10% range. In August, it even managed to chip into Android's usage share lead, which is no small feat for a third player. That said, both market share and usage share patterns suggest that this may be Windows Phone's ceiling.

Spain: Germany Revisited

Again, these charts tell the story.

Australia & Japan: Cyclicality Rules the Day

Australia

As in the UK, market share patterns in Australia have remained stable for a couple of years now. As with any other iPhone stronghold, market share is incredibly cyclical. Interestingly, the usage share chart couldn't be more different as Android's share has doubled at the expense of the iPhone. This is another market to watch to gauge the impact of large screened iPhones.

Japan

Japan is one of the iPhone's strongest markets. It is also the most cyclical and most predictable market on this list. This isn't very surprising given that carriers dominate distribution and maintain opaque pricing. Consequently, the iPhone's peak market share and usage share have grown with the number of distribution partnerships with carriers.

Latin America: Android Territory

Again, the charts tell the whole story in Latin America. Both market share and usage share patterns are remarkably consistent across countries.

Mexico

Brazil

Argentina

Photo Credit: glossyplastic/Shutterstock

This story was reposted with permission from tech-thoughts.

Sameer Singh is an M&A professional and business strategy consultant focusing on the mobile technology sector. He is founder and editor of tech-thoughts.net.
Microsoft joins 'It's On Us' movement to fight sexual violence and rape with Bing

Publié: septembre 20, 2014, 2:29am CEST par Brian Fagioli

Regardless of sex or gender, all people deserve respect and to be treated with decency. Whether a man sexually assaults a woman or a woman assaults a man, it is not only wrong, but deplorable and disgusting.

Sexual violence and rape is an epidemic, and it is time for the world to take a stand. Sexual assault cannot be tolerated and victims must be empowered to report it and not be ashamed. According to Microsoft, "1 in 5 women and 1 in 16 men are sexually assaulted in college". Today, the company is doing its part to help, by making it easer to get support and report the assault with Bing.

"At the White House earlier today, President Obama urged all Americans to stand up against sexual assault on college and university campuses. Microsoft is pleased to be a partner in the effort of 'It’s On Us', a private-public partnership formed in response to this call to action between the Center for American Progress and a number of companies to help create a culture where sexual violence is unaccepted and survivors are supported", says The Bing Team.

The team further explains, "in support of this movement, we have also worked to make it easier for people to find information about sexual assault prevention and resources when they do those searches on Bing. One of those efforts is to help victims of sexual assault find resources, such as highlighting RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline"

I decided to test this by typing in some search terms, like "Rape" and "Sexual Assault" and sure enough, the National Sexual Assault Hotline phone number was displayed prominently at the top. While you may question how helping to report sexual violence can help stop it, remember, if a rapist is caught and put in jail, the streets become a bit safer. Kudos to Microsoft by helping the movement and hopefully Google will soon follow the lead.

Image Credit: wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock
Pope Francis partners with Google for Scholas education platform

Publié: septembre 20, 2014, 1:45am CEST par Brian Fagioli

Regardless of your opinions on religion or beliefs, you cannot deny that the Pope is a powerful man who can enact change. In other words, even though he is a mortal man like the rest of us, when he speaks, people listen.

Pope Francis has been revered by the world's poor, as he has largely shunned riches, in exchange for a more modest lifestyle. Now, the Pope is working with Google services to communicate with young people and bring them together for educational purposes. You see, Pope Francis is in charge of a new learning platform, called Scholas.

"What if students and teachers from around the world could work on projects together in real-time without ever leaving their classrooms? Pope Francis recently joined students in Australia, Cameron, Israel, Turkey and South Africa for a Hangout on Air to celebrate the launch of Scholas -- a new education initiative sponsored by the Vatican that aims to connect 500,000 schools across the world to enable e-learning and remote teaching using Google tools", says Ego Obi, Global Lead of Access for Education in Emerging Markets, Google.

Obi Further explains, "a social component of the platform uses Google Hangouts to connect students and teachers globally, so if students at a middle school in Ghana want to learn what it’s like to be a student their age in Peru, they can teach each other through an open and collaborative environment. Schools can also post shared projects on the platform, like the '40 Days of Hope' project by Seton Catholic High School, which aims to raise $3,000 to provide parasite medication and feed 40 people for a year in Nicaragua".

Clearly, the work being done by Pope Francis and Google should have a positive global impact. By empowering students to interact and collaborate on subjects regardless of geographic location or financial status, they should benefit mightily. Hopefully this project proves to be a success and schools embrace it.