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IT embraces bring your own device in corporate deployme... May 18 2012 21:41:05	BetaNews.Com
IT embraces bring your own device in corporate deployment, despite risks While the bring-your-own-device phenomenon in IT presents a fair amount of risk to enterprise security, most companies are warming up to the idea anyway. A Cisco-sponsored survey of 600 IT and business leaders found that 95 percent of their companies allow employee-owned devices on the corporate network. Of all companies surveyed, 36 percent support all BYOD devices, while 48 percent support a select list of devices. An additional 11 percent tolerate employee-owned devices on enterprise networks... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
iPhone meets its match May 18 2012 18:10:58	BetaNews.Com
iPhone meets its match Finally, initial sales of another smartphone smoke iPhone -- that is if leaked numbers prove true. Samsung Galaxy S III goes on sale in 11 days, but preorders reportedly already top 9 million. By comparison, the much-lauded iPhone 4S sold 4 million units, including preorders, during its first three days of availability. At this pace, Galaxy S III is poised to be the biggest smartphone launch to date. Samsung announced the smartphone on May 3, when I asked: "Is iPhone 4S obsolete?" Surely someone... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Facebook's IPO is a jackpot for some, despite dark shad... May 18 2012 17:49:54	BetaNews.Com
Facebook's IPO is a jackpot for some, despite dark shadow of mobile Today is Facebook Day, the day when the most-successful-social-network-so-far opened up to public investment and outshone all other American IPOs up to this point. With shares initially priced at $38, Facebook (FB) opened at $42.99 on the Nasdaq at 11:30am EST on Friday. After a brief delay in trading on Friday, a reported 82 million shares (of 421.2 million) were traded in the first 30 seconds of availability, totaling $116 billion. This surge and retreat in price is thought to have been the re... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Now in beta, ESET Smart Security 6 and NOD32 Antivirus 6 May 18 2012 15:36:11	BetaNews.Com
Now in beta, ESET Smart Security 6 and NOD32 Antivirus 6 ESET has released NOD32 Antivirus 6 and Smart Security 6 to public beta, and is attempting to lure early adopters by offering a chance to win one of 500 one-year licences for Smart Security. Top of the new feature list must be Anti-Theft, a web service which aims to help you locate missing devices. If you’ve enabled anything similar on your phone or tablet then you’ll know what to expect – you can log on with a browser, perhaps see the position of your device on a map, view grabs of th... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
LastPass Wallet secures your iPad and iPhone information May 18 2012 15:27:23	BetaNews.Com
LastPass Wallet secures your iPad and iPhone information LastPass.com, developer of the LastPass family of password-storage products, has released a new free app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. LastPass Wallet is designed to give iOS users a taster of the LastPass feature set by providing a tool for viewing, creating and managing secure notes, one of the service’s lesser known features. The app provides templates for users to quickly create notes for sensitive personal information often found in the user’s wallet or purse, such as credit card... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Turns text files into 3D-animated ebooks May 18 2012 14:10:48	BetaNews.Com
Turns text files into 3D-animated ebooks Plain, ordinary text files aren’t normally the most interesting ways to convey information, but if you’d like to change that then Toolwiz FlipBook may be able to help. Just point the program at a particular TXT file, and in a click it’ll be converted into an executable file. And launching this on any Windows PC will display your file’s contents in a 3D book. Readers can navigate the book via keyboard or mouse, and will see an animated flipping effect as the pages turn. Exactly how usef... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Will you make Mark Zuckerberg rich? May 18 2012 13:21:09	BetaNews.Com
Will you make Mark Zuckerberg rich? Stated differently: Will you invest in Facebook? The third-largest IPO in history begins today. Facebook set a price of $38 share, which values the social network at about $104 billion. Twenty-eight year-old cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be super wealthy, if Facebook gets its price (and likely much more) as I post ahead of the market's open. Facebook makes available 421.2 million shares. Zuckerberg maintains voting majority, 503.6 million, which at $38 is $19.1 billion, making him the 2... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Comcast ditches data caps, but charges heavy users over... May 17 2012 22:32:14	BetaNews.Com
Comcast ditches data caps, but charges heavy users overage fees Comcast said Thursday it plans to make changes to its pricing structure to start billing for the amount of data customers use, versus the capped method in place today. The cable company will test two different pricing structures in some markets, while hard enforcement of the 250GB cap put into place in 2008 would end. Both piloted pricing structures give users 300GB of data at a flat rate. Where they differ is in how this allotment is treated: one solution places this cap across all of Comcast's... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Windows Phone reaches for the bottom May 17 2012 22:11:08	BetaNews.Com
Windows Phone reaches for the bottom Sometimes, BetaNews readers really amaze me. Three days ago I posted "The measure of Windows Phone failure is..." based on comScore US smartphone OS market share data. To me, it was a trivial story, because I was days late writing about the numbers and posted it more as filler, being short writers (because of holidays and emergencies). More than 220 comments later, Windows Phone is hot-topic of debate among you. Yesterday, Gartner released first-quarter global phone sales data that puts to end a... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Trackerbird launches, lets you collect user analytics i... May 17 2012 18:48:22	BetaNews.Com
Trackerbird launches, lets you collect user analytics in your .NET apps Cloud-based desktop software analytics platform Trackerbird completed its beta phase and launched to general availability on Thursday. The platform lets .NET software developers and vendors embed tracking mechanisms in their software to watch installations, trends in feature usage, user behaviour, demographics, and license conversions. It's similar in concept to Concerity Analytics, which we launched here on BetaNews two years ago. By integrating Trackerbird's SDK into a desktop application, dev... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
4G LTE: 1 billion served by 2017 May 17 2012 18:23:34	BetaNews.Com
4G LTE: 1 billion served by 2017 Unsurprisingly, 4G LTE is the fastest growing cellular network technology, in part for what it delivers and deployment's timing. Strategy Analytics forecasts that 4G LTE will reach 1 billion connections, or 15 percent of all, by 2017. That compares to 12 years for GSM and about 11 years for WCDMA to reach as many. But LTE isn't gain without pain. In the United States, Verizon by far and large has the most expansive 4G network, reaching 250 metro areas and 200 million Americans compared to 38 met... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Earthlink debuts hosted desktop services, adds cloud ex... May 17 2012 16:03:17	BetaNews.Com
Earthlink debuts hosted desktop services, adds cloud expert to executive team Earthlink this week strengthened its cloud services offerings, debuting a hosted desktop solution that allows customers access regardless of device and via both the Internet and secure MPLS connections. Over 250 applications are supported, and customers may also install their own custom applications. Since the middle of last year, EarthLink has been transforming its business from an ISP to cloud services provider. In July, the company promoted Brian Fink to executive vice president of managed an... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
FeedDemon 4.1 drops Google Reader sharing features May 17 2012 15:45:45	BetaNews.Com
FeedDemon 4.1 drops Google Reader sharing features It’s a strange day when some of the biggest news about the latest release of an application is a feature's removal, but this is the case with the latest version of FeedDemon. Some months ago, Google announced plans to make changes to its Reader service and this has ultimately led to FeedDemon removing the sharing features that relied on this particular service, but Google+ mostly been picks up the slack. The most recent version of FeedDemon also has a number of other changes and additions tha... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Blackbaud CRM for nonprofits gets major feature upgrade... May 17 2012 15:35:05	BetaNews.Com
Blackbaud CRM for nonprofits gets major feature upgrade, Web interface Catering to the special marketing needs of nonprofit organizations, Blackbaud Inc. on Thursday released a new version of its Blackbaud CRM software which expands the software's functionality with a new browser-based dashboard, new fundraising and membership management functionality, and improved overall data management. The major addition to Blackbaud CRM 2.93 is its Web dashboard. Previously, the software was only available as a Windows application, but now it can be accessed through Internet E... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Flipboard 1.9 for iOS lets you listen while you look May 17 2012 15:20:43	BetaNews.Com
Flipboard 1.9 for iOS lets you listen while you look iOS app Flipboard has already earned itself something of a name as a great way to aggregate multiple social networks and news media into a single, more easily managed stream. The latest version of the iPhone and iPad app sees the introduction of support for audio as well as the more usual text and image based content. Audio content can be scanned through just as you would the rest of your feeds, but it can also be played in the background while you continue with your browsing. There is support... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Auslogic BoostSpeed 5.3 and Disk Defrag 3.4.3 are big u... May 17 2012 14:49:39	BetaNews.Com
Auslogic BoostSpeed 5.3 and Disk Defrag 3.4.3 are big upgrades Australian software developer Auslogics has released major updates for two of its Windows performance tools. Auslogics BoostSpeed 5.3.0.0 is the company’s flagship tool, an all-in-one performance manager, whileAuslogics Disk Defrag 3.4.3.0 - whose functionality is included in BoostSpeed -- provides a free (for personal use) hard drive optimization tool. The latest build includes numerous feature additions, performance improvements and bug fixes, plus introduces “partial” compatibility w... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Secure your connections with HTTPS Everywhere May 17 2012 13:24:00	BetaNews.Com
Secure your connections with HTTPS Everywhere When browsing the Internet you may well have noticed that some of sites you visit are secure, while others are not. While HTTPS is most often used for secure shopping and banking web sites, there is no reason that connections to other pages should not be encrypted to help improve privacy and security. If this is something that has concerned you, HTTPS Everywhere could be just what you have been looking for. This free browser extension can be used to ensure that a secure connection is used when... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Ditch Windows Explorer, go retro with XFile May 17 2012 12:06:07	BetaNews.Com
Ditch Windows Explorer, go retro with XFile If you used PCs back in the 1980s then you’ll probably remember that file management was, well, a little basic. To put it politely. But that all changed in 1985 with the arrival of XTree, a powerful file manager that came packed with functionality: the geeks of the day loved its feature set, speed and extensive list of keyboard shortcuts. It didn’t last, of course -- the program was essentially killed off by the arrival of Windows Explorer. Which, while nothing like as powerful as XTree, was... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Samsung accounts for 40% of Android smartphone sales May 16 2012 22:26:59	BetaNews.Com
Samsung accounts for 40% of Android smartphone sales The figure is so important, I'm breaking it out from the long analysis posted mid-afternoon about the smartphone market consolidating around Apple and Samsung. The South Korean electronics giant is doing to Android on smartphones what Amazon does on tablets: Hugely fragment the market around a forked operating system. I warned about this three weeks ago in post "Google has lost control of Android". Now there is sales data to back it up. Earlier today, Gartner released first quarter sales data fo... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
LG actually did some cool stuff with its new Android UI May 16 2012 20:26:54	BetaNews.Com
LG actually did some cool stuff with its new Android UI There are many manufacturer-created user interfaces for Android, and sadly, most of them are unpleasant. Some are polluted with unremovable bloatware, some are sluggish performers, and some are just badly designed. For as many different versions of the Android user experience as there are, there are very few major builds that add remarkable innovations on top of the Android platform. Wednesday, South Korean consumer electronics maker LG officially launched its new Android UI built on the Android... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Enterprise IT turns to cloud storage to fight data loss May 16 2012 20:02:36	BetaNews.Com
Enterprise IT turns to cloud storage to fight data loss If you're worried about data loss, turn to the cloud. That's what a new survey commissioned by CA suggests. Fifty-five percent of all US businesses expect usage of the cloud to increase to meet continuity objectives. That's an important statistic considering every one of the 300 businesses participating in the study experienced some type of data loss event in the past year. Among the most common reasons for data loss are IT system failures (76 percent); human error (41 percent); and external thr... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Smartphone market consolidates around Apple and Samsung May 16 2012 19:47:36	BetaNews.Com
Smartphone market consolidates around Apple and Samsung Today, Gartner put to end weeks of cellular handset debate. Apple apologists disputed Samsung's smartphone success over iPhone -- the presumption that the South Korean electronics giant benefits from greater shipments vs actual sales. Make no mistake: Samsung is the global leader overall and in the smartphone category, based on actual sales. Apologist arguments be damned. That said, Apple's position is solid. Together, Apple and Samsung combined smartphone sales market share approaches 50 percen... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Get autotext and autocorrect in any app May 16 2012 17:35:52	BetaNews.Com
Get autotext and autocorrect in any app Anyone who’s tapped into Microsoft Word’s autotext and autocorrect features will know how useful they can be, but what happens when you need that kind of automation in another program? The answer lies with a free-for-personal-use tool called PhraseExpress 8.0151. This clever and powerful text replacement tool, also available as a portable build, gives you Autotext and Autocorrect functionality – plus a heck of a lot more – across your entire desktop, letting you speed up the way you en... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Apple patents block HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE from U.S. ... May 16 2012 17:08:54	BetaNews.Com
Apple patents block HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE from U.S. market "The US 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 exclusion order," a boilerplate statement from Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC said on Wednesday. The company's flagship smartphones are being held up in customs as a result of patent litigation with Apple, and their availability to consumers is currently on hold. Though it only launched on May 6, AT&T currently lists the One X as "sold ou... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Get ready for Commerce-as-a-Service: NetSuite takes sel... May 16 2012 15:25:30	BetaNews.Com
Get ready for Commerce-as-a-Service: NetSuite takes selling to the cloud You've heard of Platform-as-a-Service, and Infrastructure-as-a-Service; maybe even Gaming-as-a-Service, too, from BetaNews' reporting on Tuesday. Get ready for the latest X-as-a-Service, thanks to a new Commerce-as-a-Service (CaaS) initiative from NetSuite. The company debuted the initiative on Wednesday, saying CaaS will help partners manage both business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions regardless of device. CaaS uses NetSuite's Enterprise Resource Planning as its backbone, bu... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
When WHOIS isn't enough, there's DomainHostingView May 16 2012 13:45:11	BetaNews.Com
When WHOIS isn't enough, there's DomainHostingView When you need to know more about a web domain, then your first instinct will probably be to visit your favorite WHOIS site. But while that’s quick and easy, there could be an even more convenient solution in NirSoft’s DomainHostingView. As ever with NirSoft tools, the program is portable and extremely small (just 219KB including documentation), and it’s very straightforward to use: just type the name in question in the Domain box, click Go, then wait as DomainHostingView uses a variety of... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
MiTeC InfoBar is one of the most versatile, useful desk... May 16 2012 05:27:02	BetaNews.Com
MiTeC InfoBar is one of the most versatile, useful desktop tools we’ve ever seen At first glance, MiTeC InfoBar looks much like a host of other desktop tools. There’s a display of your CPU utilization here, your free RAM there -- not exactly the most interesting or essential of applications. But wait. There’s much more here than you might think, and on closer exploration, InfoBar just might be one of the most versatile and feature-packed desktop accessories we’ve ever seen. Launch the program, for instance, and a small horizontal toolbar will appear at the top of yo... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Nvidia's GPUs in the cloud will shake up virtualization... May 15 2012 23:20:35	BetaNews.Com
Nvidia's GPUs in the cloud will shake up virtualization, gaming industries GPUs first revolutionized visual computing, and now may revolutionize cloud computing as well. Nvidia introduced its GPUs for the cloud Tuesday at the annual GPU Technology Conference, an innovation it calls the third important milestone for the industry since the introduction of the GPU in 1993. Nvidia's cloud GPUs are based on the company's Kepler architecture and has been in development for the past five years. The virtualization capabilities of Kepler make it ideal for use in large datacente... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
SyncBackSE 6.1 is chock full of bug fixes May 15 2012 22:35:06	BetaNews.Com
SyncBackSE 6.1 is chock full of bug fixes SyncBackSE is a solid, reliable backup tool that has fared well in tests and compares very well to expensive alternatives. Version 6.1 of the software has just been released, and besides the addition of a Russian translation and new email options, there are a host of updates and fixes to explore. There are very few new features in the latest release, but the ability to view FTP and email communication messages has been added. On the problem fixes front, an issue that saw file and folder filteri... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
As Red Hat Enterprise Linux turns 10, focus shifts to t... May 15 2012 22:18:15	BetaNews.Com
As Red Hat Enterprise Linux turns 10, focus shifts to the cloud Red Hat celebrated the 10th anniversary of its flagship Enterprise Linux product, but reaffirmed the decision to shift focus to cloud computing, pledging that open-source roots would be key to success in the new business venture. The company plans to release Enterprise Linux 7 in in late 2013, but offered little during a Tuesday press conference on what to expect. What may play a large part in the new release is a focus on the cloud. For all intents and purposes, Red Hat believes Linux is in the... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Dell adds secure application data synchronization to cl... May 15 2012 19:47:39	BetaNews.Com
Dell adds secure application data synchronization to cloud portfolio Less than a week after announcing a major Desktop-as-a-Service product in Simplified DaaS, Dell said Tuesday it would offer methods to securely sync sensitive data across disparate cloud services. Called Integration Packs, Dell initially is offering synchronization services between Salesforce CRM and the software version of QuickBooks. An integration pack for synchronization between the online version of QuickBooks and Salesforce CRM and Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce CRM is due in June. All ... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Chrome 19 arrives with tab syncing -- get it now! May 15 2012 17:16:44	BetaNews.Com
Chrome 19 arrives with tab syncing -- get it now! Google just pumped out another stable release of its web browser as Chrome 19 sees the light of day. It seems as though new browser releases are becoming an almost daily occurrence these days, so what can you expect from Google’s latest offering? Well the big new feature to be found in this release is tab syncing -- and this is as self-explanatory and awesome as it sounds. In many regards Chrome is playing catch-up with Firefox here, as Mozilla’s web browser has featured the ability sync... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
VMware woos developers with Java cloud development plat... May 15 2012 17:15:36	BetaNews.Com
VMware woos developers with Java cloud development platform VMware is known for its work in virtualization. The company aims to change that, and announced on Tuesday a new product to assist in the automation, deployment and management of complex applications on its cloud infrastructure. vFabric Suite 5.1 is a new product that takes code acquired through VMware's acquisition of SpringSource and adds additional functionality to make it more attractive to developers. Application deployment automation, PostgreSQL and SQLFire support, and enterprise support h... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
HCSS debuts construction ERP apps for iOS, Android devices May 15 2012 17:10:13	BetaNews.Com
HCSS debuts construction ERP apps for iOS, Android devices Texas-based software company HCSS, which makes solutions for the construction industry, today announced a new suite of mobile applications for iOS and Android that connect construction field personnel with their home base job management and accounting systems. With the new applications, simply called "HCSS Field Apps," employee and equipment hours can be tracked, production quantities can be managed, truck fleets can be tracked in real time, employee certifications and licenses can be handled, j... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
SAP combines enterprise core with ready-to-use cloud May 15 2012 17:01:57	BetaNews.Com
SAP combines enterprise core with ready-to-use cloud SAP aims to show that it is a serious player in the cloud computing sector today, announcing several new cloud initiatives under what it calls an "accelerated" strategy. The company's deeper commitment to the cloud stems from its $3.4 billion merger with human capital management service provider SuccessFactors several months back. Former SuccessFactors CEO Lars Dalgaard is now head of SAP's cloud unit, and he is tasked with turning the company's cloud business around. At the Sapphire Now Confere... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Frak, yeah, I'd use iPad if there was Google Chrome May 15 2012 16:48:58	BetaNews.Com
Frak, yeah, I'd use iPad if there was Google Chrome What timing. I posted my iPad for sale on Craigslist over the weekend -- and two people are jockeying to get ahead of the other to buy it today. But I'm suddenly unsure about selling, after seeing a Macquarie Capital report claiming that Chrome will come to iOS as early as this quarter. Hot damn! I rarely make decisions based on rumors, nor should you. Besides, the "timing is unclear, but it could be as soon as Q2 and is very likely to be a 2012 event", according to Macquarie Capital. "Could" be... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Easily change your Windows DNS settings May 15 2012 14:44:56	BetaNews.Com
Easily change your Windows DNS settings Troubleshooting, security, performance, there are lots of different reasons why you might want to change your PC’s DNS settings. But Windows doesn’t exactly make this easy. And even when you’ve figured out where you need to be (Network and Sharing Center > click the Internet connection > Properties > TCP/IP > Properties) you’ll still need to look up the address of whatever alternative Domain Name Service you’d prefer to use. DNS Jumper, though, is a free and portable to... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Emergency Kit 2 boosts speed by 450% May 15 2012 13:22:35	BetaNews.Com
Emergency Kit 2 boosts speed by 450% Austrian anti-malware vendor Emsisoft has announced the release of version 2 beta of its free portable malware removal and repair kit.Emsisoft Emergency Kit 2.0.0.4 Beta provides a selection of free tools for detecting and removing malware from an infected PC, including two scanning tools (one GUI, one command-line), a manual investigation and removal tool, plus BlitzBank, which can delete files, drivers and Registry entries at boot time to thwart malware protection. Version 2 incorporates the ... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Xara releases Photo and Graphic Designer MX 8, Designer... May 15 2012 12:15:36	BetaNews.Com
Xara releases Photo and Graphic Designer MX 8, Designer Pro X 8 Xara unveiled the latest versions of the Designer family, Photo and Graphic Designer MX 8 and Designer Pro X 8. (Which, if the names mean nothing to you, are the packages formerly known as Xara Xtreme and Xara Xtreme Pro.) As usual with these particular applications, Xara aims for maximum versatility. So both programs can handle most photo-editing, illustration, basic Flash animation and web graphics tasks, while Xara Designer Pro X 8 can also create complete websites and online presentations... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
iCloud, iOS 6 and other Apple leaks are all about Faceb... May 14 2012 21:29:34	BetaNews.Com
iCloud, iOS 6 and other Apple leaks are all about Facebook's IPO Apple execs all follow the same party line: They don't talk about forthcoming products. But somebody often does, perhaps coordinated with public relations folks or even careful disclosure from someone on Apple's board. Whom isn't so much important as someone does. As I've observed for years, leaks' timings are fairly consistent -- either to lift the share price or steal some other company's thunderous announcement. I can't help but see both in several seemingly strategic leaks, starting with tod... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Voting for president via Android and iOS debuts May 14 2012 18:25:06	BetaNews.Com
Voting for president via Android and iOS debuts As the United States approaches its quadrennial general elections, the talk of election tech and voter security is beginning to rise once again. In 2008, during the last general elections, we saw portable, touchscreen voting machines, e-voting security issues, and mandatory paper trails. Today, election security company Scytl announced it had successfully implemented its voting encryption technology on mobile platforms Android and iOS which could allow people to securely vote on their smartphone... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
The measure of Windows Phone's failure is... May 14 2012 17:16:40	BetaNews.Com
The measure of Windows Phone's failure is... There are many measures, but one piqued my attention last week. According to Nielsen, Windows Mobile US smartphone market share, based on install base not unit shipments, is considerably higher than its successor -- 4.1 percent versus 1.7 percent for newer Windows Phone. Interpret however you like: Windows Mobile is so good, many Americans stick with it; Windows Phone isn't doing well after two version releases and 18 months of sales. Nielsen's numbers are for first quarter, when Android share r... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Will you buy Samsung Galaxy S III? May 14 2012 15:45:33	BetaNews.Com
Will you buy Samsung Galaxy S III? Eleven days have passed since Samsung unveiled Galaxy S III, which goes on sale internationally on May 29. Galaxy S III and HTC One X are arguably the hottest Android smartphones currently available, thanks in part to quad-core HSPA+ models. But HTC One X is dual-core for LTE variants hitting these shores, subsidized from carriers; no final word yet on S3. I often ask buying questions like this one right away but waited to see what pricing would pop for Galaxy S III. Expansys-USA is taking preor... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Xamarin Designer brings visual Android UX development t... May 14 2012 15:03:13	BetaNews.Com
Xamarin Designer brings visual Android UX development to C#, .NET .NET software development tool company Xamarin on Monday launched Xamarin Designer for Android, a drag-and-drop visual environment for creating native user interfaces for Android apps from within Visual Studio or within the Mono for Android IDE. Xamarin is a young company made up of more than twenty ex-Novell team members who built the Mono open source .NET development framework. So far, the company is responsible for releasing Mono for Android, and MonoTouch for iOS. Mono for Android lets devel... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Yahoo ousts CEO Scott Thompson, and I ask: 'What the fr... May 13 2012 22:45:04	BetaNews.Com
Yahoo ousts CEO Scott Thompson, and I ask: 'What the frak?' So let me see if I understand rightly. It's okay for CEOs to lie, steal, cheat, take ungodly salaries and -- worse -- huge bonuses while companies flounder, commit insider trading and abuse shareholder trust in just about every way possible, but lie on the résumé and it's adios, baby? Somebody wake me from this nightmare -- or perhaps Scott Thompson, who is out as Yahoo chief executive. Yahoo tacitly confirmed Thompson's exit today, in an announcement about Ross Levinsohn assuming position of ... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Don't miss one of the week's exciting 25 software downl... May 13 2012 17:57:14	BetaNews.Com
Don't miss one of the week's exciting 25 software downloads The second week of May has passed, and it was as busy as ever in the world of software. If you haven’t kept your finger on the pulse, we have put together this roundup to bring you back up to speed. Windows users looking to bring one of the features of OS X to their PCs will be interested in TweakNow DriveShortcut 1.0.0, which can be used to automatically create desktop shortcuts whenever removable media is inserted. If you’re looking to clean up your hard drive, the release of GeekUninst... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Mom is a Google girl May 13 2012 17:34:32	BetaNews.Com
Mom is a Google girl I never expected my 70 year-old mother to ride the cutting edge of technology, but she's there, living in the cloud, which she embraces enthusiastically. What's that saying about not teaching old dogs new tricks? Perhaps you can. Mom's daily tech is way out there, and you can blame or credit me for lifting her there. But she's a willing participant, happily adopting new habits, which in the end wasn't so difficult once she recognized the benefits. Perhaps your mother will, too, if you give her t... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Apple is replacing Google maps in iOS 6? You don't say May 11 2012 22:04:53	BetaNews.Com
Apple is replacing Google maps in iOS 6? You don't say The tech blogosphere is abuzz today following a report by Apple news site 9to5Mac claiming "trusted sources" say Google Maps will get the boot in iOS 6, replaced by an in-house solution. It is no secret these two companies have an increasingly strained relationship, and Apple's acquisitions point towards a future in maps. In the newsroom this afternoon, we chalked this one up to "sourced conjecture": that is, while 9to5Mac may indeed have some kind of inside track to what Apple plans in the next... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Affixa makes webmail work with your desktop apps May 11 2012 19:59:59	BetaNews.Com
Affixa makes webmail work with your desktop apps One of the major drawbacks of switching to a web-based email provider like Gmail or Yahoo is that your desktop hasn’t cottoned on to your new way of working. Sure, you can access your email via your web browser, effectively liberating you from a single email program on a single PC, but it seems your desktop hasn’t caught up with progress. You’ll know what we mean: click an email link on a webpage, or attempt to attach a file to an email directly from another program and you’ll either ope... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
You can have iPhone 4S, I'll take Galaxy Nexus May 11 2012 19:45:05	BetaNews.Com
You can have iPhone 4S, I'll take Galaxy Nexus During the last six months, I've had the privilege to use three exceptional smartphones: iPhone 4S and two Galaxy Nexus variants -- one LTE and the other HSPA+. You can't go wrong buying either Android or iOS handset, although Galaxy Nexus supports more carrier networks here in the United States. Differences that matter are more than hardware (such as size, appearance or battery life) or software (apps and operating systems). Taking Galaxy Nexus or iPhone 4S is much more. Either is a digital lif... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Google prices out cloud SQL services for App Engine cus... May 11 2012 16:52:16	BetaNews.Com
Google prices out cloud SQL services for App Engine customers Google has set fees for its cloud SQL storage offering, and detailed pricing on both a per-use and per-day model depending on the developer's need. The move is an effort to bolster App Engine, which is a service from Google that allows developers to run cloud applications on the company's infrastructure. The Mountain View, Calif. company has offered Cloud SQL in a limited free beta since last October. Developers can continue to use Cloud SQL free of charge until June 12, however, after that cont... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Revitalize your desktop with My Daily Wallpaper May 11 2012 14:13:38	BetaNews.Com
Revitalize your desktop with My Daily Wallpaper Tired of the same old Windows wallpaper? You’re not alone, which is why there are a host of tools around that promise they’re the perfect choice to revitalize your desktop. My Daily Wallpaper is the latest: does it have what it takes to stand out from the crowd? We took a look. Setup is extremely straightforward. The program is a tiny 186KB download, and portable, so there are no installation hassles, no browser toolbars or other unwanted extras. You just unzip the file and go. My Daily Wa... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Save big on these May software bargains May 11 2012 12:42:43	BetaNews.Com
Save big on these May software bargains We’re nearly halfway through May, the weather’s getting warmer and there is a bunch of deals in the Downloadcrew Software Store if you’re looking to save on your purchases. Starting off this month’s selection of offers is a series of deals on TuneUp Utilities 2012 that includes everything you need to optimize, fix or customize your computer. TuneUp Utilities 2012, complete with a 3-PC, lifetime non-expiring license can be yours for just $18.99, saving you 62 percent, while anyone who n... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Use TweakNow DriveShortcut to display disks on Windows ... May 10 2012 22:15:42	BetaNews.Com
Use TweakNow DriveShortcut to display disks on Windows desktop Sometimes it is the smallest of things that makes the biggest differences -- it can be little touches that matter the most. Users of OS X and many flavors of Linux will be used to the appearance of a desktop icon when an external drive is plugged in or an optical disc is inserted. This little feature may seem minor, but it is also immensely useful. By installing TweakNow DriveShortcut, you can bring the same feature to Windows. This is a great alternative, or supplement to Windows’ own built-... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Unfair maybe, but Microsoft has the right to bar browse... May 10 2012 21:29:44	BetaNews.Com
Unfair maybe, but Microsoft has the right to bar browsers from Windows RT Suddenly, the new Microsoft doesn't look all that different from the old one. During court proceedings for the 1998-2001 antitrust trial, government lawyers accused Microsoft of playing favorites by providing its developers access to information not available to third parties -- thus giving Internet Explorer unfair competitive advantage over Netscape. The company's browser policy regarding Windows RT isn't just much the same, it's much more. IE gets hugely exclusive access. The question: Is it a... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Microsoft overhauls Bing in mission to innovate search May 10 2012 20:34:43	BetaNews.Com
Microsoft overhauls Bing in mission to innovate search Microsoft on Thursday announced it will be rolling out the "most significant update" to its Bing search engine since it debuted three years ago. The new Bing design eschews the decade-old single-page search result design that is a standard, and introduces a three-column interface that combines algorithmic search results (called "Core Web Results") with social network results (called "Sidebar" results) and actionable related services such as location, shopping, and more ("Snapshot" results). Unli... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
HP pushes OpenStack cloud services into public beta May 10 2012 18:50:38	BetaNews.Com
HP pushes OpenStack cloud services into public beta Today, HP made OpenStack available in public beta, announcing general availability of three services to customers: Cloud Compute, Cloud Object Storage and Cloud Content Delivery Network; they're available on a pay-as-you-go basis. In September, the Palo Alto, Calif. company started offering the services to a limited number of customers. HP's move can also be viewed as a strengthened commitment to OpenStack itself. Competitor Citrix is going the opposite direction -- last month relinquishing to o... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Acronis True Image Home 2012 Update 2 adds scheduling a... May 10 2012 17:23:00	BetaNews.Com
Acronis True Image Home 2012 Update 2 adds scheduling and archive management Acronis has released Update 2 for its complete backup tool for Windows PCs, Acronis True Image Home 2012. Initially a drive-imaging tool, True Image has evolved into an all-encompassing backup tool covering files and settings, data synchronization and online backup in addition to its partition and drive-imaging capabilities. Update 2 introduces several new features, including Scheduler Smart Start and Archives Scanning Management, plus fixes a number of bugs present in earlier builds. The Sched... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
iPhone camera app learns your appearance by your Facebo... May 10 2012 16:59:56	BetaNews.Com
iPhone camera app learns your appearance by your Facebook pics In the three months ending on March 31, 2012, there were more than 300 million photos uploaded to Facebook every single day. Not only is it a staggering amount of content to organize, but it is also a huge stockpile of graphical data that can actually be put to use. A new iPhone camera application was released on Thursday to take advantage of this mass of data. Klik is a camera application based entirely around the concept of face recognition via the Face.com facial recognition platform and your... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Don't be phished by tweet: 'Hey some person is saying h... May 10 2012 16:58:16	BetaNews.Com
Don't be phished by tweet: 'Hey some person is saying horrible things about you' Does reputation matter to you? Are you concerned what people say about you when you're not around? Perhaps you want to know what crap anonymous commenters post about you across the InterWebs? If the answer is "Yes" to any of these, you might be vulnerable to this tweet: "Hey some person is saying horrible things about you". Resist the temptation. I got this one Monday and again yesterday. I started to ignore the tweet, but it came as direct message. So I clicked the shortened link, which brought... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Use Blat to set Windows event emails from the command line May 10 2012 13:24:06	BetaNews.Com
Use Blat to set Windows event emails from the command line When you’re not around to monitor a PC then it’s often useful to get notifications of its key events. And so you might like to know when a particular program starts or ends, perhaps, or when the system closes down or restarts. Some applications understand this already. Many backup programs are able to send email to let you know when a particular job has completed, for instance: very convenient. And Windows Task Scheduler can also send emails for a host of different events. But if that’s no... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Dell looks to the cloud to stay relevant in the enterprise May 10 2012 04:25:45	BetaNews.Com
Dell looks to the cloud to stay relevant in the enterprise Dell continued to expand outside of its traditional PC-based business this week, making two separate announcements that symbolize a larger emphasis on services -- especially for the cloud. The Allen, Texas based company has introduced a Desktop-as-a-Service offering through a partnership with Desktone, as well as a new offering aimed at moving their SAP solutions to the cloud. The moves signal a bigger business shift for a company that for most of its 26-year history has focused on physical hard... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Software performance matters May 09 2012 23:45:25	BetaNews.Com
Software performance matters The issue with the soon-to-come generation of Windows mobile computers (tablets) of performance versus productivity, when it comes to software development, looms on all of us programmers who desire to write software for Windows 8. As a longtime Windows API programmer I appear to be in the minority, but I just can't help but ask the question: "Do programmers just not get it?" I have watched the video of a talk by Microsoft's Herb Sutter entitled "Why C++?" more than once and even though I don't u... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Google+ puts iOS ahead of Android May 09 2012 22:13:50	BetaNews.Com
Google+ puts iOS ahead of Android May 9 is, in a way, a watershed day for Android -- and that's not necessarily a good thing. Many developers I communicate with repeatedly say they confront the same quandary: Android or iOS first? Maybe they choose to develop for iOS, only to ask: Android or iPad next? Google is a software developer, too, and this day put its priorities in order with a stunning iOS-first update. The new iPhone app for social network Google+ is stunning, breathtaking, immersive and makes the already great experie... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Lenovo debuts Ivy Bridge family of ThinkCentre desktops... May 09 2012 21:47:30	BetaNews.Com
Lenovo debuts Ivy Bridge family of ThinkCentre desktops and all-in-one PCs PC and Information Technology company Lenovo on Wednesday announced its new lineup of ThinkCentre all-in-one PCs based around the third generation of Intel vPro Core processors (Ivy Bridge), with models targeting consumers, small- to medium- sized businesses, and the public sector. The flagship ThinkCentre model is the Edge 92z, which has a 21.5 inch in-plane switching (IPS) LED display with 10-point multitouch capability and Wireless Display (WiDi) mode. At 2.5" in thickness, Lenovo says this i... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Is Adobe Creative Cloud a good value? May 09 2012 18:47:04	BetaNews.Com
Is Adobe Creative Cloud a good value? It's the question I've asked myself since Adobe unveiled the subscription service in late April; it launches May 11. For me, $49.99 a month is steep. But $29.99 strongly tempts. I'm eligible for that lower pricing, and you might be, too. But to get either price, Adobe requires 12-month commitment -- and gets 50 percent still, if you cancel early. Month-to-month option is $79.99 per 30 days, or $959.88 yearly versus $599.88 for standard annual subscription pricing. You get a lot regardless of pri... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
This is the bubble as we know it May 09 2012 17:26:40	BetaNews.Com
This is the bubble as we know it Over the last eighteen months, there has been a lot of public concern about whether we're in the midst of another tech bubble. People outside of Silicon Valley saw the billion-dollar exit for a consumer Internet company that was around for less than two years (Instagram), and couldn't believe such easy money was being made. Golly Gee Whiz, it must be 1995 all over again! A company can be formed in two years, raise 7 million dollars, and exit for a billion. Bubble speculators completely fail to s... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Android malware woes look a lot like Windows' May 09 2012 15:56:05	BetaNews.Com
Android malware woes look a lot like Windows' McAfee says that Android malware is taking a worrisome turn, with cybercriminals mimicking popular strategies used against Windows. The latest attacks tap IRC bots, where the malware gets further operating instructions from an Internet chatroom. Called Android/Multi.dr, the attack masks itself as the game Madden NFL 12. Multi.dr is comprised of three separate components, including a root exploit, an IRC bot, and SMS Trojan. The first method of attack is the root exploit, which "roots" the device... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Need rich photo editing without the bloat? Try Pixelitor May 09 2012 14:28:08	BetaNews.Com
Need rich photo editing without the bloat? Try Pixelitor If, like us, you’ve tried more than your share of image editors, then you’ll know many of them are depressingly similar. Especially when it comes to filters. All too many developers seem to think they can get by with a simple sharpen, blur, emboss and so on, when most users now expect far, far more. Fortunately there are also plenty of image editors that manage to deliver plenty of filtering power, though -- and the Java-based Pixelitor is a particularly interesting example. Its compact si... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 10.1 advances, leaves Windows ... May 09 2012 13:15:34	BetaNews.Com
Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 10.1 advances, leaves Windows 2000 behind The jump to version x.1 of a program may not seem like particularly big news, but with the release of Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 10.1 there is a surprising amount to take in. For anyone who has taken the security step of installing more than one antivirus tool, you should now find that, which Norton and AVG at least, Ad-Aware no longer produces a BSOD, but there have also been more important changes to the engine of this antivirus and firewall tool. A major concern with any antivirus tool is the... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Apache releases big OpenOffice upgrade -- get it now! May 09 2012 12:35:01	BetaNews.Com
Apache releases big OpenOffice upgrade -- get it now! The Apache Software Foundation announced the release of Apache OpenOffice 3.4, the first new build of OpenOffice since it was handed to the ASF by Oracle after development stalled when many contributors defected across to The Document Foundation’s LibreOffice, which is also based on OpenOffice. Version 3.4’s major features can be found under the hood -- vastly improved startup times, improved OLEObject handling, better chart rendering and support for scalable vector graphics are the most n... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Fire all the lawyers May 08 2012 21:22:02	BetaNews.Com
Fire all the lawyers Could it be true? Are the courts finally tired of the never-ending patent disputes in Silicon Valley? If the statements made by two judges over the past week are an indication, yes. This frustration was on display Monday in a Seattle court room as Federal Judge James Robart accused both Microsoft and Motorola of "hubris" and "arrogance" in their ongoing patent dispute, and using the courts to gain the upper hand in licensing negotiations, according to GeekWire's Todd Bishop, who was on hand for ... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
The personal cloud is all about context May 08 2012 21:11:04	BetaNews.Com
The personal cloud is all about context Gartner is back thumping about how the cloud will replace the PC as personal hub by 2014, and, whoa, that's not exactly so far away. I wrote the "ding dong, the PC's dead" last month. After identifying five trends then, the analyst firm today highlights three things cloud vendors had better watch out for. Simply stated: "Mobility and location"; "platform independence"; and "seamless synchronization". That aptly describes what the cloud-connected -- oh, post-PC, if you insist -- era is all about:... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Nokia fragments Windows Phone Marketplace with more exc... May 08 2012 19:46:56	BetaNews.Com
Nokia fragments Windows Phone Marketplace with more exclusive apps At a relatively quiet opening day of the CTIA Wireless International 2012 convention on Tuesday, mobile phone maker Nokia announced its Lumia Windows Phones will receive a handful of exclusive applications that other Windows Phones will not, including apps from ESPN, AOL, and Groupon. When the Lumia line of Nokia Windows Phones launched, Nokia provided a few solid exclusives, including Maps, Drive, and Music to improve usability and desirability of the devices. These apps are still not available... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Plex Server 0.9.6.1 supports DLNA, eliminates need for app May 08 2012 17:51:02	BetaNews.Com
Plex Server 0.9.6.1 supports DLNA, eliminates need for app If you’re looking for a gorgeous, easy-to-use solution to the problem of sharing and streaming media from your PC or Mac, then Plex will appeal. And with the release of Plex Server 0.9.6.1, it adds another major string to its bow: support for DLNA. That’s right, from this current release, Plex Server can stream video, photos and music to a host of DLNA-certified devices, from games consoles and media streamers like the WD TV Live to other computers and mobile devices running DNLA media soft... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Oracle's fight with Google over Android: still no clear... May 08 2012 17:22:17	BetaNews.Com
Oracle's fight with Google over Android: still no clear winner In late 2010, information technology company Oracle sued Google for unlawfully using Java to power the Android mobile operating system. Oracle claimed the popular operating system violated seven of its fundamental Java patents, and the two companies began a long courtroom battle which yesterday came to a crossroads over copyrights. Jurors sitting in on the trial in the District Court of the Northern District of California rendered a partial verdict on Monday, agreeing that Oracle had successfull... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Android rises over fallen iPhone May 08 2012 17:13:45	BetaNews.Com
Android rises over fallen iPhone I must really be asleep at the wheel. How could I have possibly missed this nearly week-old sales data: iPhone's fourth-quarter sales surge against Android was a blip on the screen. Chock it up to iPhone 4S launch combined with the saddest of sales motivators: Rock star's death halo, where album sales soar following an artist's death, or in this case iPhone following Apple cofounder Steve Jobs' tragic passing. Perhaps you have another reason. Regardless, sales don't lie. Android smartphone OS ma... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Kindle Fire sales are still hot May 08 2012 15:04:12	BetaNews.Com
Kindle Fire sales are still hot Wow, what a swirl of good-news/bad-news last week for the media tablets aimed at the ereader market. As it turns out, the roller-coaster ride continues this week. comScore reported that the Kindle Fire from Amazon generated far more Internet activity in February than any other Android media tablet. Then a few days later, Microsoft dumped $300 million into a Barnes & Noble ebook venture, a move spurred in part by the success of the bookseller’s media tablet, the Nook Tablet. I wrote a colum... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Do you need to capture a webpage bigger than your scree... May 08 2012 13:49:12	BetaNews.Com
Do you need to capture a webpage bigger than your screen? Try wpic Capturing an image of a small webpage is easy. Open it in a browser, press Alt+PrtSc, paste the results into your graphics tool of choice, edit and save the results: it’s all over in a moment. Of course, if the page is too large to view on your display then all that scrolling means capturing it all becomes a little more challenging. But wpic, a new tool from woanware, may be able to help. We say “may” because wpic is a console tool, with no concessions whatsoever to interactivity. If you... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
EaseUS ToDo Backup 4.5 Free supports Windows 8 May 08 2012 12:36:45	BetaNews.Com
EaseUS ToDo Backup 4.5 Free supports Windows 8 Chengdu, China software developer EaseUS has updated its Windows all-in-one backup tool, EaseUS ToDo Backup 4.5 Free. The software, which is free for personal use only (paid-for editions are also available), combines both data and image-based backup within a single application. Version 4.5 introduces a revamped backup management interface, designed to simplify the task of editing and deleting backups. It also adds support for Windows 8 Consumer Preview as well as interconverting backup tasks w... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Bitdefender Total Security 2013 beta brings flashy, new... May 08 2012 11:16:19	BetaNews.Com
Bitdefender Total Security 2013 beta brings flashy, new interface Bitdefender has released the first public beta of its Total Security 2013 suite. And while the “New Features” list this time doesn’t exactly reveal much in the way of innovation (you’ll probably have some across many similar ideas before), there are still some welcome additions to what’s becoming a very powerful security suite. Safepay, for instance, is an isolated browser that runs in a secure desktop, with a virtual keyboard. It automatically launches when it detects you’re visit... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Today's IBM, rotten to the core May 07 2012 20:39:03	BetaNews.Com
Today's IBM, rotten to the core Six in a series. So after five parts, one question remains: What will IBM look like by the end of 2015?  It will look like Oracle. With earnings per share meaning everything and a headcount mandate that can’t be achieved without totally transforming the company, IBM is turning itself into something very different. Gerstner’s service business that saved the company 20 years ago will be jettisoned, probably to a combination of US and international buyers. Look for the Global Services business... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Intel, McAfee protect the enterprise cloud May 07 2012 19:52:09	BetaNews.Com
Intel, McAfee protect the enterprise cloud Intel and McAfee aim to address growing cloud concerns through a comprehensive and holistic approach to security. The two companies hope to make data in the cloud as secure as, if not more than, data in the traditional deployment, combining their collective hardware expertise and software know-how to address these concerns. A recent study commissioned by Intel showed that 56 percent of IT managers are concerned with the inability of public cloud service providers to adequately measure security, ... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Adobe releases Creative Suite 6 May 07 2012 19:31:17	BetaNews.Com
Adobe releases Creative Suite 6 Adobe today released Creative Suite 6, a powerful and professional bundle of some of the best creative applications around: Photoshop,Dreamweaver, Flash Professional, Illustrator, InDesign, Fireworks, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects and more. While some of the new features lists are a little on the short side (step forward, Fireworks), there are still plenty of interesting additions and enhancements in the new package. It’s now considerably easier to create designs that will display... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
The mobile web is dead May 07 2012 19:24:47	BetaNews.Com
The mobile web is dead Today, comScore released startling data about the mobile web, which bodes poorly for the browser. In March, the web browser accounted for just 18.5 percent of time spent online among US smartphone users. Mobile apps accounted for the rest. Now we know why Safari for iOS capabilities advance so sparingly: Apple sees it as irrelevant. Stated differently: Safari is to mobile what Internet Explorer 6 was to the desktop 10 years ago. Apps matter more to both developers. Qualifying that one country do... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Microsoft's $99 Xbox 360 bundle: what a rip-off! May 07 2012 17:40:16	BetaNews.Com
Microsoft's $99 Xbox 360 bundle: what a rip-off! Last week, we heard rumors that Microsoft would be releasing a Xbox 360 console with Kinect for $99, subsidized by a two-year Gold subscription commitment to the Xbox Live service, in a fashion similar to mobile phone subsidies. Monday, the offer went live on the Microsoft Store site, and the plan, which got us excited here in the BetaNews news room, turns out to be no deal at all. To get your hands on the subsidized console, you have to commit to a two-year Xbox Live Gold subscription at $14.99... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Google+ gets a killer app May 07 2012 15:59:29	BetaNews.Com
Google+ gets a killer app What do you get when Google+ and YouTube reproduce? Hangouts on Air, which today is available globally -- well, if that's how you view 20 countries (or so it looks from the list I see). My question: What does this mean for the future of services like USTREAM? Given Google's reach with search and video services, and the growing social network, coupled with Google Plus Your World, my answer is "uh-oh". Google+ debuted nearly 11 months ago in beta, with the Hangouts video-sharing service being one ... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE picks up where its predeces... May 07 2012 15:38:28	BetaNews.Com
HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE picks up where its predecessor left off In the continuing stream of "sequels" to popular Android smartphones, HTC and Verizon Wireless on Monday announced the Droid Incredible 4G LTE, the follow-up to the popular Droid Incredible, which launched at this time two years ago. Part of what made the first Droid Incredible a hit was its price-to-performance ratio. For $199, the phone offered a high megapixel camera, a good processor speed, and an acceptable screen. HTC appears to have stuck to this balance with the Droid Icredible 4G LTE, w... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
eBay 2.0 for iPad is a big upgrade May 07 2012 13:38:51	BetaNews.Com
eBay 2.0 for iPad is a big upgrade Anyone using eBay for buying and selling need no longer battle with the mobile version of the website on their iPad or use a low-resolution iPhone app to keep track of their auctions thanks to the release of the massively updated eBay for iPad 2.0.0. As you would expect, following the release of the new iPad there is support for the high resolution retina display and this means that it is now possible to view higher quality images for the auctions you are browsing, but there’s much more to lo... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Gimp 2.8 gets a whole new look May 06 2012 19:56:32	BetaNews.Com
Gimp 2.8 gets a whole new look In terms of version numbering the release of GIMP 2.8 might seem like a minor one, but in reality it is very big news. The cross-platform image editor has been available for Windows, OS X and Linux for many years now and one thing that Windows’ user have often struggled with is the abnormal interface that comprises multiple windows; in this latest version there is now the option of working in a single window mode. The great thing here is that there is a choice, so if you have become used to ... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Google Galaxy Nexus first-impressions review May 06 2012 19:46:24	BetaNews.Com
Google Galaxy Nexus first-impressions review Two days ago, May 4, I received the Samsung Galaxy Nexus -- the 16GB HSPA+ model Google started selling direct last week. I'm not alone. Many of you ordered this phone, too. This first-impressions post extends my December review of the 32GB Verizon LTE model. I will say straight up that out-of-box experience on AT&T is nowhere as good as Verizon. Network is huge factor. Audio quality is crisp and clear on Verizon compared to occasional hissy-fits on AT&T. Data speed isn't comparable, s... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Start May off right, with one of these 27 downloads May 05 2012 15:40:42	BetaNews.Com
Start May off right, with one of these 27 downloads They say April showers bring May flowers, and perhaps that's true of software, particularly supporting the cloud. For sure, the month started with lots of new applications to explore. There has been a recent resurgence in interest in cloud storage following the unveiling of Google Drive, but if you are looking for a way to secure data you have backed up to the cloud, Cloudfogger 1.1.1291 may be just what you have been looking for. Unimpressed with Google Drive et al? Check out Amazon Cloud Dr... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
How suitable is Windows 8 Metro for business developers? May 04 2012 21:01:58	BetaNews.Com
How suitable is Windows 8 Metro for business developers? What is Metro, Windows 8's new user interace motif, really all about? Does it fill all the needs of Windows users? Is Metro for consumers or for businesses? What does this all mean for the legacy desktop? These are some of the questions I hope to answer. First let me say that I do not dislike Metro, and I don't want to give the impression that the new user interface is somehow terrible or a mistake. Microsoft has put a lot of work into Metro and some of the reasons for it does make a lot of sens... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Half of enterprises waste money on social CRM initiatives May 04 2012 19:36:09	BetaNews.Com
Half of enterprises waste money on social CRM initiatives Is your business getting good value from customer relationship initiatives, or are you even able to quantity it? Gartner says unlikely. Only half of all Fortune 1000 companies are expected to see a positive return on investments in social CRM through the end of the year. The findings call into question the effectiveness of using the social web to further business objectives, or whether companies even have the capability to measure success. Of those failing to achieve positive ROI, only one-fifth... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 review May 04 2012 18:48:45	BetaNews.Com
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 review I really like reviewing products, but don’t have the time or patience to measure battery life or benchmark the CPU, etc. I'm more interested in how a product like Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 fits in the scheme of things. How it suits real people. So far, I think this tablet has gotten an unfair shake among major media. But the reviews at shopping sites tell the real story. This is a nice little tablet. The price is right, too, and it comes with Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich). A Real Delight Inside ... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
What do Yahoo's CEO, MIT's dean of admissions, Miss Vir... May 04 2012 17:54:46	BetaNews.Com
What do Yahoo's CEO, MIT's dean of admissions, Miss Virginia and a Buddhist monk have in common? A: They all lied on their résumés. Scott Thompson, who was named chief executive of Yahoo at the beginning of 2012, has come under fire for putting false résumé information on documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Thompson's degree from Stonehill College is a BS in accounting, yet the information filed with the SEC said he also held a degree in computer science. Yahoo stated the information was an "inadvertent error," and that it does not affect Thompson's qualificatio... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
WinOptimizer Free 1.0 packs in 20 tools May 04 2012 14:29:48	BetaNews.Com
WinOptimizer Free 1.0 packs in 20 tools Ashampoo GmbH has launched a free, cut-down version of its Windows optimizing and tuning suite. Ashampoo WinOptimizer Free 1.0.0 contains a subset of the functionality found in Ashampoo’s paid-for WinOptimizer 9, providing 20 separate tools for cleaning, optimizing, tuning and securing Windows machines. Ashampoo WinOptimizer Free also provides a one-click optimizer, scheduling functions for automatic maintenance and performance optimisations and a scan tool for recommending tweaks. As a cut... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Norton 2013 beta supports Windows 8 Metro May 04 2012 13:11:28	BetaNews.Com
Norton 2013 beta supports Windows 8 Metro Symantec has released the first 2013 public betas of Norton Antivirus,Norton Internet Security and Norton 360. While there are few significant changes in the new builds, the interface has seen plenty of activity: security is provided by new Metro apps when installed on Windows 8 Consumer Preview; the interfaces generally have been optimized for use on touch systems; and new support for hardware acceleration should see the products become a little more responsive. The new builds also offer sma... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
Is iPhone 4S obsolete? May 04 2012 00:51:21	BetaNews.Com
Is iPhone 4S obsolete? I repeatedly ask you questions in headlines, because I ask myself. This one is top of my mind following today's Samsung Galaxy S III announcement. My eyes bugger at the differences in size, features and most importantly benefits -- the majority of those coming from Samsung skinning Android 4 into seeming oblivion. It's hard to discern a way that Galaxy S3 isn't superior to iPhone 4S. If iOS 5 looked antiquated before, and it surely did, Samsung's TouchWiz-modified Ice Cream Sandwich makes it sud... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »
5 things you should know about Samsung Galaxy S III May 03 2012 22:41:02	BetaNews.Com
5 things you should know about Samsung Galaxy S III Earlier today, Samsung unveiled the newest member of its Galaxy S family of Android-based smartphones, the Galaxy S III, at London's Earl's Court Exhibition Center at a press event dubbed "Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012". Was it the disappointment that some people predicted? Hell, no! Not to me, at least. And I am going to tell you why. Right up to today's launch event, there were many rumors/predictions saying that we would see a device with a 4.6 - 4.8 inch Super AMOLED screen, Samsung's new qua... Read the full article on BetaNews.Com »

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