If you're still hanging onto Google Reader, it's time to let it go. After
Monday, Google Reader will no longer be available. People with only a few
subscriptions will be able to migrate to another service without much hassle,
but users with more than just a few will want the option to bulk import the
subscription data. Even if you don't import the data to a new service right
away, it'll be nice to have for future reference.
To export your Google Reader data, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Go to Reader settings, then click on the Import/Export tab.
Step 2: Under "Export your information," click on the "Download your data
through Takeout" link. You can also go to
https://www.google.com/takeout/#custom:reader directly.
Step 3: Once Takeout shows 100 percent and provides an estimate on the
number of files and size, click on the "Create Archive" button.
Step 4: At the next screen, click on the Download button to download your
Google Reader archive as a ZIP file.When you open the archive, you'll see
several JavaScript files (JSON) and a "subscriptions.xml" file. The XML file is
what contains your list of subscriptions and is what you'll import to your new
news reader.Keep in mind that some Google Reader alternatives, like Feedly and
Digg Reader, don't support importing subscriptions -- at least not yet. If you
think you'll want to try either of those services, you might want to use their
Google Reader import options while you still can.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
The incident lasted about a 50 % hour he mentioned
Faculty leaders say about $2,five hundred in destruction was finished to
the Godfrey-Lee university district athletic complex early Sunday early morning
by mysterious vandals.
“We’ve had some broken home windows down there in advance of, but practically nothing to this extent,” said Godfrey-Lee Superintendent David Britten.
Police are investigating the early morning vandalism at Lee Area, which transpired among about 5 and 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, June thirty.
Britten mentioned security cameras confirmed a pickup truck travel in to the unlocked industry, which happens to be found off Godfrey Avenue SW at Lee Street in Wyoming, close to the district’s Early Childhood Training Center as well as East Lee Campus alternative significant faculty.
After busting a few car parking zone lights to darken the realm, Britten mentioned the vandals broke in the football field’s push box, detrimental the general public announcement procedure.
The vandals broke an grownup education moveable classroom window on the complicated and ruined a college car. They also broke as a result of a garage doorway into your baseball subject push box and stole a flat display Tv, Britten explained.
Police had been alerted to your vandalism by the college alarm method, which Britten thinks the vandals brought on by attempting to enter the elaborate fieldhouse.
The incident lasted about a 50 % hour, he mentioned. The first problems estimate is about $2,500 though the district remains compiling a damage inventory.
Such disrespect revealed to a community resource is disappointing, explained Britten.
“Schools are battling as it is,” he mentioned. “To think that any individual has that little respect that they would steal from their particular neighborhood is upsetting.”
While standard lessons are out for summertime, the athletic complicated is made use of for Small League baseball plus some sporting camp events, he claimed, likewise as some summertime school systems.
The advanced is hit by vandals before, but to some lesser diploma. Britten recalled an incident where anyone formerly broke into the complicated concession region kicked out some windows.
The fairly isolated community intricate was not gated “because we used to roll it shut and it didn’t make any distinction,” he reported. “There’s lots of unobserved approaches to climb a fence and obtain in there.”
Britten mentioned the district may perhaps contemplate including some more lighting for a safety measure when bond-funded track and field enhancements start this summertime.
“We’ve had some broken home windows down there in advance of, but practically nothing to this extent,” said Godfrey-Lee Superintendent David Britten.
Police are investigating the early morning vandalism at Lee Area, which transpired among about 5 and 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, June thirty.
Britten mentioned security cameras confirmed a pickup truck travel in to the unlocked industry, which happens to be found off Godfrey Avenue SW at Lee Street in Wyoming, close to the district’s Early Childhood Training Center as well as East Lee Campus alternative significant faculty.
After busting a few car parking zone lights to darken the realm, Britten mentioned the vandals broke in the football field’s push box, detrimental the general public announcement procedure.
The vandals broke an grownup education moveable classroom window on the complicated and ruined a college car. They also broke as a result of a garage doorway into your baseball subject push box and stole a flat display Tv, Britten explained.
Police had been alerted to your vandalism by the college alarm method, which Britten thinks the vandals brought on by attempting to enter the elaborate fieldhouse.
The incident lasted about a 50 % hour, he mentioned. The first problems estimate is about $2,500 though the district remains compiling a damage inventory.
Such disrespect revealed to a community resource is disappointing, explained Britten.
“Schools are battling as it is,” he mentioned. “To think that any individual has that little respect that they would steal from their particular neighborhood is upsetting.”
While standard lessons are out for summertime, the athletic complicated is made use of for Small League baseball plus some sporting camp events, he claimed, likewise as some summertime school systems.
The advanced is hit by vandals before, but to some lesser diploma. Britten recalled an incident where anyone formerly broke into the complicated concession region kicked out some windows.
The fairly isolated community intricate was not gated “because we used to roll it shut and it didn’t make any distinction,” he reported. “There’s lots of unobserved approaches to climb a fence and obtain in there.”
Britten mentioned the district may perhaps contemplate including some more lighting for a safety measure when bond-funded track and field enhancements start this summertime.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Students embrace Instragram video, but still want Vine
One meeting in Menlo Park, Calif., has changed the way people see posts on
Instagram.
No longer will users see only filtered photos of sunsets, animals and flowers. Company co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom announced Thursday that a video feature has been added to the photo-sharing app.
"It's everything we know and love about Instagram, but it moves," Systrom said in the announcement
The Facebook-owned company is in direct competition with the Twitter-owned Vine, which allows its 13 million users to share six-second video clips.
Both functions allow the user to press and hold a button to film; however, video on Instagram comes with many features Vine doesn't have.
On Instagram, clips can be focused, edited and deleted, and a cover frame can be selected. A feature Instagram calls Cinema, a stabilization technology, will enhance the video and make sure it is not shaky.
"(Those features are) going to hurt Vine a lot," said Melanie Loff-Bird, a junior studying graphic design at American University. "Having the ability to delete the last segment (of the video) is really useful. If you start a Vine and mess up, then you have to start completely over, and sometimes you can't do that."
Another key difference between the two: clip length. Similar to its parent company, Vine specializes in brevity: six seconds. Instagram allows for up to 15 seconds of video to be recorded.
Nicole Marrow, a junior studying decision science at Carnegie Mellon University, said the time difference is not that significant, saying extra time may be less appealing because of people's short attention spans.
"You have more room to make things happen, but it's fun to see how creative people are to fit things into six seconds," she said. "It forces you to put in the best six seconds as opposed to filler time. … You're going to feel obligated to fill up those 15 seconds when six seconds is all you may have needed."
Instagram, which has 130 million users, has added its trademark filters to the video menu, rolling out 13 new choices.
Marrow, 20, said these filters are pointless and too similar, but she still felt compelled to use them.
"Without the filters, it's just a longer Vine," she said. "(The video filters) all look brownish. I like the photo filters much better than the video ones."
Loff-Bird said having one app to take pictures and video might work toward Instagram's advantage because of society's lazy nature.
"Even though Vine is very easy to use, many people are familiar with the interface of Instagram," the 20-year-old said. "They're consolidating their apps. … Its convenience will prevent failure."
Trista Thurston, a sophomore studying journalism at Ohio University, agreed but said she doesn't think the new feature will bring in a flood of Instagram users.
"Those who are on Instagram are going to check (making videos) out," she said. "I don't think anyone is going to make an Instagram in order to make a video."
Thurston, 18, said there will still be different audiences for each video clip platform:, Vine being more relaxed and Instagram more artistically focused.
"No one wants to see six seconds of someone's lunch," she said. "Vine is for something that is actually entertaining. Instagram is more serious and artsy. … I can see (Instagram videos) becoming like miniature indie films."
Michael Noble Jr., 19, a sophomore studying photojournalism at Western Kentucky University, said he thought Vine "was the Instagram for video" and suggested Vine should come out with something that sets it apart from Instagram.
Those features may be on their way already.
Vine creators Dom Hofmann and Rus Yusupov posted Vines on Wednesday teasing new features, such as saving drafts and splicing Vines together, as well as an updated display.
Skeptical at first, Marrow said she gets the benefits of video on Instagram but knows it will simply push Vine to make improvements. She even has an idea of her own that could give the company its competitive edge.
"I think a lot of people want to take previously filmed videos and turn them into Vines," she said. "If you're at a concert, you don't want to just film six seconds of it. This way, you could just import six seconds of the video."
Marrow said her skepticism about Instagram video may subside -- as it once did with Twitter.
"At first glance, Twitter was like this," she said. "It was like 'Why would you have a bunch of statuses in a row when you can post more on Facebook?' But it evolved, and people came around."
No longer will users see only filtered photos of sunsets, animals and flowers. Company co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom announced Thursday that a video feature has been added to the photo-sharing app.
"It's everything we know and love about Instagram, but it moves," Systrom said in the announcement
The Facebook-owned company is in direct competition with the Twitter-owned Vine, which allows its 13 million users to share six-second video clips.
Both functions allow the user to press and hold a button to film; however, video on Instagram comes with many features Vine doesn't have.
On Instagram, clips can be focused, edited and deleted, and a cover frame can be selected. A feature Instagram calls Cinema, a stabilization technology, will enhance the video and make sure it is not shaky.
"(Those features are) going to hurt Vine a lot," said Melanie Loff-Bird, a junior studying graphic design at American University. "Having the ability to delete the last segment (of the video) is really useful. If you start a Vine and mess up, then you have to start completely over, and sometimes you can't do that."
Another key difference between the two: clip length. Similar to its parent company, Vine specializes in brevity: six seconds. Instagram allows for up to 15 seconds of video to be recorded.
Nicole Marrow, a junior studying decision science at Carnegie Mellon University, said the time difference is not that significant, saying extra time may be less appealing because of people's short attention spans.
"You have more room to make things happen, but it's fun to see how creative people are to fit things into six seconds," she said. "It forces you to put in the best six seconds as opposed to filler time. … You're going to feel obligated to fill up those 15 seconds when six seconds is all you may have needed."
Instagram, which has 130 million users, has added its trademark filters to the video menu, rolling out 13 new choices.
Marrow, 20, said these filters are pointless and too similar, but she still felt compelled to use them.
"Without the filters, it's just a longer Vine," she said. "(The video filters) all look brownish. I like the photo filters much better than the video ones."
Loff-Bird said having one app to take pictures and video might work toward Instagram's advantage because of society's lazy nature.
"Even though Vine is very easy to use, many people are familiar with the interface of Instagram," the 20-year-old said. "They're consolidating their apps. … Its convenience will prevent failure."
Trista Thurston, a sophomore studying journalism at Ohio University, agreed but said she doesn't think the new feature will bring in a flood of Instagram users.
"Those who are on Instagram are going to check (making videos) out," she said. "I don't think anyone is going to make an Instagram in order to make a video."
Thurston, 18, said there will still be different audiences for each video clip platform:, Vine being more relaxed and Instagram more artistically focused.
"No one wants to see six seconds of someone's lunch," she said. "Vine is for something that is actually entertaining. Instagram is more serious and artsy. … I can see (Instagram videos) becoming like miniature indie films."
Michael Noble Jr., 19, a sophomore studying photojournalism at Western Kentucky University, said he thought Vine "was the Instagram for video" and suggested Vine should come out with something that sets it apart from Instagram.
Those features may be on their way already.
Vine creators Dom Hofmann and Rus Yusupov posted Vines on Wednesday teasing new features, such as saving drafts and splicing Vines together, as well as an updated display.
Skeptical at first, Marrow said she gets the benefits of video on Instagram but knows it will simply push Vine to make improvements. She even has an idea of her own that could give the company its competitive edge.
"I think a lot of people want to take previously filmed videos and turn them into Vines," she said. "If you're at a concert, you don't want to just film six seconds of it. This way, you could just import six seconds of the video."
Marrow said her skepticism about Instagram video may subside -- as it once did with Twitter.
"At first glance, Twitter was like this," she said. "It was like 'Why would you have a bunch of statuses in a row when you can post more on Facebook?' But it evolved, and people came around."
The NSA performs a prominent function in deliberations
The National Safety Company has backdoor use of all Home windows program
for the reason that launch of Home windows ninety five, according to educated
sources, a advancement which follows the insistence from the company and federal
regulation enforcement for backdoor “keys” to any encryption, in accordance to a
report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Getting these “keys” is important for the export of any encryption allowed
beneath U.S. export management legal guidelines to foreign people.
The NSA performs a prominent function in deliberations more than whether or not these types of merchandise might be exported, and routinely turns down any requests earlier mentioned a particular megabyte level that exceeds NSA’s specialized capability to decrypt it. Which is been the standard for years for NSA, in addition to the departments of Defense, Commerce and Condition.
Computer system security experts state that the Home windows software driver useful for stability and encryption capabilities consists of abnormal features which give NSA that backdoor obtain.
These stability specialists have recognized the driver as ADVAPI.DLL. It enables and controls a range of protection capabilities. These specialists declare that on Home windows, it's found at C:\\Windows\system listing of anyone’s laptop that makes use of Home windows computer software.
Nicko van Someren states the driving force includes two distinctive keys. One was employed by Microsoft to control cryptographic features in Home windows when another in the beginning remained a mystery.
Then, two months ago, a U.S. safety business concluded the second key belonged to NSA. Examination from the driver uncovered that just one was labeled Important although the other was labeled NSAKEY, in accordance to sources. The NSA essential evidently were crafted in to the program by Microsoft, which Microsoft sources never deny.
This has allowed restricted entry to Microsoft’s source code application that enables for these types of programming.
Use of Windows resource code is supposed to be highly compartmentalized, actually earning this kind of steps much easier due to the fact a lot of the individuals working to the software would not see the accessibility.
These types of entry to the encryption procedure of Windows can let NSA to compromise a person’s total functioning technique. The NSA keys are said being contained within all variations of Home windows from Home windows 95 OSR2 onwards.
Possessing this sort of the trick important within your Home windows operating program tends to make it “tremendously easier to the NSA to load unauthorized safety companies on all copies of Microsoft Windows, and once these security providers are loaded, they are able to efficiently compromise your full working program,” according to Andrew Fernandez, main scientist with Cryptonym Company of North Carolina.
Be in contact using the most vital breaking information tales about vital developments round the globe with Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the quality, on the web intelligence information resource edited and released because of the founding father of WND.
http://www.windows7retailbox.com/microsoft-windows-7-home-premium-upgrade-family-pack-3user-p-3613.html
The NSA performs a prominent function in deliberations more than whether or not these types of merchandise might be exported, and routinely turns down any requests earlier mentioned a particular megabyte level that exceeds NSA’s specialized capability to decrypt it. Which is been the standard for years for NSA, in addition to the departments of Defense, Commerce and Condition.
Computer system security experts state that the Home windows software driver useful for stability and encryption capabilities consists of abnormal features which give NSA that backdoor obtain.
These stability specialists have recognized the driver as ADVAPI.DLL. It enables and controls a range of protection capabilities. These specialists declare that on Home windows, it's found at C:\\Windows\system listing of anyone’s laptop that makes use of Home windows computer software.
Nicko van Someren states the driving force includes two distinctive keys. One was employed by Microsoft to control cryptographic features in Home windows when another in the beginning remained a mystery.
Then, two months ago, a U.S. safety business concluded the second key belonged to NSA. Examination from the driver uncovered that just one was labeled Important although the other was labeled NSAKEY, in accordance to sources. The NSA essential evidently were crafted in to the program by Microsoft, which Microsoft sources never deny.
This has allowed restricted entry to Microsoft’s source code application that enables for these types of programming.
Use of Windows resource code is supposed to be highly compartmentalized, actually earning this kind of steps much easier due to the fact a lot of the individuals working to the software would not see the accessibility.
These types of entry to the encryption procedure of Windows can let NSA to compromise a person’s total functioning technique. The NSA keys are said being contained within all variations of Home windows from Home windows 95 OSR2 onwards.
Possessing this sort of the trick important within your Home windows operating program tends to make it “tremendously easier to the NSA to load unauthorized safety companies on all copies of Microsoft Windows, and once these security providers are loaded, they are able to efficiently compromise your full working program,” according to Andrew Fernandez, main scientist with Cryptonym Company of North Carolina.
Be in contact using the most vital breaking information tales about vital developments round the globe with Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the quality, on the web intelligence information resource edited and released because of the founding father of WND.
http://www.windows7retailbox.com/microsoft-windows-7-home-premium-upgrade-family-pack-3user-p-3613.html
Monday, June 17, 2013
Apple's WWDC-Kickoff Video: Lame Poem or Convincing Argument?
Apple opened its WWDC keynote with a two-minute animation addressing its
slim phone portfolio. Did you buy in, or roll your eyes?
It's been said that Apple would introduce two new iPhones this year, a high-end model and a less-expensive version for emerging markets, and it's been said that Apple would introduce them earlier than usual, to avoid giving Samsung another long summer during which to sell millions of flagship Galaxy S smartphones, unchallenged by a new iPhone.
Samsung has been outselling Apple, and in April Apple posted its first profit dip in a decade. Apple, it's been said, plans to better compete against Samsung with an Apple-style (which is to say, subtler) version of Samsung's more-is-more strategy.
But by the end of the two-hour keynote opening Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), it seemed pretty clear that no one was getting a new high-end iPhone before the fall. And if a prepaid version of the iPhone is in the works, nor would it be seeing the light of summer.
Indeed, before anyone set a foot on the stage, Apple neatly addressed all the above.
It started the show with a two-minute video—a stylized poem of sorts, in which it told the capacity audience at San Francisco's Moscone West convention center, and the countless others watching from its live-streaming feed, where it stands on design, timetables and the growth of its portfolio.
Joining a light piano piece and a black-and-white animation, these words came on the screen:
if everyone
is busy making everything
how can anyone perfect anything?
we start to confuse convenience
with joy
abundance with choice
designing something requires
focus
the first thing we ask is
what do we want people to feel?
delight
surprise
love
connection
then we begin to craft around our intention
it takes time...
there are a thousand no's
for every yes
we simplify
we perfect
we start over
until everything we touch
enhances each life
it touches
only then
do we sign our work.
Designed by Apple in California
"I'm really glad you like that," Apple CEO Tim Cook said as the lights went up, to great applause. "Those words mean a great deal to us."
But not everyone was sold.
"The poem embodies Apple's design principles and not-so-subtly begs for time to complete the tasks they've set for themselves. There has been an unusually long dry spell for Apple products, and the company has long since been outrun by the impossible expectations placed upon it," Roger Kay, principal analyst with Endpoint Technologies.
It's been said that Apple would introduce two new iPhones this year, a high-end model and a less-expensive version for emerging markets, and it's been said that Apple would introduce them earlier than usual, to avoid giving Samsung another long summer during which to sell millions of flagship Galaxy S smartphones, unchallenged by a new iPhone.
Samsung has been outselling Apple, and in April Apple posted its first profit dip in a decade. Apple, it's been said, plans to better compete against Samsung with an Apple-style (which is to say, subtler) version of Samsung's more-is-more strategy.
But by the end of the two-hour keynote opening Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), it seemed pretty clear that no one was getting a new high-end iPhone before the fall. And if a prepaid version of the iPhone is in the works, nor would it be seeing the light of summer.
Indeed, before anyone set a foot on the stage, Apple neatly addressed all the above.
It started the show with a two-minute video—a stylized poem of sorts, in which it told the capacity audience at San Francisco's Moscone West convention center, and the countless others watching from its live-streaming feed, where it stands on design, timetables and the growth of its portfolio.
Joining a light piano piece and a black-and-white animation, these words came on the screen:
if everyone
is busy making everything
how can anyone perfect anything?
we start to confuse convenience
with joy
abundance with choice
designing something requires
focus
the first thing we ask is
what do we want people to feel?
delight
surprise
love
connection
then we begin to craft around our intention
it takes time...
there are a thousand no's
for every yes
we simplify
we perfect
we start over
until everything we touch
enhances each life
it touches
only then
do we sign our work.
Designed by Apple in California
"I'm really glad you like that," Apple CEO Tim Cook said as the lights went up, to great applause. "Those words mean a great deal to us."
But not everyone was sold.
"The poem embodies Apple's design principles and not-so-subtly begs for time to complete the tasks they've set for themselves. There has been an unusually long dry spell for Apple products, and the company has long since been outrun by the impossible expectations placed upon it," Roger Kay, principal analyst with Endpoint Technologies.
The personalized APIs may be written in server-side JavaScript
Microsoft has produced several updates to Home windows Azure to make it
less difficult for developers to build back finishes to cell consumer apps.
The new capabilities include mobile solutions such as personalized API guidance, Git resource management assist, Node.js Node Packaged Modules (NPM) aid and a new .Net API via NuGet. Also, Microsoft is offering a no cost 20MB SQL database option for cellular companies and Websites, likewise as Android press notification support.
"Windows Azure Cellular Providers provides the ability to quickly get up a cell backend which will be utilized to support your Home windows eight, Windows Phone, iOS, Android and HTML5 shopper programs," reported Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the server and equipment business at Microsoft, in the June fourteen blog publish.
Starting off with all the initially preview, according to Guthrie, Microsoft supported the power for developers to easily lengthen their information back-end logic with server-side scripting that executes as element of client-side CRUD operations from their cloud again facts tables. Even so, together with the new updates, Microsoft is extending this aid even further more and introducing the power for builders to also create and expose tailor made APIs from their Cellular Services back finish and simply publish them for their cell consumers without needing to affiliate them that has a info table.
"This ability allows an entire set of new scenarios?aincluding a chance to work with details resources in addition to SQL Databases (one example is: Desk Expert services or MongoDB), broker phone calls to 3rd occasion APIs, integrate with Windows Azure Queues or Support Bus, operate with tailor made non-JSON payloads (e.g. Windows Periodic Notifications), route client requests to expert services again on-premises (e.g. while using the new Home windows Azure BizTalk Expert services), or simply put into action performance that doesn't correspond to some database operation," Guthrie reported inside the write-up. "The custom APIs is often prepared in server-side JavaScript (making use of Node.js) and can use Node's NPM packages. We'll also be incorporating help for customized APIs created utilizing .Web sooner or later too."
"This capability permits a complete set of new scenarios?aincluding the chance to function with facts sources aside from SQL Databases (as an example: Desk Companies or MongoDB), broker calls to 3rd celebration APIs, combine with Windows Azure Queues or Provider Bus, operate with custom non-JSON payloads (e.g. Windows Periodic Notifications), route shopper requests to providers back on-premises (e.g. with all the new Home windows Azure BizTalk Products and services), or simply implement functionality that does not correspond to a database operation," Guthrie mentioned inside the write-up. "The personalized APIs may be written in server-side JavaScript (utilizing Node.js) and will use Node's NPM deals. We are going to even be introducing support for customized APIs created applying .Web sooner or later too."
The brand new launch allows custom made APIs to generally be prepared working with Node.js, along with the customized API programming design follows the Node.js conference for modules, which is to export functions to take care of HTTP requests.
"Integrating authentication and authorization with Customized APIs is de facto quick with Mobile Services," Guthrie wrote. "Just like with information requests, customized API requests take pleasure in the identical built-in authentication and authorization assist of Cell Services (which include integration with Microsoft ID, Google, Fb and Twitter authentication providers), and it also enables you to effortlessly integrate your Personalized API code with other Cellular Provider abilities like push notifications, logging, SQL, etc."
The new capabilities include mobile solutions such as personalized API guidance, Git resource management assist, Node.js Node Packaged Modules (NPM) aid and a new .Net API via NuGet. Also, Microsoft is offering a no cost 20MB SQL database option for cellular companies and Websites, likewise as Android press notification support.
"Windows Azure Cellular Providers provides the ability to quickly get up a cell backend which will be utilized to support your Home windows eight, Windows Phone, iOS, Android and HTML5 shopper programs," reported Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the server and equipment business at Microsoft, in the June fourteen blog publish.
Starting off with all the initially preview, according to Guthrie, Microsoft supported the power for developers to easily lengthen their information back-end logic with server-side scripting that executes as element of client-side CRUD operations from their cloud again facts tables. Even so, together with the new updates, Microsoft is extending this aid even further more and introducing the power for builders to also create and expose tailor made APIs from their Cellular Services back finish and simply publish them for their cell consumers without needing to affiliate them that has a info table.
"This ability allows an entire set of new scenarios?aincluding a chance to work with details resources in addition to SQL Databases (one example is: Desk Expert services or MongoDB), broker phone calls to 3rd occasion APIs, integrate with Windows Azure Queues or Support Bus, operate with tailor made non-JSON payloads (e.g. Windows Periodic Notifications), route client requests to expert services again on-premises (e.g. while using the new Home windows Azure BizTalk Expert services), or simply put into action performance that doesn't correspond to some database operation," Guthrie reported inside the write-up. "The custom APIs is often prepared in server-side JavaScript (making use of Node.js) and can use Node's NPM packages. We'll also be incorporating help for customized APIs created utilizing .Web sooner or later too."
"This capability permits a complete set of new scenarios?aincluding the chance to function with facts sources aside from SQL Databases (as an example: Desk Companies or MongoDB), broker calls to 3rd celebration APIs, combine with Windows Azure Queues or Provider Bus, operate with custom non-JSON payloads (e.g. Windows Periodic Notifications), route shopper requests to providers back on-premises (e.g. with all the new Home windows Azure BizTalk Products and services), or simply implement functionality that does not correspond to a database operation," Guthrie mentioned inside the write-up. "The personalized APIs may be written in server-side JavaScript (utilizing Node.js) and will use Node's NPM deals. We are going to even be introducing support for customized APIs created applying .Web sooner or later too."
The brand new launch allows custom made APIs to generally be prepared working with Node.js, along with the customized API programming design follows the Node.js conference for modules, which is to export functions to take care of HTTP requests.
"Integrating authentication and authorization with Customized APIs is de facto quick with Mobile Services," Guthrie wrote. "Just like with information requests, customized API requests take pleasure in the identical built-in authentication and authorization assist of Cell Services (which include integration with Microsoft ID, Google, Fb and Twitter authentication providers), and it also enables you to effortlessly integrate your Personalized API code with other Cellular Provider abilities like push notifications, logging, SQL, etc."
Friday, June 14, 2013
How Google Will Use High-Flying Balloons to Deliver Internet to the Hinterlands
Not much happens in Geraldine, a small farming community in the interior of
the South Island of New Zealand, about 85 miles from Christchurch. So when
Hayden MacKenzie, a fourth-generation farmer there, picked up the phone last
Tuesday and got a request to participate in a secret project—one that he
wouldn’t even learn about until he signed a vow of silence—he and his wife Anna
figured that they’d take a shot. That evening, two men showed up at his cozy
farmhouse. They bore a peculiar red device, a sphere slightly bigger than a
volleyball perched on a short collar, and attached it to his roof. Then they
left.
Only when the men returned the next day did they reveal what they were up to. Inside the red ball was an antenna that would give the MacKenzies Internet access. It was custom-designed to communicate with a similar antenna that would be floating by in the stratosphere, over 60,000 feet above sea level. On a solar-powered balloon.
Oh, and the men work for Google.
“It sounded crazy,” says MacKenzie, who bears a slight resemblance to the actor Colm Meaney. “But at the end of the day, you hope things will work out.”
The idea does sound crazy, even for Google—so much so that the company has dubbed it Project Loon. But if all works according to the company’s grand vision, hundreds, even thousands, of high-pressure balloons circling the earth could provide Internet to a significant chunk of the world’s 5 billion unconnected souls, enriching their lives with vital news, precious educational materials, lifesaving health information, and images of grumpy cats.
It is an audacious proposal, and today in Christchurch, Google is holding a press conference with New Zealand’s prime minister to formally unveil it. Google will also stage Project Loon’s biggest trial yet: 50 testers in Christchurch within the 12-mile range of the balloons will see if they can get connected from the sky.
But on the morning of June 13, 2013, the MacKenzies were waiting to be among the first to sample it.
Project Loon began a little under two years ago, incubating in Google’s high-risk research arm, Google X. Rich DeVaul, an expert in wearable technology (his MIT dissertation was on “Memory Glasses”), had recently arrived from a secretive post at Apple to become a “rapid evaluator.” His job assignment was to consider crazy ideas that just might work, and find reasons why they definitely would not work. “Our goal at Google X is to kill a project as fast as we can,” says Astro Teller, who runs the lab with Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
At first, providing reliable Internet access using balloons seemed a natural candidate for a quick rejection. There were a number of obvious problems, many of them involving the limits of ballooning, a centuries-old craft that still retained deep mysteries. No one had managed to maintain control and power for the long-duration flights that Google would need.
DeVaul, though, had an idea for “variable buoyancy”—steering the balloons by tweaking altitude to find wind currents whooshing in the right direction. Google, which is pretty good at computation, could use the voluminous government data available to accurately simulate wind currents in the stratosphere. After weeks of spreadsheeting, unsuccessfully trying to find a flaw in the scheme, DeVaul felt confident enough to pitch the project.
“My colleagues had to believe I wasn’t completely on crack, which took a little bit of convincing,” he says.
In August 2011, DeVaul began a series of trial runs in California’s Central Valley. He and some colleagues would launch a hand-made balloon with a Linux computer and some antennas on board, then hop into his Subaru Forester. They’d race on rural roads to capture the signal before the rig went down—or floated towards distant points east. Most flights were failures of some sort. None of the balloon terminations, however, gave DeVaul a reason to kill the project, no matter how hard he tried. “It was really impressive how long he carried that goal of killing the idea,” says Astro Teller.
Only when the men returned the next day did they reveal what they were up to. Inside the red ball was an antenna that would give the MacKenzies Internet access. It was custom-designed to communicate with a similar antenna that would be floating by in the stratosphere, over 60,000 feet above sea level. On a solar-powered balloon.
Oh, and the men work for Google.
“It sounded crazy,” says MacKenzie, who bears a slight resemblance to the actor Colm Meaney. “But at the end of the day, you hope things will work out.”
The idea does sound crazy, even for Google—so much so that the company has dubbed it Project Loon. But if all works according to the company’s grand vision, hundreds, even thousands, of high-pressure balloons circling the earth could provide Internet to a significant chunk of the world’s 5 billion unconnected souls, enriching their lives with vital news, precious educational materials, lifesaving health information, and images of grumpy cats.
It is an audacious proposal, and today in Christchurch, Google is holding a press conference with New Zealand’s prime minister to formally unveil it. Google will also stage Project Loon’s biggest trial yet: 50 testers in Christchurch within the 12-mile range of the balloons will see if they can get connected from the sky.
But on the morning of June 13, 2013, the MacKenzies were waiting to be among the first to sample it.
Project Loon began a little under two years ago, incubating in Google’s high-risk research arm, Google X. Rich DeVaul, an expert in wearable technology (his MIT dissertation was on “Memory Glasses”), had recently arrived from a secretive post at Apple to become a “rapid evaluator.” His job assignment was to consider crazy ideas that just might work, and find reasons why they definitely would not work. “Our goal at Google X is to kill a project as fast as we can,” says Astro Teller, who runs the lab with Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
At first, providing reliable Internet access using balloons seemed a natural candidate for a quick rejection. There were a number of obvious problems, many of them involving the limits of ballooning, a centuries-old craft that still retained deep mysteries. No one had managed to maintain control and power for the long-duration flights that Google would need.
DeVaul, though, had an idea for “variable buoyancy”—steering the balloons by tweaking altitude to find wind currents whooshing in the right direction. Google, which is pretty good at computation, could use the voluminous government data available to accurately simulate wind currents in the stratosphere. After weeks of spreadsheeting, unsuccessfully trying to find a flaw in the scheme, DeVaul felt confident enough to pitch the project.
“My colleagues had to believe I wasn’t completely on crack, which took a little bit of convincing,” he says.
In August 2011, DeVaul began a series of trial runs in California’s Central Valley. He and some colleagues would launch a hand-made balloon with a Linux computer and some antennas on board, then hop into his Subaru Forester. They’d race on rural roads to capture the signal before the rig went down—or floated towards distant points east. Most flights were failures of some sort. None of the balloon terminations, however, gave DeVaul a reason to kill the project, no matter how hard he tried. “It was really impressive how long he carried that goal of killing the idea,” says Astro Teller.
Google Inc's Android program.plan
Microsoft Corp reported it could open five hundred specific shops within
current Greatest Invest in Co Inc merchants in the America promoting exclusively
Windows-based tablets and computer systems along with other Microsoft solutions
in an effort to revitalize gross sales of its flagship running program.
The world's biggest software package enterprise, which by now incorporates a chain of 70 or so of its have Microsoft Retailers and kiosks in just shopping malls, mentioned on Thursday the initiative would incorporate more than 1,200 Very best Purchase Microsoft-trained profits associates to assist buyers.
Microsoft's new Home windows eight working technique has sold in excess of 100 million copies because start in October, but gross sales of latest tablets and PCs managing the program, and its personal Area tablet, haven't been as strong because it hoped. An current edition called Home windows 8.1 is scheduled for release later this yr.
Component of the problem has become that Microsoft has struggled to obtain the eye of shoppers at huge merchants such as Ideal Get thanks towards the profusion and popularity of Apple Inc's iPad and tablets jogging Google Inc's Android program.plan, which includes dedicating extra room to more-profitable products and solutions like tablets and mobile telephones.
Finest Obtain, the world's major consumer electronics chain, has also been looking to use its clout with suppliers to combat on line and price cut rivals and strengthen in-store targeted visitors, income and profitability.
http://www.windows7retailbox.com/microsoft-office-2010-home-and-student-full-retail-pack-p-3603.html
The world's biggest software package enterprise, which by now incorporates a chain of 70 or so of its have Microsoft Retailers and kiosks in just shopping malls, mentioned on Thursday the initiative would incorporate more than 1,200 Very best Purchase Microsoft-trained profits associates to assist buyers.
Microsoft's new Home windows eight working technique has sold in excess of 100 million copies because start in October, but gross sales of latest tablets and PCs managing the program, and its personal Area tablet, haven't been as strong because it hoped. An current edition called Home windows 8.1 is scheduled for release later this yr.
Component of the problem has become that Microsoft has struggled to obtain the eye of shoppers at huge merchants such as Ideal Get thanks towards the profusion and popularity of Apple Inc's iPad and tablets jogging Google Inc's Android program.plan, which includes dedicating extra room to more-profitable products and solutions like tablets and mobile telephones.
Finest Obtain, the world's major consumer electronics chain, has also been looking to use its clout with suppliers to combat on line and price cut rivals and strengthen in-store targeted visitors, income and profitability.
http://www.windows7retailbox.com/microsoft-office-2010-home-and-student-full-retail-pack-p-3603.html
Sunday, June 9, 2013
The carriers' not-so-secret weapon to improve cell service
When it comes to building out a network to deliver high-speed wireless
service, size increasingly doesn't matter.
In fact, the wireless industry, which usually thinks big, has been buzzing about something a bit more diminutive. Wireless executives can't go through a public speech without mentioning them, tech conferences devote whole sections toward them, and one trade group has named itself after the technology in order to draft behind the growing hype.
They're called small cells, and they're poised to dramatically improve your wireless service, bringing higher speeds and more capacity to networks that are facing ever-increasing usage. At a time when more and more people hop on wireless networks with bandwidth-hogging smartphones and tablets, deploying small boxes that act like their own little cellular tower may be the answer to relieving that congestion.
"This is a real solution to a real problem the carriers are facing," said Jagdish Rebello, an analyst at IHS iSuppli. "And it's a solution the carriers can control completely."
The big boys are already embracing it. Verizon Wireless has committed to deploying 200 small cells in trials, and CEO Dan Mead said last month that the carrier would be "picking up the pace" in its deployment. Rival AT&T is in trials now, with deployments that are believed to number in the hundreds, according to a person familiar with the company's work. The company said it expects to string up 40,000 small cells by 2015.
"We're transitioning from walk to run right now," Gordon Mansfield, an executive who deals with new product development at AT&T, said about its deployment plans.
And unlike the traditional telecom equipment business, which is dominated by a few big companies like Ericsson and Huawei, small cell technology opens the door to a wider array of different companies, including the likes of Cisco and IP Access. That gives the large carriers a lot more options.
The market is expected to explode over the next few years. The global wireless industry will likely nab 300,000 units for various trials this year, a market that's expected to more than double next year, and jump to 2.2 million units by 2016, according to IHS.
So what exactly are small cells?
As its namesake suggestions, a small cell is a box that can broadcast licensed cellular radio frequencies, boosting the coverage and capacity in the immediate surrounding area. A carrier-grade small cell, which can be placed inside office buildings, hung on lampposts, or installed on top of low rooftops, can affect users within a radius of 100 to 500 meters, or roughly 200 users.
Traditionally, the carriers built out their networks using macro cells, or large, unsightly towers that adorned with antennas and dishes that reach thousands of feet and many more people.
But in areas where there is spotty coverage or heavy congestion, carriers can't quickly throw up a macro cell. For one, they're expensive, costing an average of $30,000 (or more, depending on the configuration). And despite the need for them, the public doesn't want to be near them.
Small cells, on the other hand, cost much less, at around $5,000 to $10,000, with maintenance costs only a third of the expense to operate a macro cell.
Ericsson's trials have shown that adding three small cells to augment coverage of a macro cell could double the capacity of that area, according to Sheila Burpee Duncan, head of Wi-Fi marketing for Ericsson. Burpee said she believes small cells are ideal for covering local pockets and network blind spots.
Small cells range in size, with some as small as a slightly thicker iPad, going up to the size of a large hiker's backpack. As a result, there is more flexibility on where they can be placed, and don't look as intrusive as a large cell tower.
The term small cell also incorporates femtocells, which once garnered similar buzz in the industry. Femtocells emerged as a solution to spotty coverage in the home and promised to give each home their own cell tower. But the carriers never really wanted to market a product that drew attention to the inherent weakness in their coverage, and consumers balked at the idea of paying for a device to fix their carrier's problem.
So while femtocells are technically considered small cells, the industry have moved on to focus on carrier-grade small cells, which are designed for public venues, outdoor areas, or large buildings. Individual homes will largely rely on Wi-Fi for their Internet coverage.
"Femtocell is a bad word in the industry right now," Rebello said. "It's associated with not living up to the hype."
Indeed, the trade group Femto Forum changed its name to the Small Cell Forum in February, and held a conference this past week.
Okay, but what's in it for me?
The result of a fully realized small cell deployment will be improved confidence that the network will work as it should.
The ultimate promise, of course, is a faster connection, one that remains zippy even if you're in a crowd of people all trying to tap into the same network. And those dead spots you occasionally stumble upon? They could be a thing of the past.
"I personally think we're going toward a better customer experience," said Nadim Taleb, co-founder and executive chairman of Nexius, which provides network consulting and deployment services to the major carriers.
The data caps that carriers have imposed over the last few years could also see some relief. Small cells enable more capacity, which could lead to the carriers raising their caps over time. With more high-bandwidth-consuming apps, many of which incorporate streaming video, coming out, the need for more data will only increase over time.
Taleb said small cells will also enable carriers to promise a guaranteed level of service for a premium, a business model they're very interested in pursuing.
So while the carriers may not provide any relief on the phone bill end, they could offer more bang for the buck when it comes to data.
So, why the buzz?
The industry has begun paying more attention to small cells because of the seemingly insatiable hunger for bandwidth by consumers.
Data traffic will rise 12-fold by 2017, according to Duncan.
As an answer, the carriers moved to 4G LTE networks, which promised higher data speeds and capacity. But as the carriers look at the data usage, they're beginning to realize that even the more efficient 4G networks aren't going to cut it.
The carriers also complain that there is a lack of available spectrum, or airwaves used to ferry data from the phone back to the cell tower, to help with capacity. The larger players have been hoarding spectrum in anticipation of bandwidth growth.
As a result, many of them are looking to small cells to help alleviate the pain they know is coming down the road.
"There's not an operator I have met that has not been talking about it," said Teresa McEneny, director of mobile Internet for Cisco. The company bought Ubiquisys, which builds business-grade small cells, and hopes to have a bigger hand in the cellular network market.
So where are we with the roll out?
There's a lot of promise, but unfortunately, it's just that for now.
Verizon and AT&T are still in trials, and broad deployment isn't expected for another two years. Industry executives are still looking at the economics of small cell, and many aren't sure they'll save money investing in them over a few well-placed macro cells.
And while they are smaller and can be installed a lot easier, there remain challenges in getting permission from city officials and property owners. There's the additional hurdle of figuring out a way to connect them back to the network.
"The more we go, the more we realize there are challenges," Taleb said. "It's going much slower than we all thought."
Ira Palti, CEO of Ceragon, which builds the connections between the macro cells, small cells, and other network components, said he believes the main deployment may not happen for another three to five years.
He added that small cells are riding a familiar hype curve that accompanies any new promising technology.
"We're at very high hype levels," he said. "The hype peaks and drops, and then the real deployments begin. I don't think we've peaked on small cell hype yet."
In fact, the wireless industry, which usually thinks big, has been buzzing about something a bit more diminutive. Wireless executives can't go through a public speech without mentioning them, tech conferences devote whole sections toward them, and one trade group has named itself after the technology in order to draft behind the growing hype.
They're called small cells, and they're poised to dramatically improve your wireless service, bringing higher speeds and more capacity to networks that are facing ever-increasing usage. At a time when more and more people hop on wireless networks with bandwidth-hogging smartphones and tablets, deploying small boxes that act like their own little cellular tower may be the answer to relieving that congestion.
"This is a real solution to a real problem the carriers are facing," said Jagdish Rebello, an analyst at IHS iSuppli. "And it's a solution the carriers can control completely."
The big boys are already embracing it. Verizon Wireless has committed to deploying 200 small cells in trials, and CEO Dan Mead said last month that the carrier would be "picking up the pace" in its deployment. Rival AT&T is in trials now, with deployments that are believed to number in the hundreds, according to a person familiar with the company's work. The company said it expects to string up 40,000 small cells by 2015.
"We're transitioning from walk to run right now," Gordon Mansfield, an executive who deals with new product development at AT&T, said about its deployment plans.
And unlike the traditional telecom equipment business, which is dominated by a few big companies like Ericsson and Huawei, small cell technology opens the door to a wider array of different companies, including the likes of Cisco and IP Access. That gives the large carriers a lot more options.
The market is expected to explode over the next few years. The global wireless industry will likely nab 300,000 units for various trials this year, a market that's expected to more than double next year, and jump to 2.2 million units by 2016, according to IHS.
So what exactly are small cells?
As its namesake suggestions, a small cell is a box that can broadcast licensed cellular radio frequencies, boosting the coverage and capacity in the immediate surrounding area. A carrier-grade small cell, which can be placed inside office buildings, hung on lampposts, or installed on top of low rooftops, can affect users within a radius of 100 to 500 meters, or roughly 200 users.
Traditionally, the carriers built out their networks using macro cells, or large, unsightly towers that adorned with antennas and dishes that reach thousands of feet and many more people.
But in areas where there is spotty coverage or heavy congestion, carriers can't quickly throw up a macro cell. For one, they're expensive, costing an average of $30,000 (or more, depending on the configuration). And despite the need for them, the public doesn't want to be near them.
Small cells, on the other hand, cost much less, at around $5,000 to $10,000, with maintenance costs only a third of the expense to operate a macro cell.
Ericsson's trials have shown that adding three small cells to augment coverage of a macro cell could double the capacity of that area, according to Sheila Burpee Duncan, head of Wi-Fi marketing for Ericsson. Burpee said she believes small cells are ideal for covering local pockets and network blind spots.
Small cells range in size, with some as small as a slightly thicker iPad, going up to the size of a large hiker's backpack. As a result, there is more flexibility on where they can be placed, and don't look as intrusive as a large cell tower.
The term small cell also incorporates femtocells, which once garnered similar buzz in the industry. Femtocells emerged as a solution to spotty coverage in the home and promised to give each home their own cell tower. But the carriers never really wanted to market a product that drew attention to the inherent weakness in their coverage, and consumers balked at the idea of paying for a device to fix their carrier's problem.
So while femtocells are technically considered small cells, the industry have moved on to focus on carrier-grade small cells, which are designed for public venues, outdoor areas, or large buildings. Individual homes will largely rely on Wi-Fi for their Internet coverage.
"Femtocell is a bad word in the industry right now," Rebello said. "It's associated with not living up to the hype."
Indeed, the trade group Femto Forum changed its name to the Small Cell Forum in February, and held a conference this past week.
Okay, but what's in it for me?
The result of a fully realized small cell deployment will be improved confidence that the network will work as it should.
The ultimate promise, of course, is a faster connection, one that remains zippy even if you're in a crowd of people all trying to tap into the same network. And those dead spots you occasionally stumble upon? They could be a thing of the past.
"I personally think we're going toward a better customer experience," said Nadim Taleb, co-founder and executive chairman of Nexius, which provides network consulting and deployment services to the major carriers.
The data caps that carriers have imposed over the last few years could also see some relief. Small cells enable more capacity, which could lead to the carriers raising their caps over time. With more high-bandwidth-consuming apps, many of which incorporate streaming video, coming out, the need for more data will only increase over time.
Taleb said small cells will also enable carriers to promise a guaranteed level of service for a premium, a business model they're very interested in pursuing.
So while the carriers may not provide any relief on the phone bill end, they could offer more bang for the buck when it comes to data.
So, why the buzz?
The industry has begun paying more attention to small cells because of the seemingly insatiable hunger for bandwidth by consumers.
Data traffic will rise 12-fold by 2017, according to Duncan.
As an answer, the carriers moved to 4G LTE networks, which promised higher data speeds and capacity. But as the carriers look at the data usage, they're beginning to realize that even the more efficient 4G networks aren't going to cut it.
The carriers also complain that there is a lack of available spectrum, or airwaves used to ferry data from the phone back to the cell tower, to help with capacity. The larger players have been hoarding spectrum in anticipation of bandwidth growth.
As a result, many of them are looking to small cells to help alleviate the pain they know is coming down the road.
"There's not an operator I have met that has not been talking about it," said Teresa McEneny, director of mobile Internet for Cisco. The company bought Ubiquisys, which builds business-grade small cells, and hopes to have a bigger hand in the cellular network market.
So where are we with the roll out?
There's a lot of promise, but unfortunately, it's just that for now.
Verizon and AT&T are still in trials, and broad deployment isn't expected for another two years. Industry executives are still looking at the economics of small cell, and many aren't sure they'll save money investing in them over a few well-placed macro cells.
And while they are smaller and can be installed a lot easier, there remain challenges in getting permission from city officials and property owners. There's the additional hurdle of figuring out a way to connect them back to the network.
"The more we go, the more we realize there are challenges," Taleb said. "It's going much slower than we all thought."
Ira Palti, CEO of Ceragon, which builds the connections between the macro cells, small cells, and other network components, said he believes the main deployment may not happen for another three to five years.
He added that small cells are riding a familiar hype curve that accompanies any new promising technology.
"We're at very high hype levels," he said. "The hype peaks and drops, and then the real deployments begin. I don't think we've peaked on small cell hype yet."
That's fantastic news for anyone who may have been disappointed
Some Windows OEMs confirmed off coming compact form-factor Windows eight
tablets as a part of Computex this 7 days.
Microsoft failed to just take the wraps off its rumored 8-inch Surface for the exhibit. Nevertheless the company did share a handful of extra tidbits about a lot of the improvements it truly is building to Windows 8 using the 8.1 "Blue" launch that should perhaps make these more compact equipment a lot more usable.
Amongst the new small-screen gadgets that Microsoft's associates showed this 7 days were the 8-inch Acer Iconia W3 (together with the outsized keyboard); the Lenovo MiiX eight, an 8-inch tablet that has a stylus and 3G; 8-inch AMD Temash-based reference machines from Gigabyte and Quanta that companies can customize; along with the 7-inch quad-core Inventec gadget.
A person from the vital changes Microsoft is touting for this coming era of units is improved portrait-mode support. Windows Company Vp of Plan Management Antoine Lebond explained what is approaching the portrait-mode front through his remarks at Computex this week:
We did some function in Windows eight.one to have portrait-specific Start screen layouts that operate much superior. All the apps which might be during the box really operate equally as very well in portrait manner since they work in landscape.
We did some do the job at the gadget interface level about edge detection and things like that to create it much easier to have smaller bezels on these gadgets making sure that OEMs and folks who develop gadgets like this could construct exactly the types of devices they need, and Home windows eight.one will be excellent on them.
That's fantastic news for anyone who may have been disappointed when wanting to use their Surface area RT or Professional -- or other Home windows 8 or Windows RT tablets -- in portrait mode to no avail.
Leblond also talked up some previously disclosed Windows 8.1 attributes, for example the Metrofied Pc Settings, much more adaptable Snap possibilities, and touch-keyboard autosuggestion advancements as generating smaller-screen Windows 8 gadgets workable.
Microsoft's disclosure previously this 7 days that it'll make Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (Business office Residence & Student 2013) available on sub-10-inch Intel-based Home windows eight.one devices left some scratching their heads, as desktop versions of these apps on Business are not touch-optimized.
I'm wondering if Microsoft might be generating the Metro/Windows Store versions of these apps available while in the box, instead. The Metro-Style versions of these four applications are in development as portion of Microsoft's "Gemini" wave of products. Maybe there's a Metro version in the Workplace Household & Student 2013 SKU coming?
http://www.windows7retailbox.com/microsoft-office-2010-professional-retail-full-pack-p-3602.html
Microsoft failed to just take the wraps off its rumored 8-inch Surface for the exhibit. Nevertheless the company did share a handful of extra tidbits about a lot of the improvements it truly is building to Windows 8 using the 8.1 "Blue" launch that should perhaps make these more compact equipment a lot more usable.
Amongst the new small-screen gadgets that Microsoft's associates showed this 7 days were the 8-inch Acer Iconia W3 (together with the outsized keyboard); the Lenovo MiiX eight, an 8-inch tablet that has a stylus and 3G; 8-inch AMD Temash-based reference machines from Gigabyte and Quanta that companies can customize; along with the 7-inch quad-core Inventec gadget.
A person from the vital changes Microsoft is touting for this coming era of units is improved portrait-mode support. Windows Company Vp of Plan Management Antoine Lebond explained what is approaching the portrait-mode front through his remarks at Computex this week:
We did some function in Windows eight.one to have portrait-specific Start screen layouts that operate much superior. All the apps which might be during the box really operate equally as very well in portrait manner since they work in landscape.
We did some do the job at the gadget interface level about edge detection and things like that to create it much easier to have smaller bezels on these gadgets making sure that OEMs and folks who develop gadgets like this could construct exactly the types of devices they need, and Home windows eight.one will be excellent on them.
That's fantastic news for anyone who may have been disappointed when wanting to use their Surface area RT or Professional -- or other Home windows 8 or Windows RT tablets -- in portrait mode to no avail.
Leblond also talked up some previously disclosed Windows 8.1 attributes, for example the Metrofied Pc Settings, much more adaptable Snap possibilities, and touch-keyboard autosuggestion advancements as generating smaller-screen Windows 8 gadgets workable.
Microsoft's disclosure previously this 7 days that it'll make Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (Business office Residence & Student 2013) available on sub-10-inch Intel-based Home windows eight.one devices left some scratching their heads, as desktop versions of these apps on Business are not touch-optimized.
I'm wondering if Microsoft might be generating the Metro/Windows Store versions of these apps available while in the box, instead. The Metro-Style versions of these four applications are in development as portion of Microsoft's "Gemini" wave of products. Maybe there's a Metro version in the Workplace Household & Student 2013 SKU coming?
http://www.windows7retailbox.com/microsoft-office-2010-professional-retail-full-pack-p-3602.html
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Microsoft’s Xbox One: Owning Your Video Games Is So 1994
Anyone who did the bulk of their gaming in the Super Nintendo era would
find much of today’s console market a bit tough to comprehend. Remember four
kids sitting on a living room floor passing around two controllers? Those days
are long gone, replaced by cinematic extravaganzas designed to be played alone,
or against online adversaries. Mario Kart they are not.
But here’s a more subtle change coming up in Microsoft‘s next-generation console, the Xbox One: No longer will video games be like books or old-fashioned music CDs, self-contained content that works anywhere, anytime, and can be resold or lent to any of your friends. Xbox One games are part physical disc, part online service, and tightly controlled both my Microsoft and the game publisher.
Here’s an explainer from the company on how the console and its games will work. A few highlights:
- Games will not work, full stop, if the console has not connected to the internet in the last 24 hours.
“With Xbox One you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection, but you can still watch live TV and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies.”
So bad luck if your internet gets cut – after a day, you can’t even entertain yourself with your Xbox games.
- You can’t sell your second-hand games to any store that might want to buy them from you:
“Today, some gamers choose to sell their old disc-based games back for cash and credit. We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers. Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games.”
Not only will games only be able to be sold to “participating retailers” — those retailers will only be able to buy games if the publisher has “enabled” them to be bought and sold second hand. And as Microsoft says, those publishers “may set up business terms or transfer fees with retailers” that will regulate the conditions of such sales on a game-by-game basis.
- You can’t just pass games around among your friends:
“Xbox One is designed so game publishers can enable you to give your disc-based games to your friends. There are no fees charged as part of these transfers. There are two requirements: you can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once.”
Again, game discs can’t just be handed around — first the publisher needs to “enable” the game to be given to a friend. And even then it can only change hands once. “Loaning or renting games won’t be available at launch, but we are exploring the possibilities with our partners,” Microsoft says.
All these terms are a big change from what has come before, and Microsoft seems to be aware that consumers might have something to say about the new deal:
“As we move into this new generation of games and entertainment, from time to time, Microsoft may change its policies, terms, products and services to reflect modifications and improvements to our services, feedback from customers and our business partners or changes in our business priorities and business models or for other reasons. We may also cease to offer certain services or products for similar reasons.
In the months ahead, we will continue to listen to your feedback as we meet with our partners in the ecosystem to bring additional detail about our policies.”
Worth watching in the months ahead: not just how consumers react, but how gaming studios and rival console maker Sony play the situation. Will the next Playstation come with a similar set of restrictions? And will be big game companies seek to cash in and charge fees for reselling second-hand games?
“This new generation of games,” as Microsoft describes it, is worth putting into context: It’s the final stage in the transition of video games from goods, sold as a physical object that you own, to services, delivered online in tandem with a disc you buy in a store.
You own an object, but you merely access a service.
But here’s a more subtle change coming up in Microsoft‘s next-generation console, the Xbox One: No longer will video games be like books or old-fashioned music CDs, self-contained content that works anywhere, anytime, and can be resold or lent to any of your friends. Xbox One games are part physical disc, part online service, and tightly controlled both my Microsoft and the game publisher.
Here’s an explainer from the company on how the console and its games will work. A few highlights:
- Games will not work, full stop, if the console has not connected to the internet in the last 24 hours.
“With Xbox One you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection, but you can still watch live TV and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies.”
So bad luck if your internet gets cut – after a day, you can’t even entertain yourself with your Xbox games.
- You can’t sell your second-hand games to any store that might want to buy them from you:
“Today, some gamers choose to sell their old disc-based games back for cash and credit. We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers. Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games.”
Not only will games only be able to be sold to “participating retailers” — those retailers will only be able to buy games if the publisher has “enabled” them to be bought and sold second hand. And as Microsoft says, those publishers “may set up business terms or transfer fees with retailers” that will regulate the conditions of such sales on a game-by-game basis.
- You can’t just pass games around among your friends:
“Xbox One is designed so game publishers can enable you to give your disc-based games to your friends. There are no fees charged as part of these transfers. There are two requirements: you can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once.”
Again, game discs can’t just be handed around — first the publisher needs to “enable” the game to be given to a friend. And even then it can only change hands once. “Loaning or renting games won’t be available at launch, but we are exploring the possibilities with our partners,” Microsoft says.
All these terms are a big change from what has come before, and Microsoft seems to be aware that consumers might have something to say about the new deal:
“As we move into this new generation of games and entertainment, from time to time, Microsoft may change its policies, terms, products and services to reflect modifications and improvements to our services, feedback from customers and our business partners or changes in our business priorities and business models or for other reasons. We may also cease to offer certain services or products for similar reasons.
In the months ahead, we will continue to listen to your feedback as we meet with our partners in the ecosystem to bring additional detail about our policies.”
Worth watching in the months ahead: not just how consumers react, but how gaming studios and rival console maker Sony play the situation. Will the next Playstation come with a similar set of restrictions? And will be big game companies seek to cash in and charge fees for reselling second-hand games?
“This new generation of games,” as Microsoft describes it, is worth putting into context: It’s the final stage in the transition of video games from goods, sold as a physical object that you own, to services, delivered online in tandem with a disc you buy in a store.
You own an object, but you merely access a service.
Microsoft is likewise checking out a brand new technique
It absolutely was inescapable: Microsoft experienced no preference but to
pursue the small-sized pill phase if it hopes to get relevant. Customers are
ever more voting with their wallets that lesser tablet form components tend to
be the way to go. Apple has now jumped into that current market section with all
the iPad Mini, an implicit concession that Steve Work was mistaken when he
proclaimed that the perfect pill dimension was all over ten inches.
So far, Microsoft's forays into your pill current market have already been with greater units, which include its own Surface area pill that sporting activities a 10.6-inch show. Most Home windows 8 and Windows RT units built by OEMs have also been within the full-sized phase. Which is all improved using the Acer Iconia W3 that was just unveiled at Computex Taipei.
The Iconia W3 is remaining billed because the "industry's initially 8-inch Windows 8 pill," and its eight.1-inch show will contend specifically along with the iPad Mini's seven.9-inch monitor. An Intel Atom chip is discovered inside of, which promises all-day battery general performance. Intel has become earning headway in tablet wins, which include scoring a place in Samsung's new Galaxy Tab 3 10.one (also by having an Atom processor). Intel's pricier chips also lead into the bigger price in the Iconia W3, that will retail for $379.
Microsoft is likewise checking out a brand new technique of bundling in the simple variation of Office environment with smaller sized devices. That may provide the Iconia W3 a leg up in efficiency versus the iPad Mini, but the display's resolution is unimpressive at 1,280 x 800. Head you, that is better compared to iPad Mini's recent 1,024 x 768, but that is 2013 and Apple is predicted to move to Retina iPad Minis inside a issue of months. Outside of just resolution, the Iconia W3 has lousy viewing angles and shade reproduction, according to the Verge.
The Iconia W3 may well not have a very excellent shot at competing while using the iPad Mini, but extra importantly the unit signifies Windows 8's entry like a platform in the small-sized phase. This is a substantially more substantial offer for Microsoft than it really is for Acer. Now the application giant should launch a 7-inch Floor.
It is really been a aggravating route for Microsoft traders, who've viewed the organization are unsuccessful to capitalize on the amazing advancement in cell in excess of the earlier 10 years. Nevertheless, with the release of its very own pill, coupled with the extensively anticipated Home windows 8 functioning program, the corporation is planning to make a splash with this booming current market. In a very new top quality report on Microsoft, a Motley Idiot analyst explains that although the opportunity is large, so are definitely the troubles. The report features standard updates as vital functions take place, so be certain to say a copy of the report now by clicking listed here.
http://www.windows7retailbox.com/office-mac-2011-full-retail-pack-c-643.html
So far, Microsoft's forays into your pill current market have already been with greater units, which include its own Surface area pill that sporting activities a 10.6-inch show. Most Home windows 8 and Windows RT units built by OEMs have also been within the full-sized phase. Which is all improved using the Acer Iconia W3 that was just unveiled at Computex Taipei.
The Iconia W3 is remaining billed because the "industry's initially 8-inch Windows 8 pill," and its eight.1-inch show will contend specifically along with the iPad Mini's seven.9-inch monitor. An Intel Atom chip is discovered inside of, which promises all-day battery general performance. Intel has become earning headway in tablet wins, which include scoring a place in Samsung's new Galaxy Tab 3 10.one (also by having an Atom processor). Intel's pricier chips also lead into the bigger price in the Iconia W3, that will retail for $379.
Microsoft is likewise checking out a brand new technique of bundling in the simple variation of Office environment with smaller sized devices. That may provide the Iconia W3 a leg up in efficiency versus the iPad Mini, but the display's resolution is unimpressive at 1,280 x 800. Head you, that is better compared to iPad Mini's recent 1,024 x 768, but that is 2013 and Apple is predicted to move to Retina iPad Minis inside a issue of months. Outside of just resolution, the Iconia W3 has lousy viewing angles and shade reproduction, according to the Verge.
The Iconia W3 may well not have a very excellent shot at competing while using the iPad Mini, but extra importantly the unit signifies Windows 8's entry like a platform in the small-sized phase. This is a substantially more substantial offer for Microsoft than it really is for Acer. Now the application giant should launch a 7-inch Floor.
It is really been a aggravating route for Microsoft traders, who've viewed the organization are unsuccessful to capitalize on the amazing advancement in cell in excess of the earlier 10 years. Nevertheless, with the release of its very own pill, coupled with the extensively anticipated Home windows 8 functioning program, the corporation is planning to make a splash with this booming current market. In a very new top quality report on Microsoft, a Motley Idiot analyst explains that although the opportunity is large, so are definitely the troubles. The report features standard updates as vital functions take place, so be certain to say a copy of the report now by clicking listed here.
http://www.windows7retailbox.com/office-mac-2011-full-retail-pack-c-643.html
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Amazon exec says Apple's agency model was designed to hinder Kindle
According to in-court reports from Reuters, Amazon's vice president of
Kindle content Russell Grandinetti testified that his company told publishers it
may have to modify business relationships as a result of adopting the agency
model.
Further, Gardinetti said publishers came to Amazon with an "ultimatum" after reaching deals with Apple in 2010, demanding they be allowed to set e-books prices on Amazon.com. Unless an agreement was made, Amazon would have been barred from selling Kindle-ready e-books on the same day that hardcover versions of the titles were released, he said.
Citing a particular offer from MacMillan in 2010, Grandinetti said the pubisher's CEO Jon Sargent offered a choice between moving to the agency model or being forced to delay an e-book's sale until seven months after a hardcover version had been on the market. "I think I expressed how unpalatable the choice presented was." - Russell Grandinetti, Amazon VP of Kindle content
"I think I expressed how unpalatable the choice presented was," Grandinetti said.
On Tuesday, Penguin Books CEO David Shanks described a similar discussion he had with Amazon over a proposed pricing strategy shift.
"They yelled and screamed and threatened," Shanks said. "It was a very unpleasant meeting."
Shanks also noted that Amazon would routinely price new titles at $9.99 through its Kindle store, when the same book would sell for $26 as a hardcover. Wholesale pricing was cannibalizing profitable hardcover sales, he said.
Amazon resisted the pressure exerted by the publishing houses for a short time before finally submitting to their demands, inking a 3-year deal based on the agency model.
"We wanted to avoid losing most or all of their titles from our store," Gartinetti said of MacMillan.
The agency model, and its most favored nations clause, is central to the Justice Department's case against Apple, which alleges the company colluded with five major book publishers to fix e-book prices in the iBookstore. As part of its argument, the DOJ has framed Amazon as one of the parties hurt by Apple's purported scheme, asserting that the company's wholesale model was impacted by the alleged conspiracy.
Under Amazon's wholesale pricing, retailers buy content from publishers in bulk and are able to set resale prices at or below cost. In some cases, this strategy resulted in highly discounted e-book pricing for new books which would otherwise sell for much more. Amazon used the savings to move Kindles, which according to court documents controlled as much as 90 percent of the market by 2009.
Other publishers began to move to the agency model in what Grandinetti believes were decisions made, at least in part, to "slowdown the success of the Kindle." Amazon apparently made attempts to stop the exodus from wholesale, at times threatening to end relationships with certain publishers.
In another testimony on Wednesday, Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy said that Grandinetti himself issued a threat against her company after it moved to Apple's agency model, reports CNET. Reidy testified that Grandinetti said, "If you're going to do this, we have to look at the whole business."
She recalled that the first two calls regarding the shift in pricing strategy were amiable, it was in the third that Grandinetti "threatened [their] business."
Wednesday's proceedings ended with Grandinetti on the stand, meaning he will once again testify on Thursday.
Further, Gardinetti said publishers came to Amazon with an "ultimatum" after reaching deals with Apple in 2010, demanding they be allowed to set e-books prices on Amazon.com. Unless an agreement was made, Amazon would have been barred from selling Kindle-ready e-books on the same day that hardcover versions of the titles were released, he said.
Citing a particular offer from MacMillan in 2010, Grandinetti said the pubisher's CEO Jon Sargent offered a choice between moving to the agency model or being forced to delay an e-book's sale until seven months after a hardcover version had been on the market. "I think I expressed how unpalatable the choice presented was." - Russell Grandinetti, Amazon VP of Kindle content
"I think I expressed how unpalatable the choice presented was," Grandinetti said.
On Tuesday, Penguin Books CEO David Shanks described a similar discussion he had with Amazon over a proposed pricing strategy shift.
"They yelled and screamed and threatened," Shanks said. "It was a very unpleasant meeting."
Shanks also noted that Amazon would routinely price new titles at $9.99 through its Kindle store, when the same book would sell for $26 as a hardcover. Wholesale pricing was cannibalizing profitable hardcover sales, he said.
Amazon resisted the pressure exerted by the publishing houses for a short time before finally submitting to their demands, inking a 3-year deal based on the agency model.
"We wanted to avoid losing most or all of their titles from our store," Gartinetti said of MacMillan.
The agency model, and its most favored nations clause, is central to the Justice Department's case against Apple, which alleges the company colluded with five major book publishers to fix e-book prices in the iBookstore. As part of its argument, the DOJ has framed Amazon as one of the parties hurt by Apple's purported scheme, asserting that the company's wholesale model was impacted by the alleged conspiracy.
Under Amazon's wholesale pricing, retailers buy content from publishers in bulk and are able to set resale prices at or below cost. In some cases, this strategy resulted in highly discounted e-book pricing for new books which would otherwise sell for much more. Amazon used the savings to move Kindles, which according to court documents controlled as much as 90 percent of the market by 2009.
Other publishers began to move to the agency model in what Grandinetti believes were decisions made, at least in part, to "slowdown the success of the Kindle." Amazon apparently made attempts to stop the exodus from wholesale, at times threatening to end relationships with certain publishers.
In another testimony on Wednesday, Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy said that Grandinetti himself issued a threat against her company after it moved to Apple's agency model, reports CNET. Reidy testified that Grandinetti said, "If you're going to do this, we have to look at the whole business."
She recalled that the first two calls regarding the shift in pricing strategy were amiable, it was in the third that Grandinetti "threatened [their] business."
Wednesday's proceedings ended with Grandinetti on the stand, meaning he will once again testify on Thursday.
When Microsoft releases to manufacturing Home windows 8
Microsoft will make available as element of its future Windows eight.1
"Blue" release of Windows shopper the rumored Outlook 2013 RT mail customer,
corporation officials verified on June five
Microsoft's Main Money Officer of Windows, Tami Reller, made the announcement in the course of the Computex clearly show in Taipei, declaring that Place of work RT is usually a major organization and customer aspect request.
A preview of a Desktop -- not a Metro-Style/Windows Shop -- variation of Outlook which has been tailored to run within the ARM will debut with the Home windows eight.one RT operating procedure on June 26, 2013. When Microsoft releases to manufacturing Home windows 8.one RT (a day rumored to generally be a while close to August or September this calendar year), Outlook RT also might be sent in last variety, officials reported.
Outlook RT will operate on Microsoft's ARM-based Surface RT gadgets, also as any/all other ARM-based Windows RT tablets and PCs. As I blogged before this 12 months, it will be positioned like a complement, not a substitution to, the built-in Home windows Mail client on Home windows eight and Home windows RT PCs. Outlook RT will functionality precisely the same as Outlook 2013, concerning the way it is mounted and preserved.
Currently, Microsoft does not incorporate Outlook as element of the Place of work Dwelling & Student 2013 RT suite that it bundles while using the Home windows RT working procedure. Only Word RT, Excel RT, PowerPoint RT and OneNote RT are included. All of these are Desktop versions, not Metro-Style/Windows Retail store apps. That explained, Microsoft is building Metro-Style versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint (plus an updated model of Metro-Style OneNote) which it can be expected to launch this fall as component of its "Gemini" wave of products.
At Computex, Reller also is said to have announced that Microsoft might be making out there Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote obtainable on Windows eight.one PCs and tablets out in the box. The preinstallation of your core Office environment apps on x86-based Surfaces was expected by some after Microsoft recently announced that new 256 GB Floor Pros would be out there in Japan with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OnetNote preinstalled. I asked Microsoft officers to confirm that these four apps might be put in by default on Home windows 8.one units, but received no word back.
Update: It seems for being that only "smaller" x86-based Home windows Blue equipment will come preloaded with Business office 2013 Property & Student.
A recently unearthed Microsoft roadmap indicated that Microsoft might be holding off on delivering Outlook RT until October 2014. Either that roadmap was old or Microsoft officials decided to accelerate the launch of Outlook RT. Now I'm wondering whether other dates on that roadmap might be incorrect. If so, I'm curious whether the Softies might deliver Office for iOS and Android sooner than October 2014, as the roadmap indicated.
Microsoft's Main Money Officer of Windows, Tami Reller, made the announcement in the course of the Computex clearly show in Taipei, declaring that Place of work RT is usually a major organization and customer aspect request.
A preview of a Desktop -- not a Metro-Style/Windows Shop -- variation of Outlook which has been tailored to run within the ARM will debut with the Home windows eight.one RT operating procedure on June 26, 2013. When Microsoft releases to manufacturing Home windows 8.one RT (a day rumored to generally be a while close to August or September this calendar year), Outlook RT also might be sent in last variety, officials reported.
Outlook RT will operate on Microsoft's ARM-based Surface RT gadgets, also as any/all other ARM-based Windows RT tablets and PCs. As I blogged before this 12 months, it will be positioned like a complement, not a substitution to, the built-in Home windows Mail client on Home windows eight and Home windows RT PCs. Outlook RT will functionality precisely the same as Outlook 2013, concerning the way it is mounted and preserved.
Currently, Microsoft does not incorporate Outlook as element of the Place of work Dwelling & Student 2013 RT suite that it bundles while using the Home windows RT working procedure. Only Word RT, Excel RT, PowerPoint RT and OneNote RT are included. All of these are Desktop versions, not Metro-Style/Windows Retail store apps. That explained, Microsoft is building Metro-Style versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint (plus an updated model of Metro-Style OneNote) which it can be expected to launch this fall as component of its "Gemini" wave of products.
At Computex, Reller also is said to have announced that Microsoft might be making out there Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote obtainable on Windows eight.one PCs and tablets out in the box. The preinstallation of your core Office environment apps on x86-based Surfaces was expected by some after Microsoft recently announced that new 256 GB Floor Pros would be out there in Japan with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OnetNote preinstalled. I asked Microsoft officers to confirm that these four apps might be put in by default on Home windows 8.one units, but received no word back.
Update: It seems for being that only "smaller" x86-based Home windows Blue equipment will come preloaded with Business office 2013 Property & Student.
A recently unearthed Microsoft roadmap indicated that Microsoft might be holding off on delivering Outlook RT until October 2014. Either that roadmap was old or Microsoft officials decided to accelerate the launch of Outlook RT. Now I'm wondering whether other dates on that roadmap might be incorrect. If so, I'm curious whether the Softies might deliver Office for iOS and Android sooner than October 2014, as the roadmap indicated.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Sales of older iPhones, iPads banned as agency says Apple infringed Samsung patent
A U.S. trade agency on Tuesday banned the sale of several iPhone and iPad
models for infringing a Samsung patent, dealing a high-profile setback to
Apple’s crusade against copycats.
If upheld, the ruling would show that at least some of Apple’s iconic technology duplicated that of its primary competitor in the mobile-device market, an embarrassment for a company that has held itself up as the source of Silicon Valley’s most groundbreaking innovations. Samsung, once a bit player in the cellphone market, now sells more smartphones than Apple around the world.
The order by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) would block sales of several older devices that work on AT&T Wireless’s network, including the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS and the iPad 2 3G. Apple’s newest offerings, the iPhone 5 and the fourth-generation iPad, were not affected.
Unless President Obama issues a veto, the ruling will take effect in 60 days. Apple said it will appeal the decision to federal courts.
Apple and Samsung have been entangled in myriad cases making their way through courts around the world. The legal battles were initiated by Apple, which has been determined to prove that Samsung and others copied the iPhone, from the curved shape of the casing to the way contact lists were displayed.
Last year, Apple won a lawsuit in a federal court that ruled Samsung had infringed several Apple patents.
Separately, Apple and Samsung filed dueling lawsuits in 2011 at the ITC, which has become a preferred venue for patent disputes among companies because the body can rule quickly and has the authority to ban imports or sales.
Carolina Milanesi, a consumer devices analyst for Gartner, said the ITC ruling’s damage to Apple may be more from a publicity standpoint, since the order applies only to older models. The iPhone 4, she said, does not sell as well in the United States as Apple’s newer 4S and 5 models.
But the decision comes at a bad time for Apple, whose stock has taken a hit in recent months. Some analysts have said the company has lost its innovative edge to Samsung, Google and other rivals.
Meanwhile, Apple has become embroiled in a tax controversy in Washington after a Senate investigation found that it shielded tens of billions of dollars from U.S. taxes. In New York, it is facing a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department, which is accusing the firm of fixing prices for e-books.
“This adds to all the being down on Apple that we’ve seen recently,” Milanesi said. “But it’s a blow they can take on the chin.”
The commission said Apple “failed to prove an affirmative defense” against Samsung’s allegations. The ruling reversed an earlier opinion by an ITC judge that Apple had infringed a Samsung cellular data patent used in AT&T models.
Regulators and lawmakers have criticized the ITC, arguing that monetary damages are better than outright sales bans. Still, vetoes of its rulings are rare. The last president to do so was Ronald Reagan, according to the ITC.
The decision “has confirmed Apple’s history of free-riding on Samsung’s technological innovations,” Samsung spokesman Adam Yates said in a statement.
To Apple, the battles are more about principle than potential business losses. Apple chief executive Tim Cook has said Apple has a clean reputation as a global business leader and will fight to protect its name.
“We are disappointed that the Commission has overturned an earlier ruling and we plan to appeal,” Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said in a statement.
Analysts said the ruling was significant for Samsung.
“This decision is a major surprise,” said Florian Mueller, a patent expert and blogger on the site FOSS Patents. “Samsung’s track record in asserting patents against Apple has been rather dismal.”
Katerina Sokou, Hayley Tsukayama and Timothy B. Lee contributed to this report
If upheld, the ruling would show that at least some of Apple’s iconic technology duplicated that of its primary competitor in the mobile-device market, an embarrassment for a company that has held itself up as the source of Silicon Valley’s most groundbreaking innovations. Samsung, once a bit player in the cellphone market, now sells more smartphones than Apple around the world.
The order by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) would block sales of several older devices that work on AT&T Wireless’s network, including the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS and the iPad 2 3G. Apple’s newest offerings, the iPhone 5 and the fourth-generation iPad, were not affected.
Unless President Obama issues a veto, the ruling will take effect in 60 days. Apple said it will appeal the decision to federal courts.
Apple and Samsung have been entangled in myriad cases making their way through courts around the world. The legal battles were initiated by Apple, which has been determined to prove that Samsung and others copied the iPhone, from the curved shape of the casing to the way contact lists were displayed.
Last year, Apple won a lawsuit in a federal court that ruled Samsung had infringed several Apple patents.
Separately, Apple and Samsung filed dueling lawsuits in 2011 at the ITC, which has become a preferred venue for patent disputes among companies because the body can rule quickly and has the authority to ban imports or sales.
Carolina Milanesi, a consumer devices analyst for Gartner, said the ITC ruling’s damage to Apple may be more from a publicity standpoint, since the order applies only to older models. The iPhone 4, she said, does not sell as well in the United States as Apple’s newer 4S and 5 models.
But the decision comes at a bad time for Apple, whose stock has taken a hit in recent months. Some analysts have said the company has lost its innovative edge to Samsung, Google and other rivals.
Meanwhile, Apple has become embroiled in a tax controversy in Washington after a Senate investigation found that it shielded tens of billions of dollars from U.S. taxes. In New York, it is facing a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department, which is accusing the firm of fixing prices for e-books.
“This adds to all the being down on Apple that we’ve seen recently,” Milanesi said. “But it’s a blow they can take on the chin.”
The commission said Apple “failed to prove an affirmative defense” against Samsung’s allegations. The ruling reversed an earlier opinion by an ITC judge that Apple had infringed a Samsung cellular data patent used in AT&T models.
Regulators and lawmakers have criticized the ITC, arguing that monetary damages are better than outright sales bans. Still, vetoes of its rulings are rare. The last president to do so was Ronald Reagan, according to the ITC.
The decision “has confirmed Apple’s history of free-riding on Samsung’s technological innovations,” Samsung spokesman Adam Yates said in a statement.
To Apple, the battles are more about principle than potential business losses. Apple chief executive Tim Cook has said Apple has a clean reputation as a global business leader and will fight to protect its name.
“We are disappointed that the Commission has overturned an earlier ruling and we plan to appeal,” Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said in a statement.
Analysts said the ruling was significant for Samsung.
“This decision is a major surprise,” said Florian Mueller, a patent expert and blogger on the site FOSS Patents. “Samsung’s track record in asserting patents against Apple has been rather dismal.”
Katerina Sokou, Hayley Tsukayama and Timothy B. Lee contributed to this report
It will also make Windows appear and behave
Does anybody treatment about Home windows RT? The beleaguered running
program has actually been shunned by brands and individuals alike due to its
convoluted interface that even Microsoft workforce have problems knowing and
conveying to likely buyers. Now Microsoft is reportedly organizing on minimizing
the price on the operating process within an try and influence a person outside
of its very own headquarters that Home windows RT is value, effectively, nearly
anything.
Windows RT must are already a fairly easy promote. It had been the primary edition of Home windows intended precisely for tablets and delivered the bottom with the Surface area pill, which was meant to point out that Microsoft could adapt to an industry described by touchscreens and tablets instead of mice and laptop towers. Microsoft used Windows RT like a system off of which it could reinvent by itself for a units and services firm and, even though it was performing so, get ready the world for just a new Windows. The sole problem is that, based on the various reviews of Windows eight, Windows RT, as well as the products they electric power, as well as the much-discussed decrease of the conventional Personal computer field, we are not fairly all set for Microsoft’s eyesight with the potential.
There are actually several Windows RT products readily available. Samsung and Acer have both equally spoken out against the functioning program, expressing they are not positive whether or not the marketplace is ready for your windowless Windows. HTC not long ago canceled options for a 10-inch Home windows RT pill since “it cost way too considerably and need for RT equipment has been weak,” according to Bloomberg. Buying a Area pill - the one that doesn’t run Windows eight - might be the only sure-fire way to come across a Home windows RT machine in many important stores, and even they've got confirmed unpopular. Home windows RT is most likely the only real running technique bearing the Home windows identify that has not powered plenty of barely-differentiated products from every single pc producer - even Home windows Vista, a widely-derided model of your OS, proved for being much more preferred.
Assess that with Home windows 8, which just lately matched Home windows seven since the fastest-selling running system in heritage and it is accustomed to electrical power anything from all-in-one PCs to ultrabooks and hybrid gadgets which will operate as tablets and notebook PCs. Windows RT has long been panned by critics and mostly overlooked by producers and customers; Windows eight has been received marginally superior and performed about as well as you’d be expecting from the new edition of Windows. And exactly what does Home windows 8 do superior than Windows RT? Well, truly, it simply makes it much easier to fake that Microsoft under no circumstances overhauled Windows’ interface and alternatively released a different vanilla update into the system. That, by its incredibly character, implies that Home windows 8 can’t be the longer term of Home windows.
Windows RT will come closer to fitting the bill. If Microsoft had been to produce the working procedure a lot more user-friendly and prevent it from bouncing consumers amongst its new interface plus the “traditional” desktop seemingly at random it will occur even nearer to what the company meant when it redesigned Home windows. It will also make Windows appear and behave more much like the Xbox One particular, which has turn into an increasingly significant element of Microsoft’s business. Microsoft wishes to come to be a equipment and solutions organization, and recognized the necessity to acquire solutions and platforms that did not just add much more complexity or smaller updates into the Windows established countless decades back.
Reducing the price of licensing Windows RT in all probability will not allow it to be more well known to manufacturers, primarily not even though Windows eight is out there. But that doesn’t mean that one thing like Windows RT isn’t the longer term of Microsoft. Windows 8 may be very evidently a stop-gap concerning Windows 7 and whatever the enterprise decides to name its up coming running procedure, along with the one after that, and so on. Microsoft has supplied us a glimpse at its eyesight with the long run of computing with Home windows RT, the Xbox A person, and Windows Phone - now it simply just needs to make that eyesight a fact. Or it could carry on to build goods that glimpse similar to their predecessors at the same time as the devices, expert services, and software program we use proceed to vary at an progressively rapid speed, because that is labored out actually well to date.
Windows RT must are already a fairly easy promote. It had been the primary edition of Home windows intended precisely for tablets and delivered the bottom with the Surface area pill, which was meant to point out that Microsoft could adapt to an industry described by touchscreens and tablets instead of mice and laptop towers. Microsoft used Windows RT like a system off of which it could reinvent by itself for a units and services firm and, even though it was performing so, get ready the world for just a new Windows. The sole problem is that, based on the various reviews of Windows eight, Windows RT, as well as the products they electric power, as well as the much-discussed decrease of the conventional Personal computer field, we are not fairly all set for Microsoft’s eyesight with the potential.
There are actually several Windows RT products readily available. Samsung and Acer have both equally spoken out against the functioning program, expressing they are not positive whether or not the marketplace is ready for your windowless Windows. HTC not long ago canceled options for a 10-inch Home windows RT pill since “it cost way too considerably and need for RT equipment has been weak,” according to Bloomberg. Buying a Area pill - the one that doesn’t run Windows eight - might be the only sure-fire way to come across a Home windows RT machine in many important stores, and even they've got confirmed unpopular. Home windows RT is most likely the only real running technique bearing the Home windows identify that has not powered plenty of barely-differentiated products from every single pc producer - even Home windows Vista, a widely-derided model of your OS, proved for being much more preferred.
Assess that with Home windows 8, which just lately matched Home windows seven since the fastest-selling running system in heritage and it is accustomed to electrical power anything from all-in-one PCs to ultrabooks and hybrid gadgets which will operate as tablets and notebook PCs. Windows RT has long been panned by critics and mostly overlooked by producers and customers; Windows eight has been received marginally superior and performed about as well as you’d be expecting from the new edition of Windows. And exactly what does Home windows 8 do superior than Windows RT? Well, truly, it simply makes it much easier to fake that Microsoft under no circumstances overhauled Windows’ interface and alternatively released a different vanilla update into the system. That, by its incredibly character, implies that Home windows 8 can’t be the longer term of Home windows.
Windows RT will come closer to fitting the bill. If Microsoft had been to produce the working procedure a lot more user-friendly and prevent it from bouncing consumers amongst its new interface plus the “traditional” desktop seemingly at random it will occur even nearer to what the company meant when it redesigned Home windows. It will also make Windows appear and behave more much like the Xbox One particular, which has turn into an increasingly significant element of Microsoft’s business. Microsoft wishes to come to be a equipment and solutions organization, and recognized the necessity to acquire solutions and platforms that did not just add much more complexity or smaller updates into the Windows established countless decades back.
Reducing the price of licensing Windows RT in all probability will not allow it to be more well known to manufacturers, primarily not even though Windows eight is out there. But that doesn’t mean that one thing like Windows RT isn’t the longer term of Microsoft. Windows 8 may be very evidently a stop-gap concerning Windows 7 and whatever the enterprise decides to name its up coming running procedure, along with the one after that, and so on. Microsoft has supplied us a glimpse at its eyesight with the long run of computing with Home windows RT, the Xbox A person, and Windows Phone - now it simply just needs to make that eyesight a fact. Or it could carry on to build goods that glimpse similar to their predecessors at the same time as the devices, expert services, and software program we use proceed to vary at an progressively rapid speed, because that is labored out actually well to date.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Acer kicks off Computex with tabs and phabs
Acer got Computex 2013 off to a less-than-spectacular start this morning
with the launch of the world’s first “one-handed” Windows 8 tablet, a 5.7in
phablet and a new version of its flagship ultrabook.
In a relatively subdued press conference, Acer president Jim Wong unveiled the company’s latest attempt to get back into the personal computing caper now that tablets and smartphone hybrids have seen punters ignore upgrades to Acer's PC line.
First up was the 8.1in Iconia W3, a Windows 8 tablet running Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 and touted for offering a “desktop in one hand”.
At 540 grams and just 11.35mm thick, it’s going to appeal to mobile workers for whom portability is key, although an optional full-sized keyboard will make it a little less portable.
The Intel Atom Z2760-powered device features front-and-rear-facing 2MP cameras, a 1280x800 resolution screen, eight hours of battery life and will come with 32 or 64GB internal storage, starting at around €329.
The suspicion and borderline hostility shown by the firm to partner Microsoft over the past year, after the launch of Redmond’s Surface laptop, was not in evidence at this morning's event and it was all smiles as a Microsoft representative took the stage to big up the Windows 8-related productivity benefits of the W3.
The device will be available in Q2, Acer said.
Acer also unveiled its first “phablet”, the 5.7in 1280x720 Liquid S1 smartphone.
With single and dual SIM options, a quad-core 1.5 GHz Mediatek processor, and a day's worth of battery power, the handset could also appeal to business, even if it does run Android Jelly Bean.
A particularly nifty productivity-enhancing feature demoed on stage is the “float” UI, which allows the user to multi-task, switching between camera, phone, notes and other apps with ease thanks to a small floating shortcut icon.
Also touted is an 88° wide viewing angle for improved video conferencing, a voice activated phone unlocking function, and an Auto Profile feature which will automatically set the handset’s profile depending on its location.
The 1GB device will be available in Q3, although pricing isn’t yet available.
Not content with that little lot, Acer also unveiled a new version of its flagship 13.3in S7 ultrabook with an enhanced keyboard, improved battery life and quieter performance, as well as a “little brother”, the S3 ultrabook.
“In the new PC world users are becoming smarter and demanding a significantly enhanced overall user experience,” said Acer CEO JT Wang. “If you don’t do that they don’t buy.”
In a relatively subdued press conference, Acer president Jim Wong unveiled the company’s latest attempt to get back into the personal computing caper now that tablets and smartphone hybrids have seen punters ignore upgrades to Acer's PC line.
First up was the 8.1in Iconia W3, a Windows 8 tablet running Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 and touted for offering a “desktop in one hand”.
At 540 grams and just 11.35mm thick, it’s going to appeal to mobile workers for whom portability is key, although an optional full-sized keyboard will make it a little less portable.
The Intel Atom Z2760-powered device features front-and-rear-facing 2MP cameras, a 1280x800 resolution screen, eight hours of battery life and will come with 32 or 64GB internal storage, starting at around €329.
The suspicion and borderline hostility shown by the firm to partner Microsoft over the past year, after the launch of Redmond’s Surface laptop, was not in evidence at this morning's event and it was all smiles as a Microsoft representative took the stage to big up the Windows 8-related productivity benefits of the W3.
The device will be available in Q2, Acer said.
Acer also unveiled its first “phablet”, the 5.7in 1280x720 Liquid S1 smartphone.
With single and dual SIM options, a quad-core 1.5 GHz Mediatek processor, and a day's worth of battery power, the handset could also appeal to business, even if it does run Android Jelly Bean.
A particularly nifty productivity-enhancing feature demoed on stage is the “float” UI, which allows the user to multi-task, switching between camera, phone, notes and other apps with ease thanks to a small floating shortcut icon.
Also touted is an 88° wide viewing angle for improved video conferencing, a voice activated phone unlocking function, and an Auto Profile feature which will automatically set the handset’s profile depending on its location.
The 1GB device will be available in Q3, although pricing isn’t yet available.
Not content with that little lot, Acer also unveiled a new version of its flagship 13.3in S7 ultrabook with an enhanced keyboard, improved battery life and quieter performance, as well as a “little brother”, the S3 ultrabook.
“In the new PC world users are becoming smarter and demanding a significantly enhanced overall user experience,” said Acer CEO JT Wang. “If you don’t do that they don’t buy.”
Microsoft delivers a steady practical experience
World Personal computer revenue plunged 14% year-on-year inside the initial
quarter of 2013, and much with the blame was heaped over the lukewarm reception
to Home windows 8. Microsoft's new operating process was supposed to supply a
boost on the ailing industry but has ostensibly unsuccessful to carry out
so.
Microsoft says that it's now shifted a hundred million Home windows 8 licenses, which matches the income rate of Home windows 7, but six months into your release of your previous, NetApplications studies that Home windows 8 only provides a 3.82% share with the desktop OS industry, though Home windows 7 and Home windows XP continue to dominate with 44.72% and 38.31% respectively. Again when Windows 7 was also 6 months previous it by now had an eleven.94% share, NetApplications claims.
"Users are getting Home windows eight to supply a compromised knowledge that doesn't excel both like a new cell interface or in a basic desktop interface," claimed Jay Chou, senior investigation analyst, in accordance to Reuters. "As a end result, many buyers find a decrease inside the regular Laptop working experience with no getting a lot from new options like touch. The end result is the fact that lots of people are concerned about upgrading to Home windows eight, to say absolutely nothing of enterprise buyers that are nevertheless just getting into Windows 7."
Microsoft, to its credit rating, is having energetic ways to address the numerous consumer issues about Home windows 8. The tech big will debut the totally free Windows 8.1 update (code-named "Blue") later this year, which will permit users the option of launching the OS which has a button around the base left-hand corner of their screens which is comparable for the iconic 'Start' menu of past Home windows iterations.
Will the update alter the destiny of Home windows eight? Richard Windsor, founder of the mobile-focused blog Radio No cost Mobile and also a former tech analyst at Nomura, claims that it is pretty much irrelevant, mainly because since Apple has stopped getting market share inside the Personal computer globe, Computer users will at some point need to up grade to Windows 8, supplied the Microsoft hegemony of the current market. So the Redmond, Washington-based organization will likely not be way too anxious regarding the destiny of Home windows eight at this stage.
The proposition is of the Microsoft ecosystem, "a unified working experience throughout all equipment that is certainly integrated and straightforward to implement. But practical and delightful will not be what customers see. Potential consumers are introduced with what I confer with as Blue Squares of Death," he suggests, noting that the problem went absent with Home windows seven but sadly resurfaced with Home windows eight.
"When a consumer picks up a Home windows Mobile phone or even a Home windows 8 unit at retail he or she is offered using a display screen filled with blue or crimson squares labeled Folks, Maps, Tunes, Video games and the like. Hit anyone of these squares and almost nothing is observed. Typically, the unit is not even connected. This can be the equivalent of likely right into a supercar showroom with $100,000 in the back again pocket and never currently being capable to possess a exam generate," opined Windsor.
"Furthermore, Microsoft delivers a steady practical experience from console / Television by way of Personal computer, pill and phablet the many solution to the mobile phone. These products are never ever shown collectively and thus possible purchasers never realize this is definitely an ecosystem for each and every product. How on this planet Microsoft expects consumer to get Home windows Phones and Windows 8, when it does not display them what it is able to and the way extensive its scope is, is actually a secret."
"As for [Original Tools Manufacturers], the best thing they can do is come up with devices that are impressive, very affordable, which offer new persuasive ordeals inside the Windows 8 ecosystem. You may see this with all the increase of convertibles, ultrabooks, plus the forthcoming launch of processors like Intel's Haswell, which purports to substantially increase the battery lifetime of computers," Haynes additional. "If they don't, the OEMs will discover progressively more men and women actively searching for to abandon Windows 8 and starting off the move in the direction of tablet computing rather of laptops and desktops.
Microsoft says that it's now shifted a hundred million Home windows 8 licenses, which matches the income rate of Home windows 7, but six months into your release of your previous, NetApplications studies that Home windows 8 only provides a 3.82% share with the desktop OS industry, though Home windows 7 and Home windows XP continue to dominate with 44.72% and 38.31% respectively. Again when Windows 7 was also 6 months previous it by now had an eleven.94% share, NetApplications claims.
"Users are getting Home windows eight to supply a compromised knowledge that doesn't excel both like a new cell interface or in a basic desktop interface," claimed Jay Chou, senior investigation analyst, in accordance to Reuters. "As a end result, many buyers find a decrease inside the regular Laptop working experience with no getting a lot from new options like touch. The end result is the fact that lots of people are concerned about upgrading to Home windows eight, to say absolutely nothing of enterprise buyers that are nevertheless just getting into Windows 7."
Microsoft, to its credit rating, is having energetic ways to address the numerous consumer issues about Home windows 8. The tech big will debut the totally free Windows 8.1 update (code-named "Blue") later this year, which will permit users the option of launching the OS which has a button around the base left-hand corner of their screens which is comparable for the iconic 'Start' menu of past Home windows iterations.
Will the update alter the destiny of Home windows eight? Richard Windsor, founder of the mobile-focused blog Radio No cost Mobile and also a former tech analyst at Nomura, claims that it is pretty much irrelevant, mainly because since Apple has stopped getting market share inside the Personal computer globe, Computer users will at some point need to up grade to Windows 8, supplied the Microsoft hegemony of the current market. So the Redmond, Washington-based organization will likely not be way too anxious regarding the destiny of Home windows eight at this stage.
The proposition is of the Microsoft ecosystem, "a unified working experience throughout all equipment that is certainly integrated and straightforward to implement. But practical and delightful will not be what customers see. Potential consumers are introduced with what I confer with as Blue Squares of Death," he suggests, noting that the problem went absent with Home windows seven but sadly resurfaced with Home windows eight.
"When a consumer picks up a Home windows Mobile phone or even a Home windows 8 unit at retail he or she is offered using a display screen filled with blue or crimson squares labeled Folks, Maps, Tunes, Video games and the like. Hit anyone of these squares and almost nothing is observed. Typically, the unit is not even connected. This can be the equivalent of likely right into a supercar showroom with $100,000 in the back again pocket and never currently being capable to possess a exam generate," opined Windsor.
"Furthermore, Microsoft delivers a steady practical experience from console / Television by way of Personal computer, pill and phablet the many solution to the mobile phone. These products are never ever shown collectively and thus possible purchasers never realize this is definitely an ecosystem for each and every product. How on this planet Microsoft expects consumer to get Home windows Phones and Windows 8, when it does not display them what it is able to and the way extensive its scope is, is actually a secret."
"As for [Original Tools Manufacturers], the best thing they can do is come up with devices that are impressive, very affordable, which offer new persuasive ordeals inside the Windows 8 ecosystem. You may see this with all the increase of convertibles, ultrabooks, plus the forthcoming launch of processors like Intel's Haswell, which purports to substantially increase the battery lifetime of computers," Haynes additional. "If they don't, the OEMs will discover progressively more men and women actively searching for to abandon Windows 8 and starting off the move in the direction of tablet computing rather of laptops and desktops.
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