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BetaNews.Com (6 non lus)

Cable providers should now panic -- cutting the cord is getting easier all the time

Publié: octobre 18, 2014, 1:49pm CEST par Alan Buckingham

Cord cutters are not new, they've been around for years now. Various reasons lead to this decision -- ranging from a simple lack of interest in programming to a desire to get TV shows and movies through other means. Over-the-air (OTA) has always been possible, and some go that route, but a growing number of services have sprung up to fill the gap left behind when cable and satellite service is cancelled.

Netflix, Hulu and Amazon all provided options for movies and TV shows, and now each has spread its wings and moved into the realm of producing original content. That is likely the time when cable providers should have moved into panic mode.

If they didn't, then they weren't paying attention. If that's the case then this past week should have their full attention, because a couple of things happened that may signal their eventual doom.

First, HBO announced that its online service, which currently requires a verification of some sort of subscription to the old time services, will be dropping that little stipulation in 2015. The network that brings us such shows as Game of Thrones will offer a stand-alone product next year.

Second, CBS quickly followed -- in fact it did so the very next day (though it clearly was in the works, so this is coincidence). Its new online service is available right this moment, and it comes at a rather small fee. The network is offering a mix of new and old shows that should keep customers from repeating the old "there's nothing to watch" mantra.

Combine these new offerings -- well, including HBO, which is coming -- with existing ones I've mentioned. Then throw in other, lesser-known options like Crackle. Add in the smattering of folks who simply use things like Popcorn Time and you have a recipe that should scare the pants off of Comcast, Time Warner and their ilk.

Pile on set-top boxes like Roku and Amazon Fire TV and throw in dongles such as Chromecast. All are constantly improving the offerings provided to viewers. Oh, and let's not forget consoles like Xbox One, which is as much entertainment hub as it is gaming platform.

Don't get me wrong -- the providers aren't gone just yet. They still have folks like my parents, who can somehow watch endless hours of The Weather Channel. But the die is cast, the writing for what's coming is on the wall. In the future cable won't mean TV, it will simply mean broadband. It's not the end that any of them wants to face, but it's the reality they will have to look at. Like it or not, their days are are numbered.

Image Credit: Pressmaster / Shutterstock
FlightGear 3.2 enhances graphics, flight dynamics, plane models

Publié: octobre 18, 2014, 10:05am CEST par Mike Williams

The free, open-source flight simulator FlightGear 3.2 has been updated to version 3.2 with a stack of new and enhanced features.

A more realistic JSBSim flight dynamics model now includes support for ground effects, including bumpiness, solid-ground detection and adjusting of friction factors. (The official release notes point out that you can’t ride on water any more, either.)

Orbital rendering has been enhanced with textures from NASA’s Visible Earth project, while smarter rendering brings new forest and agriculture effects, extended cloud layer visibility, cloud shadows on the ground, and sparkle and fog effects on runway lights.

Aircraft improvements include a new model of the P-51D Mustang based on factory blueprints, and significant updates for the Boeing 757-299, Cessna 337G and Mainair Flash 2 Alpha.

A Failure Management Framework simplifies failure simulation, and in the long term should deliver more consistent and realistic failure options. (Bring on the engine fires, we say.)

Usability improvements include an aircraft package manager for downloading new aircraft from within FlightGear, while the Windows build allows using the mouse scroll wheel in list boxes.

There’s also a new console for Nasal (FlightGear’s scripting language), Nasal documentation, a host of improvements to the Canvas rendering system, and a bug fix which should eliminate "large numbers of crashes".

FlightGear 3.2 for Windows and Mac is available now.
Skype 7.0 lets you format your IMs

Publié: octobre 18, 2014, 9:22am CEST par Dilraj Singh

When you say, "lets Skype", you usually want to have a video call. That is what made Skype popular, and where its strength lies. However, lately Microsoft has also been focusing on written conversation, perhaps in reaction to how successful IM apps have been.

Microsoft updated Skype last week to 7.0 on Mac and Windows (beta), and one of the features overlooked in the UI redesign was formatting for instant messaging. You can now bold, italicize, or strike-through your messages.

The commands are very simple, you can bold with *asterisks*, italicize with _underscores_ and strike-through with ~tildes~.

It is usually hard to express your emotions clearly through text, but with animated emoji and now formatting, Skype lends your words more voice than other IM solutions. It will be interesting to watch if Microsoft takes the text formatting further, although that could make chats unnecessarily messy.

There are still problems with the instant messaging experience of Skype. The biggest one is annoying, space-consuming ads on the desktop, especially since (practically) no other messaging app subjects their users to any. The ads don't affect the video messaging experience, but Microsoft will have to fix up some things if it wants to compete with the likes of Facebook messenger, Google Hangouts, or Apple's iMessage.
View, process and sort RAW images with FastRawViewer

Publié: octobre 18, 2014, 3:46am CEST par Mike Williams

It's no secret that working with a camera's RAW images can improve photo quality, as you’re accessing all the information from the original shot.

But as RAW files are also huge, and often slow to render (if your preferred software supports them at all), it's no surprise that most photographers stick to JPEG.

If you've not quite given up on RAW, though, FastRawViewer may be able to help.

The program is a free Windows and OS X tool, based on LibRaw and dcraw, the industry standards for RAW viewing. And so when the developer claims it supports "almost every single existing RAW format", you can be confident that they're right (and it certainly had no problems at all with our Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Panasonic shots).

The core viewer is relatively simple. There's no thumbnail browser, you either open an individual image, or step through the contents of a folder. But as well as the image, it displays the file name, resolution, key EXIF metadata, the actual RAW histogram, and more. And what’s really important is the speed: even the largest of our test photos was rendered in a fraction of a second.

There are tools to highlight under and overexposed areas of the image, and manually correct any issues. Exposure changes can be recorded in XMP files, ready for use by Adobe Bridge/ Camera Raw/ Lightroom.

You also get options to highlight focus peaking (the sharpest areas of an image), check noise levels, adjust white balance, assign an XMP rating or label.

Once you've finished, you can move the picture to defined "accepted" or "rejected" folders, pass it to other programs for further processing, or just click "Next" to check the next image.

FastRawViewer is targeted at the professional user, someone who needs to scan through perhaps hundreds of RAW files and sort out the best shots. And it does that very well.

The program’s rendering speed and wide RAW format support mean it’s useful just as a simple viewer, though, so if you need any help working with RAW photos then we’d give it a try.
Tablets: Quest for the enterprise

Publié: octobre 18, 2014, 2:15am CEST par Sameer Singh

Yesterday, Apple announced a minor refresh to their iPad portfolio, with improvements mostly focused on Touch ID and a thinner footprint. In many ways, this did feel like this was a "placeholder" upgrade. The new iPads would certainly appeal to loyalists, but they don't seem to target the primary reasons behind the recent slowdown.

The slowdown in iPad sales (or high-end tablet sales, in general) was caused by three factors -- 1) Increasing overlap in use cases of large screen smartphones (or phablets) and tablets, 2) Inability to move downmarket, despite lower iPad Mini prices, because of competitive reasons highlighted in the chart above, and 3) Limited upmarket mobility because of a lack of developer focus around productivity.

With the release of the iPhone 6 Plus, the first factor really plays into Apple's hands. If you have to cannibalize your own products, doing it with a higher margin product is the most painless way to go. The second factor is a market reality and there is little Apple or any other company can do about it. This leaves an upmarket move as the last remaining option to boost tablet sales. While Apple's IBM deal could help here, that is only a small part of the solution.

In the enterprise, tablet use is still restricted to highly specialized use cases -- executives use them to take down notes, check email, etc. and sales staff in the field use them on the go. The primary issue is that developer innovation focused on tablet productivity has been minimal so far. Developers are partially to blame here because smartphones seemed like the more lucrative market. But OEMs and platform owners have to share some of the blame as well.

Of all the tablets and platforms released so far, only the Surface Pro seemed to target productivity. Unfortunately, Microsoft made major sacrifices in ease of use and pricing to get there. Combined with their ecosystem handicap, this created a compromised tablet and PC experience. On the other hand, Google seems to have taken a step in the right direction with the Nexus 9's keyboard cover. While the Nexus 9 is unlikely to see meaningful sales, it could have a very "Nexus 7-like" impact. So far, tablets with keyboard attachments have remained a novelty. But if more OEMs go that route, it may finally pique developer interest in taking advantage of these accessories. In much the same way, I think Apple needs an iPad Pro to get developers to take an interest in productivity. In my opinion, this may be the only way to meaningfully increase tablet penetration in the enterprise.

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.
Kazam's Tornado 348 is the world's thinnest smartphone

Publié: octobre 18, 2014, 12:52am CEST par Barclay Ballard

British phone manufacturer Kazam is launching its new flagship Android 4.4 KitKat smartphone, which will also become the world's thinnest handset.

At just 5.15mm thin, the Kazam Tornado 348 technically already holds the title, but will have to wait to receive the Guinness World Record, currently held by the Gionee Elife S5.5.

Despite only being founded last year, Kazam has already assembled an impressive, if small, selection of affordable Android and Windows Phone-based handsets. The Tornado largely follows in the footsteps of the firm's other devices, such as the Trooper X4.5, but does up the ante when it comes to design features.

Aside from its slender frame, the Tornado boasts an aluminum covering around the side of the phone, while the front and back are coated in Gorilla Glass. The handset also features a 4.8-inch HD display along with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera and an 8-megapixel one on the back.

The phone's internal specs are also pretty impressive, with a 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek processor delivering 1GB of RAM, accompanied by 32GB of storage and a 2050mAh battery.

Kazam is also providing a deal to entice clumsier smartphone users to purchase the flagship device. The company is offering a two-year warranty on the phone and if users break the glass on the front or back of the handset in the first year of ownership, it'll be repaired free-of-charge.

Consumers looking for an alternative to the latest Samsung or Apple release may want to check out the Kazam Tornado 348 when it receives its European launch sometime around mid-November, for an estimated £249.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.