Amazon Cloud Player App Comes to iPhone, iPod Touch -- At Last

Amazon today released its long-awaited Cloud Player App for the iPhone and iPod touch. The free app allows users of iOS devices, including the iPad, to stream or download music stored online in their Amazon Cloud account.

After launching its cloud drive and music service in March 2011, Amazon has certainly taken its time before releasing a native app for iOS. In May of last year, Amazon made its Cloud Player compatible with the mobile version of Safari. But a native app, essential to making the music service appealing to iOS users, was missing until today.

Cloud Player also lets you manage and create playlists, and play music already stored on your mobile device.

Amazon customers get 5GB of free cloud storage and can buy additional space as well, including 20GB for $20/year or 50GB for $50/year. Users who buy a storage plan receive unlimited space for MP3 and AAC (.m4a) music files at no additional cost, but only for a limited time, the company said. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Intel says Android not ready for Dual Core

Operating system needs work

Chipzilla is claiming that not enough work is being done to adapt the Android operating system to work on dual core CPUs. Intel is currently having a crack at entering the market with its single-core Medfield Atom processors and running Android on multi-core chips might be a disadvantage.

Mike Bell, general manager of Intel’s mobile and communications group, said that in mobile power use was constrained and multi-core chews up a lot of juice. He told the Inquirer that if you did not have to worry about power, multiple cores would make a lot of sense. Namely, you can run the cores full out and heavily load them if the operating system has a good thread scheduler.

But when it comes to Android, things like thread scheduling and thread affinity are not there and when the operating system goes to do a single task, a lot of other stuff stops. Bell said that moving into multiple cores on Android means that Intel has to put a lot of investment into software to fix the scheduler and fix the threading so if we do multi-core products it actually takes advantage of it.

Its other problem is that more cores generate too much heat. At the moment with the multiple core implementations in the market, "it isn’t obvious to me you really get the advantage for the size and the cost of what’s going into that part", Bell said. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Zuckerberg's wealth down $4.5 billion as Facebook tumbles on NASDAQ

The drastic fall in the share price of Facebook has significantly eroded the personal wealth of its 28 year-old co-founder Mark Zuckerberg by a massive USD 4.5 billion in just three weeks.

Zuckerberg's fortune has declined to USD 11 billion from USD 15.5 billion on May 18 when the company went public as investors have dumped the stock amid concerns over growth prospects of the social networking giant, according to the data available with stock exchanges.

Within three weeks of making an entry into the secondary market, the stock value of the company has collapsed by about 29 per cent to USD 27.10 apiece on Friday from USD 38 on debut.

Zuckerberg's about 408 million shares were valued at USD 15.5 billion based on debut price of USD 38. However, on Friday's closing price of USD 27.10 apiece, his wealth has shrunk to USD 11 billion, a erosion of around USD 4.5 billion. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Oracle Cloud Makes Public Debut

The Oracle Cloud is an effort that Ellison's company has been working on for at least seven years under the guise of its Fusion application suite. At Oracle's OpenWorld event in 2011, the company first took the wraps off the Oracle Cloud with a preview of the platform. Oracle's cloud includes versions of all its software products including database, CRM and collaboration tools.

Oracle is also taking specific aim at rival Salesforce.com with a Social Relationship Management offering that is different than traditional CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Ellison explained that the goal is to enable users of the platform to work with people before they are customers and to build relationships so that they will become customers.

Ellison onstage demonstrated the platform, which is fully integrated with social media management capabilities for Twitter and Facebook. Going a step further, the system can be used to analyze and understand what customers are saying in order to drive them to acquire more products. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Facebook rolling out App Center

(CNN) -- Make room, Apple, Google and Amazon. One more major Internet player now has an app store.

The Facebook App Center gives users a one-stop shop for Draw Something, Instagram, Pinterest and hundreds of other apps that run on the social-media mega-site.

In all, the center, which began rolling out Friday to users in the United States, will open with about 600 apps available. And, for the first time, Facebook will be offering paid apps as well as free ones from the center.

The center will be available on the Web and on Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems.

 Facebook: Is now the right time to buy? Facebook's history remains unwritten

According to Facebook, the center will offer personalized suggestions to users based on their interests and will only include "high-quality apps" based on feedback from people who use them.

When plans for the center were announced last month, Facebook said developers will now be given the option of charging a one-time fee for their apps.

"Many developers have been successful with in-app purchases, but to support more types of apps on Facebook.com, we will give developers the option to offer paid apps," Facebook's Adam Brady wrote.

Many of the apps featured in the App Center are already available on Facebook (although the site expects new ones to spring up). But with the App Center, users will be able to browse for new ones instead of randomly discovering them. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

How IT Can Reclaim Social Relevance

Social technologies are spreading through the business in a decentralized way, not via IT leadership. How can organizations and IT leaders make the most of this trend?

If there's anything that's striking about the changes taking place in technology today, it's that many of the most transformative new advances are bypassing the IT department entirely. One only has to look at the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) phenomenon to see this clearly. Most IT departments are planning to enable (if they haven't already) BYOD, a form of user-led computing adoption. It's easier and easier to make the case today that technology, especially on the edges, is increasingly moving out of IT's hands.

It hasn't always been thus: Graphical user interfaces, computer networks, the Internet, e-mail, and the first and second generations of mobile devices. All of these were embraced and realized by technology leaders as primary computing capabilities in relatively short order. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

The Second Coming Of Facebook

Facebook's eye-watering IPO has raised some awkward questions for the future of social networking. The record breaking $100 billion valuation was greeted with skepticism from some quarters, which will only have heightened in the wake of a less than stellar trading performance.

Investors and analysts are nervous. Facebook may have almost 900 million users, but the company only makes an average of $5 profit from each of them per year. Finding ways to increase that figure without alienating people is an urgent task.

Cynics might even suggest that Mark Zuckerberg and company are cashing in now precisely because future growth is uncertain, but let's not forget we're talking about a man on a publicly stated mission to change the world, for whom wealth seems to be only a secondary concern. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Bye Bye Facebook? Analyst Predicts Social Network to 'Disappear' in 5 to 8 Years

Facebook will become something of a has-been within five to eight years, according to one analyst. And while that assertion has raised a ruckus online this week, other industry analysts wouldn't be shocked if the prediction comes true.

"In five to eight years they are going to disappear in the way that Yahoo has disappeared," said Eric Jackson, founder of Ironfire Capital while appearing on CNBC's Squawk on the Street. "Yahoo is still making money. It's still profitable, still has 13,000 employees working for it. But it's 10% of the value that it was at the height of 2000. For all intents and purposes, it's disappeared." Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Tech Mahindra Q4 net rises three-fold

IT firm Tech Mahindra on Wednesday said its net profit has increased more than three-fold to Rs 302.5 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2012.

This is against Rs 92.1 crore in the same period last year, Tech Mahindra said in a statement.

Revenues during the reported quarter increased 12.5 per cent to Rs 1,419 crore from Rs 1,261.5 crore in the year-ago period. For the year ended March 31, 2012, the company's net profit grew 70 per cent to Rs 1,095.4 crore from Rs 644.1 crore.

Revenues in FY12 stood at Rs 5,489.7 crore, up 6.7 per cent from Rs 5,140.2 crore in 2010-11. Total headcount stood at 40,763 as of March 31, 2012, with software professional headcount at 24,833.

Number of BPO professionals stood at 14,792, while support staff was 1,138 at the end of March 2012. The cash and cash equivalent stood at Rs 402 crores as on balance sheet of March 31, 2012. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Facebook allows users to vote on privacy changes

Facebook is letting its nearly 1 billion users vote on changes to its privacy policy. The changes announced in May include new sections explaining how it uses people's information. 

The voting period started June 1 and runs through this week.

The changes reflect recently added features such as a new profile format called Timeline. The new policy also opens up the possibility for Facebook to start showing people ads on outside websites, targeting the pitches to interests and hobbies that users express on Facebook.

The company had announced the changes in May, a week before its initial public offering of stock. 

Facebook's highly anticipated IPO landed with a thud, closing just 23 cents above its $38 offering price on its first trading day. The stock has declined another 26 per cent in the two weeks since then.

This is the second time Facebook Inc is letting users vote on policy changes. The first time was in 2009 when Facebook was a much smaller, privately held company with fewer than 200 million users. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Money On The Margin

Do you want to own a profitable e-commerce business? Starting a full-fledged online retail store can be a daunting task involving investment in inventory, warehouse and logistics to procure and deliver products. 

How about an online business where all that you need to do is collect payments? Sounds too good to be true? Thanks to the drop-ship business model, it is a possibility.

Online businesses are flourishing in India. While existing e-commerce players are scaling up operations by adding products and services, new portals are successfully claiming a pie of the $10 billion Indian e-commerce market. The market still has the capacity to absorb many more players. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

AppDynamics Intros Free .NET Performance Monitoring Solution

AppDynamics announces AppDynamics Lite for .NET, its new application performance management (APM) solution for .NET applications. The software is free.

The application performance management (APM) market continues to heat up as AppDynamics, a provider of APM software, announced the release of AppDynamics Lite for .NET.

AppDynamics officials called the new offering a production-ready performance monitoring tool for Microsoft’s .NET framework. The company expanded the scope of AppDynamics Lite, which has been available for the Java platform with more than 70,000 users.

AppDynamics Lite for .NET is free. The .NET monitoring product enables IT staffs to quickly troubleshoot and diagnose performance problems in production. AppDynamics Lite installs in less than 90 seconds, identifies and monitors an application's business transactions, and gives insight into common application issues such as slow SQL, stalls, errors and slow response time, the company said. The software comes with code-level diagnostics as well as trending and alerting capabilities. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Windows 8, Windows Store Need Tweaking to Change PC Users' Expectations

Microsoft released its Windows 8 Release Preview May 31, a follow-up to the Consumer Preview of the new operating system that it released in February. Included in the new Release is an early look at Windows Store, Microsoft’s answer to the App Store—in as much as Windows 8, with its Metro aesthetic, is an answer to Apple’s success and the halo effects that have endeared many a PC user to the iPhone, iPad and even Mac.

Microsoft has a tremendous amount riding on its new platform, which is widely expected to ship this fall. Global purchases of PCs have been put on hold, as buyers wait and see, and the tablet market is expected to shift with the introduction of a new, major player, as a considerable portion of enterprise customers, more comfortable with Microsoft than with Apple, finally embrace the tablet form factor.

The Release Preview store offers an app catalog for users in 26 markets, up from five during the Consumer Preview, as well as 33 new developer submission locales and more on the way. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Microsoft Sets Do Not Track as Default in Internet Explorer 10

Microsoft, as it has done with the current version of its Internet Explorer Web browser, is enabling support of the Do Not Track effort with its next-generation IE 10.

However, unlike what Microsoft did with IE 9 and other browser vendors have done, Microsoft is making the Do Not Track capability the default setting, generating praise from some consumer privacy advocates but drawing the ire of advertisers.

Do Not Track is one of several initiatives under way to protect the of online users, who are increasingly wary of the amount of personal data that is being collected by the likes of Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple and what those companies are doing with the information. With Do Not Track, users can essentially decide against being racked by third-party advertisers who hope to use the information gleaned from users’ online habits for more targeted advertising. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

SBI, RBI and Google among top job destinations for young jobseekers

MUMBAI: Indian students are veering towards public sector jobs and domestic firms to find a cushion against an uncertain economy, which clocked its lowest quarterly growth rate in nine years at 5.3%.

This trend, visible globally as well, reflects on how youngsters are looking at job security as one of the most important parameters while choosing their future employers.

While the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) and State Bank of India ( SBI) emerged as the most preferred employer for under-graduate business students in the country, engineering and MBA students chose technology giant-Google as their ideal employer in a survey conducted among 8,356 students across Indian colleges by Universum, a global consulting firm that helps companies improve their attractiveness to prospective jobseekers. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

US job growth plunges again, Fed most likely to go for QE3

WASHINGTON: U.S. job growth braked sharply for a third straight month in May and the unemployment rate rose for the first time in nearly a year, raising chances of further monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve to support the sputtering recovery. 

Employers added a paltry 69,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the least since May of last year, and 49,000 fewer jobs were created in the previous two months than had been thought, the Labor Department said on Friday. 

The report is troubling for President Barack Obama, whose prospects of winning re-election in November could hinge on the economy's health. Republican opponent Mitt Romney called the report "a harsh indictment" of Obama's policies. 

The jobless rate rose to 8.2 percent in May from 8.1 percent in April, although the increase reflected more people entering the labor force to look for work, a possible sign of growing confidence.  Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

U.N. Warns Member Countries of 'Flame' Cyber-Spying Malware

The United Nations' International Telecommunication Union is issuing a warning for nations to be on guard for the newly identified Flame malware, according to a report.

"This is the most serious [cyber] warning we have ever put out," Marco Obiso, cyber-security coordinator for the U.N.'s Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union, told Reuters.

Also known as Skywiper and Flamer, the malware has been discovered on systems in the Middle East, and has hit Iran the hardest. The discovery prompted Iran’s National Computer Emergency Response Team to issue an alert stating the malware was tied to multiple incidents of “mass data loss” in the country’s computer networks.

Thought to be a tool for cyber-espionage, security researchers say the malware has been traced back to at least 2010, with experts at the Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security (CrySys) at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics stating it may have been operational for five years or more.Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

White House Enlists Government, Industry in Botnet Offensive

The White House has announced a series of initiatives in partnership with government agencies and the private sector to combat botnets.

The initiatives, which were announced May 30 at an event at the White House, are the result of a partnership between the Homeland Security and Commerce Department, the White House Cybersecurity Office and a coalition of trade associations and non-profits known as the Industry Botnet Group (IBG).

“The issue of botnets is larger than any one industry or country," said White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt, in a statement. "This is why partnership is so important. The principles the IBG are announcing today draw on expertise from the widest range of players, with leadership coming from the across the private sector, and partnering with the government on items like education, consumer privacy and key safeguards in law enforcement.”  Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Google Chrome OS: 10 Major Issues Blocking Its Large-Scale Adoption

NEWS ANALYSIS: Google’s Chrome OS has yet to strongly establish itself with significant share of the OS market since it was officially launched a year ago. And Google finds ways to overcome the obstacles standing in the way, there is little prospect for future robust growth.

Google’s Chrome operating system came on the scene last year with hopes of becoming something special in the marketplace. The platform is cloud-based, comes with a slimmed-down interface and according to Google can take advantage of the next big trends in the online world. What’s more, it’s running on a number of Chromebook models, which are designed to take on Windows-based PCs.

However, so far, Chrome OS has done nothing of the sort. Quite the contrary, the platform has been largely ignored by both consumers and enterprise users. To help change the situation, Google recently announced some updates to its operating system that delivers a more traditional desktop user interface. In addition, two new Chrome OS-based devices launched to ring in the updates. Simply put, Google isn’t ready to let Chrome OS go down without a fight. Read More

 

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Apple CEO Tim Cook: Siri Changes Coming, Stay Tuned on Facebook, Apple TV

Apple CEO Tim Cook, at the All Things D event, opened up as much as the CEO of one of the world’s most secretive companies can. One area where he wasn’t coy: what he learned from Steve Jobs.

Apple CEO Tim Cook joined Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher on stage at the “D10: All Things D” event May 29 for conversation. Cook, famously tight-lipped, did not disappoint, offering the audience teases about future products but little in the way of news.

“Never have I seen the things I can't talk about today,” Cook said upon settling into his seat, making clear how little he planned to give up.

Mossberg and Swisher pulled and tugged, teamed up and formed separate attacks—“You’re killing me,” Mossberg said at one point—but the CEO of the notoriously secretive company offered the pair nary a detail. At least, not on anything that Apple hasn’t formally announced.

What he did say was that Apple is going to “double down” on the secrecy surrounding its products, but about other things it’s going to become “the most transparent company in the world.” Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Microsoft Readies Skype Preinstallation Kit for Windows 7 PC OEMs: Report

Facing persistent questions about what it would do to maximize the value of its $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype, Microsoft is set to release a Skype pre-installation kit to integrate the VoIP calling service into Windows PCs.

Microsoft’s acquisition of the Internet voice and video calling service Skype was completed in October 2011 and lately some market observers said they have seen little evidence that Microsoft is making much profitable use of Skype.

However, news broke on May 29 that Microsoft is going to enable PC manufacturers to pre-install a Skype application on to their Windows 7 PCs they ship to consumers and distributors. News of the pre-installation kit comes amid continuing concerns about anti-competitive issues related to the deal.

A blogger in The Netherlands, Steve Bink, who says he watches “Microsoft like a hawk,” broke the news about Microsoft’s plans to release an OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK) for PC manufacturers to install Skype 5.8 on machines running Windows 7.  Skype is already being tested for preinstallation with the coming Windows 8 OS. Read More  

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Google Chrome OS lives on with big update, new hardware

Google and Samsung introduced a revamped Chrome book laptop on Tuesday, as well as a new Chromebox – a small desktop computer that also works nicely as a media center. The experience is still aimed at those who do their work in the cloud and don't need a full desktop operating system like Windows or Mac OS X, but Chrome OS has matured enough to be attractive to the average consumer, too.

First, the software. When the first Chromebooks came out last year, Chrome OS got dinged by reviewers who said it was too limited and couldn't handle many kinds of files. This time around, Chrome OS (now on version 19, if you're counting) includes a taskbar and a window management style that's much closer to what you'd find in, say, Windows 7. And while it's still really designed to be used while you're online, constantly syncing your files to the cloud, Chrome OS also offers basic offline file management – and it can deal with more types of files than ever before. Read More

contact list | email tracking | email communication | auto responder | multi channel marketing

Hitachi IT Operations Analyzer: Performance Monitoring Tool for Midsized and Enterprise Businesses

Performance monitoring is rife with possibilities. Nowhere is the performance monitoring opportunity more evident than with businesses that are challenged to quickly and effectively determine how their servers, network devices and storage systems are functioning using current monitoring tools. A clear need has emerged for a vendor neutral performance monitoring tool that delivers comprehensive visibility into business IT systems in a single interface while automatically displaying the root cause node and detailed information to solve any failures quickly. Download this paper to find out why Hitachi IT Operations Analyzer is that performance monitoring solution. Read More

MySQL's growing NoSQL problem

Open ... and Shut Just a few short years ago, MySQL was the undisputed king of the open-source database hill. But with the NoSQL market emerging at an 82 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), it's looking like MySQL may get bulldozed by its NoSQL peers.

While this shift toward NoSQL provides an interesting commentary on where the industry is heading, it's even more instructive about the frenetic pace of innovation that open source is driving.

By most accounts, Oracle has taken good care of MySQL, investing resources to improve the technology and continuing to foster its community. As Matthew Aslett, research manager with 451 Research, notes: "The MySQL ecosystem is now arguably more healthy and vibrant than it has ever been, with a strong vendor committed to the core product, and a wealth of alternative and complementary products and services on offer to maintain competitive pressure on Oracle." Read More

Facebook Camera app for iPhone

First impressionsJust weeks after Facebook announced its intent to buy mobile photo-sharing app Instagram for close to a billion dollars, the company has announced Facebook Camera for iPhone, an app dedicated to shooting photos, applying filters, and batch uploading photos to your Timeline. The app was developed independently from Facebook for iOS by the Facebook Photos team, Photos product manager Dirk Stoop told me, and is focused on letting you share photos as quickly as possible and in higher-resolution than before. Facebook's iPhone app makes uploading multiple photos pretty cumbersome — the experience is far from reflexive. "If we have one minute of a users's time, what can we do to make it easier to share a moment?" he asked. To Stoop, sharing moments often means sharing multiple photos, which is the main focus of Facebook Camera. While you can shoot photos using a built-in camera and apply filters, uploading and browsing groups of photos is the goal. The app's rolling out now to all users in the App Store, and for some users, is already inside an "Editor's Choice" box. Read More

Playing the Facebook Blame Game

The Facebook (FB) initial public offering—preceded by an epic lawsuit over ownership, an Oscar-nominated movie, a great leap forward for sweatshirts, and the constant feedback of roughly a billion customers—was always going to be more than just a financial event. It was a cultural event, too, a global party with a get-rich-quick theme. If nothing else, the poor performance of Facebook stock in the immediate aftermath of the IPO proves that on Wall Street, those who are late to the party don’t profit.

There’s more to it than that, though. Investors are faulting everything from Morgan Stanley’s (MS) role in setting the terms of the offering to Facebook’s greed and the Nasdaq (NDAQ). Read More

Search for Streaming Video Via Verizon Wireless Viewdini

Verizon Wireless today announced a new app that will let users search for streaming video options available on their mobile device.

Dubbed viewdini, the app will search across Comcast Xfinity, Hulu Plus, mSpot, and Netflix for movies, TV shows, and other video you might want to consume. Verizon FiOS is expected to be added soon.

Viewdini is expected to launch later this month. Initially, it will be available as a free Android app via Google Play for devices running on Verizon's 4G LTE network, but the carrier said support for more operating systems will be added soon.

Verizon framed viewdini as a "mobile video aggregator." Search for a specific movie or TV show, topic, or star's name, and viewdini will let you know which app has it available for viewing. If you're not a subscriber to any of the participating video providers, viewdini will let you know how much it would cost to sign up and watch. Details like cast and crew information, as well as similar titles, will also be available. Read More

Sidecar app makes multitasking easier on smartphones

Smartphones may rule mobile. But a start-up called Sidecar believes the latest mobile phones could be smarter about the experience you have while on a good old-fashioned phone call. Its solution is the Sidecar app for Android phones, iPhone and iPod Touch that launched Tuesday as a free download in the Google Play and Apple App Stores.

By Sidecar's definition, smart-calling means that without leaving the app — and with just a couple of taps on a rotary-style interface — you can share your location on a map, photos, contacts, text messages and live see-what-I-see video with the person on the other end. Doing these tasks without the app would require extra steps.

I did all of that on the calls I made or received through the app, using an iPhone 4 and HTC One Android device. Still, for all its promise, my experience in the early going wasn't always smooth. Call quality was so-so. I encountered some dropped calls and a few other bugs. Read More

Leap will make Microsoft's Kinect sit up and take notice

With the onset of devices, like the Wii, Sony’s PlayStation Move and the Microsoft Kinect that’s the latest in virtual interaction with computers, the wire-free lifestyle at the ‘home front’ is becoming a steadfast reality. The future is in reach, is one of the mottos of a new company, called Leap Motion that aims at putting Microsoft’s Kinnect in the second place when it comes to wireless interaction and hands-free motion control with computers.

The Leap 3D motion control system is a state-of-the-art PC interaction that has been designed to offer users a greater level of control and accuracy when using gestures to work on computers. The company claims that the system is so acurate and precise that it actually offers a hundredth of a millimeter accuracy. Aside from simple waving gestures for scrolling etc., as we’ve been seeing in other formats, the Leap system offers Pinch-to-zoom gesture support, among others. All it actually is, is a small little box like device that sits in front of your display.  Read More

Microsoft Says 350 Million Windows 7 Devices To Be Sold In 2012

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) expects 350 million devices running its Windows 7 software to be shipped globally this year as it prepares the next version of the operating system to challenge Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s dominance in tablet computers.

“It makes Windows the most popular single system,” Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, said today. Ballmer, who spoke at a forum in Seoul, didn’t provide comparative figures.

Corporate demand for programs including Windows 7 helped Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft report third-quarter profit last month that exceeded estimates. The company is working on Windows 8, the newest version of the operating system that can be used in touch-screen devices, to help win back consumers and narrow Apple’s lead in the market for tablet computers.

Microsoft will finish work on Windows 8 this summer and put it on sale around October, people with knowledge of the matter said in March. Read More

Microsoft launches its own "so.cl" network

On the off chance that you have spare moment left in your life after checking Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, your email and your SMS inbox, Microsoft has launched its very own social network, so.cl. The site's name is pronounced "social".

Microsoft has been hinting at so.cl since last December, but quietly opened the site to new registrants over the weekend while the world was more interested in the valuation of Facebook and the nuptials of its CEO. The service has gone down the usual “sign up now, receive invitation later” route. El Reg’s antipodean team was deemed insufficiently cool to be allowed immediate entry, but quick watch of the launch video and a bit of paddling around inside the site revealed that it describes itself thusly. Read More

HTC EVO 4G LTE Update Release Date 5/24 No One X/S News, Yethim

The HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE were held up in customs last week due to an ITC order.  It appears that some of the devices are making it through U.S. Customs.
Sprint has confirmed that HTC EVO 4G LTE preorders will ship this Thursday.  We have not word on the HTC One X from HTC, yet.
The Sprint support page reported
"Customers who pre-ordered HTC EVO 4G LTE…Your wait is almost over! Sprint expects to begin shipping HTC EVO 4G LTE for arrival on or around Thursday, May 24 to customers who pre-ordered the device online from Sprint.
We will provide details on the full national launch as soon as possible. Thank you to everyone who has been patient while waiting for their HTC EVO 4G LTE. We will continue to update this post as additional details are available. Read More

How Facebook IPO Impacts Social Business Space

The Facebook IPO will be the largest tech IPO in history, and reverberations will be felt throughout the social business space.

Today, more and more organizations are using or evaluating business social networking solutions to improve collaboration and communications, increase brand awareness, more actively engage with internal and external customers, and streamline customer service and help desk operations. While none of the experts we interviewed thinks that Facebook has any interest in getting into the internal social networking business, the company's landmark IPO--priced at $38 a share and expected to raise $16 billion--will increase awareness of, and interest in, business social networking. As Dachis Group Chief Strategy Officer Peter Kim put it, "A rising tide lifts all boats." Read More

Voyager Mobile's No-Contract, Frill-Free Wireless Plans Now On Sale

Another mobile carrier in the States? Well, we can't really complain about increased competition, now can we? With the MVNO library growing by the month (seemingly, anyway), here's another to consider: Voyager Mobile. After a slight delay, the startup is now "taking orders," offering such phones as the Samsung Galaxy S II and Epic 4G Touch. It's offering a nationwide network, which allows customers to actually earn goodies by talking. Best of all, wireless plans of unlimited nature start at just $19, with no contracts and "no gimmicks." That $19+tax plan includes voicemail, unlimited talk and unlimited text within America. $39+ tax (per month, of course) gets you 3G/4G internet access as well. On both, you can keep your existing phone number.  Read More

Facebook Suit Over Subscriber Tracking Seeks $15 Billion

Facebook Inc. (FB), the social network operator whose shares began trading today, was sued for $15 billion in an amended complaint by subscribers who claim the company invaded their privacy by tracking their Internet use.

In the complaint filed yesterday in federal court in San Jose, California, the plaintiffs say Facebook improperly tracked users even after they logged out. Twenty-one cases making similar claims have been consolidated before the court. The latest filing seeks to proceed on behalf of U.S. residents who subscribed to Facebook from May 2010 to September 2011.
 

Facebook, which sold stock in an initial public offering valuing the company at about $104 billion, has been scrutinized by regulators in the U.S. and Europe over how it protects users’ private information. Last year, a German data-protection agency said it may fine the Menlo Park, California-based company over facial-recognition software used for tagging photos. Read More

Infographic: 4G LTE speeds, Verizon vs. AT&T

We’re witnessing the start of a long cold war between the two superpowers of the wireless industry.

Back in December 2010, Superpower No. 1 (Verizon) became the first to offer new super-fast 4G LTE service in the U.S., and today people in 258 cities can connect to it. Superpower No. 2 (AT&T) launched its own competing LTE service last fall. Now in 38 cities, that service is turning out faster speeds than Verizon's.

The infographic below shows each carrier’s average LTE speed in the cities we tested where both LTE services are offered. The cities are ranked according to a composite score of AT&T and Verizon LTE download speed.

Because the AT&T network is so new, it is not being used by a very large number of people. Its speeds, which routinely clock in at up to 20 Mbps, will likely cool off somewhat over the next year as LTE subscriber numbers climb. For now, our tests show, AT&T LTE is roughly 25 percent faster than Verizon’s in cities where both services are offered. Yes, it appears we have a wireless “broadband gap”—just the thing to heat up a cold war.  Read More

Facebook Takes Charge Of Apps, Opens Store

To close a self-described gap written into its IPO, Facebook announced that it is launching App Center, a repository for applications that will run within Facebook, iOS, or Android devices. Facebook says it will launch App Center "in the next few weeks" and that it fundamentally changes the way Facebook advertises, distributes, and profits from applications.

App Center will largely be modeled after Apple's App Store or Google Play in that it will be a single location for apps that are submitted by developers and approved by Facebook. Facebook says not all apps will be approved and that it has the right to reject any that doesn't meet its standards. This isn't to say that Facebook is opening a store to directly compete with Apple or Google. In fact it will frequently refer users directly to Apple or Google to install the app, so it might be more like a gatekeeper sitting in front of other stores.  Read More

FBI Steps Up 'Internet Doomsday' Awareness Malware Campaign

PC users infected with a strain of malware called DNS Changer will face their own personal Internet doomsday in July unless they disinfect their computers, the FBI warns.

Users have until July 9 to rid themselves of the DNS Changer malware, which can infect Windows PCs and Macs alike. After that, the FBI will throw a switch that prevents infected computers from accessing the Internet.

It's not as Big Brother as it sounds. DNS Changer is a Trojan that surfaced in 2007 and infected millions of machines. The malware would redirect computers to hacker-created Websites, where cyber-criminals sold at least $14 million in advertisements. DNS Changer also prevented computers from updating or using anti-virus software, leaving them vulnerable to even more malicious software. Read More

Here's what Android fragmentation really looks like

Open Signal Maps is a nifty free Android app and Web site that crowdsources where the strongest and weakest cell signals are. But along the way, it's also managed to amass a ton of data about what kind of Android devices are out there in the wild and they pulled it all together into some visualizations that dramatically show the extent of Android fragmentation.

OSM started logging the Android devices that download the app six months ago and created the above visualization -- the interactive version on the site is a little more informative -- from a sample size of 681,900 devices. What it reveals is that Samsung's Galaxy series, particularly the Galaxy S II, is far and away the top dog, followed distantly by the HTC Desire series. After that, it turns into quite a mess of devices ranging from other heavy hitters like Motorola's Droids down to the Hungarian Concorde Tab, which showed up once. Read More

Oracle patent claims versus Google sent to jury

(Reuters) - A California jury began another round of deliberations on Tuesday in a high profile trial over allegations that Google's Android mobile platform violates Oracle's intellectual property rights.

The jury has already wrestled with Oracle's copyright claims against Google and delivered a partial verdict last week. Now, jurors are mulling Oracle's patent claims, but the potential patent damages appear far less than what is involved in the copyright allegations.

Oracle sued Google in August 2010, saying Android infringes on its intellectual property rights to the Java programming language. Google says it does not violate Oracle's patents and that Oracle cannot copyright certain parts of Java, an "open-source," or publicly available, software language. Read More

HTC new phone U.S. sales delayed due to customs review

TAIPEI (Reuters) - U.S. sales of two new smartphones from Taiwan's HTC Corp will be delayed due to a patent dispute with Apple Inc, a fresh blow to the company as it tries to turn around declining sales in what was once its largest market that knocked its shares down 5 percent.

Apple scored a narrow victory against HTC in a patent lawsuit in December over technology in the smartphones, one of many such disputes in the fiercely competitive smartphone market.

HTC said in a statement on Wednesday that "the U.S. availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC (International Trade Commission) exclusion order".

Under that ruling, HTC phones with the disputed technology would be banned from entering the U.S. from April 19. HTC has said that it has a workaround in its new phones to avoid the technology. The shipments still require inspection however. Read More

HTC Desire C official: ICS and Beats on a budget

HTC has officially revealed its latest Android smartphone, the HTC Desire C, toting Beats Audio and Ice Cream Sandwich for the entry-level market. Based around a 3.5-inch HVGA touchscreen and borrowing some of the micro-drilled style of the One S and One X, the Desire C also has a 5-megapixel camera and will be offered alongside a second, NFC-equipped variant.

Meanwhile, there’s also 25GB of free Dropbox space for two years, and easy sync between the Desire C and the cloud. HTC Sense 4.0 is, unsurprisingly, onboard too, though likely the somewhat pared back version we saw on the One V rather than the more system-intensive build on the higher-spec One Series models.

HTC isn’t saying much about the NFC functionality, only that the Desire C “keeps pace with new mobile services as they become available” and that users of the model will be able to “make payments or access information and offers.” Both versions will have Beats Audio, of course, with a combination of software and hardware tweaks to make the most of music. Read More

Roundup: Apple MacBook rumors

Since Apple announced the dates for this year's WWDC, there has been speculation whether the notoriously-secretive company would be introducing any new products at the event. Apple's annual developers conference covers both iOS and OS X, which suggests either new laptops or the next iPhone. Of course, it's possible that just like last year, there won't be any hardware announcements at the event.

However, there are reasons for us to be optimistic. Recent rumors indicate that new MacBooks are imminent and given how prescient such rumors can be nowadays--the ones about the latest iPad were mostly accurate--we are reasonably confident that Apple's notebook refresh will be coming next month. Here's what you can probably expect from the new MacBooks.   Read More

Nokia introduces new range of mobile phones to provide a fast, affordable internet experience

Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 offer Facebook, Twitter, world-class EA games and access to thousands of apps from the Nokia Store

Karachi, Pakistan - Nokia has today unveiled two new mobile phone models as it continues to accelerate its strategy to connect the next billion consumers to information and the internet. The Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 have been designed to appeal to young, urban consumers who want to experience a fast, affordable online experience.

Both devices are perfect for communicating across Facebook, Twitter and social media networks. The internet experience is also smooth thanks to the Nokia Browser. This innovative technology allows users to consume less data by up to 90%, by compressing websites in the cloud. Both devices offer direct access to Facebook and Twitter from their home screens. The Nokia 112 also features preloaded eBuddy instant messaging service right out of the box, so users can use popular chat services to keep conversations going 24/7.  Read More

Summer gas prices to be stable

Gasoline prices likely won't set any records this summer, thanks to a recent drop in the price of oil.

The government on Tuesday slashed its forecast for average gas prices to $3.79 per gallon for the summer driving season. That's down from an initial estimate of $3.95 and below 2008's record average of $3.80.

The Energy Information Administration's revised forecast is encouraging news for the economy.

Some economists blame high pump prices for so-so consumer spending this year. They were also seen as a factor in the loss of 35,000 retail jobs in February and March. Read More

Microsoft's Bing aims to ding Google with new format

Microsoft's Bing search engine is heading in a new direction as it drills deeper into Facebook's social network and Twitter's messaging service to showcase information unlikely to be found on Google.

The changes, unveiled on Thursday in the US, will reshape how Bing displays its search results. It represents Microsoft's most dramatic shift in internet search since the software maker introduced Bing as a "decision engine" nearly three years ago.

Microsoft is counting on the new format to loosen Google's stranglehold on the lucrative internet search market. In the process, Microsoft hopes to turn a profit in its online division, which has lost more than $US6.3 billion since Bing's June 2009 debut. Read More

HTC Evo 4G LTE

The good: Powerful parts, lovely screen, stunning design, and an excellent camera help the Evo 4G LTE re-stoke the fires of the Evo faithful.

The bad: With 4G LTE in its name, the newest Evo's lack of Sprint LTE at launch is a huge let down.

The bottom line: The HTC Evo 4G LTE is a worthy successor to Sprint's Evo family, as long as you remember one important caveat: until Sprint gets its LTE network off the ground, the Evo 4G LTE won't actually run 4G -- it will be 3G only at first. Read More

New iPad to hit 30 more countries this weekend, work on its tan

The corners of the Earth that don't have a new iPad have been quickly shrinking, and Apple's tablet is about to get nigh-on inescapable as of this weekend. A round of 23 more countries is getting the 2012 refresh on May 11, most of it being South American countries such as Foxconn's new manufacturing hub, Brazil. Parts of Africa and southeast Asia will be served as well, such as the home of our favorite unofficial hands-on sessions, Vietnam. Seven Persian Gulf countries will get their Retina Display fix one day later. By the time the weekend is up, the iPad will be available in nearly 90 countries on this planet, which makes it highly likely that anyone reading this article can find the slate in a local retail store. Read More

Did Apple settle on Plan B for the third-generation iPad?

As great as the third-generation -- aka "new" -- iPad is, I've always wondered whether the design was compromised.

Of course that statement alone is enough to incur the everlasting wrath of the Apple crowd. So let me say that I use the gen 3 iPad pretty much every day and have relegated my older iPad 2 to backup duty. In other words, I like the new iPad and love the 2048x1536-pixel, 264-pixels-per-inch (ppi) Retina display. (Not to mention the 4G LTE.)

Still, the fact that the newer version is thicker and heavier than the older one strikes me as being at odds with Jobsian philosophy, as I've written before. (And it has given me newfound appreciation for my 10-inch Motorola Xyboard tablet, which is easier to hold for long periods of time than the new iPad.)  Read More

Image of Samsung ‘Mandel’ based on Windows Phone OS surfaces

Now that Samsung’s Galaxy S III has been officially unveiled, it’s time for some leaked pictures of a new Sammy handset, this time, based on Windows Phone. There were rumours floating around the Internet towards the tail-end of last year, about how Samsung was planning on launching a pair of LTE-enabled Windows Phone devices sometime in 2012. Could this be the first of the two? Codenamed ‘Mandel’, this new phone will run on Windows Phone OS, most likely Mango, whenever it launches.  Read More

Yahoo Confirms Incorrect Academic Information on New CEO's Resume

CEO Scott Thompson earned a degree in accounting, not computer science, as his resume states. A key shareholder wants an investigation into the company's business ethics.
Yahoo's headaches don't seem to subside.
The troubled Web search and services company is on the defensive against one of its largest stockholders, hedge fund director Daniel Loeb, who did some research and found that the company's new CEO, Scott Thompson, didn't earn a degree in computer science as his resume states. Yahoo also used the misinformation in a regulatory filing with the SEC last week.Thompson (pictured), who replaced Carol Bartz four months ago as the company's chief executive officer, attended a small eastern school, Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., and attained an accounting degree there in 1979, according to the institution's Web site. Yahoo's board of directors now will review Thompson's background, a company spokesman told Reuters. Yahoo will also make an appropriate disclosure to shareholders when the review is complete, the spokesman said.

Readmore

Samsung unwraps latest Galaxy rival to iPhone

(Reuters) - Samsung Electronics unveiled a new top-of-the-range Galaxy smartphone in London on Thursday, updating the most direct rival to Apple's iPhone with a larger touch screen and more powerful processor.

The South Korean technology group, which overtook Finnish company Nokia (NOK1V.HE) as the world's biggest cellphone maker earlier this year, said the new Galaxy SIII model would go on sale in some markets in late May and around the world from June.Last week, Samsung (005930.KS) reported a record $5.2 billion quarterly profit, boosted by Galaxy smartphone range whose sales outstripped the iPhone.

Samsung sold around 45 million smartphones in the first quarter and contributed most of its operating profit.The new Galaxy SIII model will have a 4.8 inch touch screen, 8 megapixel camera and will use the latest version of Google's (GOOG.O) Android software.

Read more