Connected Internet

Google Instant, a New Way to Search

George Garza — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:34:30 +0000

Google announced a faster version of its search engine called Google Instant that begins displaying results as soon as users type in queries.

Google Instant

This approach will shave anywhere from 2 to 5 seconds from user searches. It brings up results nearly as fast as it does for its auto-suggest feature. It will automatically do a search for the top auto-suggestion items before a user has had a change to selected it.

Overall, this approach will amount to a savings of 11 hours of searching per second, if all its users switch over to the instant interface. Despite the instant results, users are still able to use Google in the traditional sense, by typing in a query and hitting the enter key or search button. Users can also opt out of using it on their search pages, or from the Google Instant search itself.

The tool has an artificial intelligence element, to it, predicting what a user is typing will be by looking at the first few letters of the search query. This is not search as you type but rather search before you type.
As you type, you can see the results. This helps users formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. Instead of waiting for the result, you can now adapt your search on the fly until the results match exactly what you want. This dynamic feature may ultimately be how to conduct all searches. It is like zeroing in on the target before you fire.

This option can certainly reduce time spent doing queries. It will allow users to optimize the time that it takes when doing the query not only to type a query but also scan the results. If the results are more in tune with their actual search, then the query and the results will be true timesavers.

Users should access to Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer 8 for the new service to work.

Source: Google

See the Video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElubRNRIUg4

60% Of Android Apps Are Free VS 30% In Other App Stores

Robert Boland — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:05:56 +0000

While Apple may have to largest App Store out there, it seems that Android has the cheapest one. According to App Store analytics provider Distimo found once again that Google’s Android Market has by far the largest share of free applications compared to other mobile app stores.

What’s more this trend is growing, In July 60% of all apps on the Android Market were free, which was up 3% from May 2010. They even put together some nice charts for us so we can see that Android has pretty much double the number of free apps of all the other app stores.

Windows Marketplace has the lowest number of free apps at 22%, followed by the iPad app store at 26%. The iPhone app store only has 29% of it’s apps available for free.

Distimo also has a closer look at the paid apps and finds that the average price of the 100 most popular apps in Android Market and Palm’s App Catalog is higher than the average price of the entire catalogue of applications.

However, the average price of apps on the Apple and iPad APp store is 16% higher but its average price of the 100 most popular applications is nearly three times as high than that of Android.

The success of app stores has mainly been because of how cheep and cheerful these apps have been. And when you look at the pricing structure for all the app stores, 60% of the apps are all priced under $2.

It seems that developers for iOS devices are looking for a bit more revenue as prices of these apps are on the rise. The proportion of paid applications priced below $1 on the Apple App Store for iPad and Apple App Store for iPhone has decreased in both in July 2010, from 30% to 25% and from 49% to 45%

I think another reason why the Android app store has so many more free and cheaper apps is because only a couple of select countries have the paid apps available to them. For instance I have no access to paid apps in Ireland, only the free ones. Google say they’re working on rolling out the paid apps to the rest of the world, but as usual legal stuff is holding them back.

As a result developers are more willing to give away there apps because they know they will reach a larger market, and potentially make more money from adverts etc…

Virus Bulletin Results for August

George Garza — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 22:34:48 +0000

BitDefender, one of the most recognizable virus protection programs was subjected to some scrutiny by Virus Bulletin in August. The result was failure. Virus Bulletin showed 15 false positives in the results.

Virus Bulletin gives a VB100 award to a company whose virus checking program passes certain tests.

It detects all In the Wild viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning.
It generates no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.

The product that is tested must fulfil these criteria in its default state.

The WildList is used as the basis for in-the-wild virus testing and certification of anti-virus products by several working groups like ICSA, Secure Computing, and Virus Bulletin. Additionally, a virus collection based upon The WildList is being used in an effort to standardize the naming of common viruses.

The false positive test results from the collection of known-clean files includes the test sets used for speed measurements, and is subject to regular and unannounced updating and enlargement. A false positive will be counted if a product is considered to have flagged a file clearly as infected in its log or on-screen display.

A false positive will not be recorded if a file is labelled as something other than malware, such as adware, or a legitimate item of software with potentially dangerous uses. All other alerts on clean files will be counted as false positives.

Virus Bulletin publishes its results of it virus tests and this time the operating system in question was Vista Business edition with service pack 2. Here are the results

Virus Bulletin

As you can see Avast did well in the August test, and has done well in the four previous ones, including the Windows 7 Test.

The testing provided by Virus Bulletin is objective in so far as the same test is applied to all of the software that is presented to them. All tests are performed both on demand and on access. The failure to detect a sample from the WildList set, in either mode, or a false positive alert in either mode, will result in a product failing to qualify for the VB100 award.

Source: Virus Bulletin

Wildlist

Android Gains Yet Again, iOS Is Losing

Robert Boland — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:17:19 +0000

We have to be fair here and say that Apple were really the first major player in the smartphone operating system battle and have managed to hold a fairly dominant position at the top for quite some time now. The iPhone is by far the most popular smartphone and a lot of that is thanks mainly to it’s brilliantly simple operating system.

However as we all know, Android is on the scene, and making an impact big time as the first real competitor that’s manged to dig itself out of a rut and into the mainstream.

As you can see from the below chart from Quantcast, Android is storming ahead now taking up 25% of the total market of mobile Web Consumption in the US. Apple’s iOS platform for the iPhone is now showing signs of decline and has gone from nearly 70% of the total smartphone consumption in 2009, to just 56% of it barely a year later.

Android on the other hand has exploded from about 8% at the same time last year, to an incredible 25% during the same time period, if this rate keeps up, it will probably be level with the iOS platform within the next 12 months.

It really is incredible the speed at which Android is digging into the smartphone market, but then again I guess people are more willing to adopt different operating systems in their mobile devices, than on their laptops and desktops.

Poor old RIM, who were really the only people in this market 5 years ago, haven’t really managed to get anywhere themselves, still hovering around the 10% mark thanks to it’s small, but loyal base of users.

Apple and Google are clearly the two fighting for dominance at this point, and while Apple may be in the lead, they had a headstart and Google are hot on their heals and showing no signs of slowing up.

Source:

Quantqast

Aliexpress – Better Than a Fleamarket

Joseph Plazo — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:38:56 +0000

It used to be that shopping for cheap tech goods had me scurrying to local fleamarkets. That’s no longer the case. Tech prices have been dropping, especially if you don’t mind your tech being stamped “Made In China”. Visit Aliexpress.com. You’ll see what I mean. There’s literally over 50,000 different goodies for sale and it will take you many weeks just browsing through all that.

Now, I get a quick tech fix buying at this site. What makes it all the more great is that I can buy a lot without paying retail.

FYI, Aliexpress started a few years ago with a simple objective: to showcase the burgeoning manufacturing industry in mainland china. Visitors to the site enjoyed access to wholesale prices if products were bought in bulk. Today, that’s no longer the case. Buyers can get stuff ala carte and still enjoy wholesale prices.

Want PDAs? How about cellphones? Ultrasonic cavitation devices? All that is at Aliexpress. One can buy these and get it in 4 days via courier with minimal shipping charges. It appears the couriers partnered with this asian giant to generate revenue in bulk.

The ordinary European might smirk and say that anything Chinese sucks. Prejudiced minds imagine watches that fall apart in days and GPS systems that fail while in the boondocks.

That’s not true. To date, I’ve obtained over a hundred items for personal use, and a few thousand for resale. The quality matches those that I bought at Walmart, Sears. Save for the occasional dud, the average product lasts as advertised. I’m definitely a happy clam!

Wanna save? Bookmark aliexpress next to Amazon. Your wallet will love you for it.

New iPod Nano, Touch, Itunes 10, Apple TV And More From Apple’s Event

Robert Boland — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:24:20 +0000

Apples press conference has just finished up and there’s a couple of new things that have been announced. Now we already had a fair idea as to what was going to be announced through various leaks and rumors, but now we know for certain what’s going on.

First off we have a new iPod Nano, it’s been redesigned and is smaller, lighter and better than ever. It will be available for $149 (€159) for the 8GB model, or $179 (€189) for the 16GB one. This is the 6th generation iPod Nano and has got rid of the traditional Apple clickwheel, and has implemented a touchscreen.

Apple also announced a new redesigned iPod Shuffle, which as usual is smaller again and comes in 5 different colors, silver, blue, pink, orange and green and you can pick up a 2GB one for $50. They’ve brought back the buttons again to make it easier to use thankfully.

And we also have a new iPod Touch in the line up, and to be honest it’s basically the iPhone 4 without the phone bit.

It now has the ultra clear retina display, a front facing camera as well as a rear one with support for Facetime video calls, with other iPhones and iPod Touches over WiFi. It has a new A4 processor for improved gaming and performance and now supports High Dynamic Range Photos , which allows you to take three photos and combine their color ranges into one rich image.

It’s available in 8GB, 32GB or 64GB, US prices are $230, $300 and $400 respectively.

Apple also announced the much rumored Apple TV, it’s a small tiny little thing, it’s just 1/4 the size of the old one and has a built in power supply, HDMI, ethernet and 802.11n and is priced at a much more reasonable $99

All of these new devices will be on sale from next week.

The Apple TV now makes it possible to stream rental movies directly from iTunes, and also stream them directly from your computer. Content-wise, Apple is now offering $0.99 rentals from ABC and Fox, as well as full Netflix streaming support. Movies will also be available for $4.99 to stream in HD the same day there released on DVD. There’s also integration with Rotten Tomatoes which is handy.

iTunes 10 was also announced, complete with a new icon and Ping social network integration. It means you will be able to follow people, establish a circle of friends and post comments as well as check out custom song and album charts.

Finally we got word on iOS 4.1, which will be available as a free download from next week. It’s set to fix problems such as Bluetooth along with Proximity Sensor issues and will hopefully speed up performance on the iPhone 3G as well, the new features it will add, the Game Center and HDR Photos.

We even got a little sneak preview of iOS 4.2, which is due in November and will add printing support and a new wireless music streaming future called AirPlay, which will replace AirTunes.

The End of Manufacturing?

George Garza — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:24:36 +0000

A recent article in ZDNet “Is the American tech industry oiling its own guillotine?” discussed in detail what Andy Grove, former president and CEO of Intel had to say about the decline of American manufacturing.

The upshot of the argument is something that has been said for the last 20 years, that many manufacturing jobs have been transferred overseas where labor costs are cheaper, (not only payrolls but also benefits…no health insurance, or social security to pony up, or time off, like vacations, and corporate taxes are less.)

The question is, are manufacturing costs too high in the US, and also countries like Great Britain or other western countries?

The jury is no longer out on this, because yes they are too high. So many companies, like Apple, and Dell, and others have raced to the low cost countries to keep their stock value high by having high production at low cost and yielding high profit margins.

But like anything else, the chickens will come home to roost. When manufacturing costs are high in foreign countries, then what? Will the manufacturing come back to the US or other western countries? Not if these countries have lost their manufacturing backbone, which is what Andy Grove is suggesting.

Perhaps this tendency might not happen. I mean the manufacturing may not come back to the US, and it will abandon Asia; but not all of it.

With a world population of 6 billion people, there are still many countries that can be the low-cost bottom-end totem pole country that will benefit for a few years with new factories and plants to make the next next next next generation of iPhone, or iPad or the like. This could continue for another 50 years, where companies keep moving their manufacturing facilities around the world trying to find the lowest cost location to build their immensely popular gadget sold to drooling Americans.

This sounds cynical, but it is true. The problem is that companies must be aware of what their shareholders will do, where quarterly reports and daily Wall Street stock prices reflect how the company is doing. One solution is that companies will abandon quarterly reports and the like and look to something like a “5 year” plan like in the old communist days (boy that didn’t work, did it). That doesn’t sound very promising.

So what is the solution? Business can’t fix the problem because they work in an environment that dictates how they have to behave on a daily, and quarterly basis. The solution is having a responsible government that changes the environment and provides quiet but viable alternatives for business to operate in.

We’re talking about a new model of business in a different environment. So are there any economists, finance people, or investors, or professors of business that know how to do that, or make it happen?

See: Is the American tech industry oiling its own guillotine?

New iPods Leaked Through Third-Party Cases

Shailpik Biswas — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:47:33 +0000

Yet again, new Apple products have been leaked thanks to third-party case-makers. Thanks to them, we now know what the new iPods will look like. Post the announcement of the 2 September event, there has been a flurry of online coverage about two new leaks regarding the 4th generation iPod Touch and the 6th Generation iPod Nano.

We already know that the iPod Touch will have features of the iPhone 4 and that it will look more or less the same as now (again thanks to the case makers). So it is the Nano 6 that has all the limelight there is to be had. It seems like Apple has gone ahead and designed the Nano into something that looks like the older Shuffle. Only, it has a touchscreen now as the full front face and has room for a 30 pin connector. And it gets better from there.

From one of the renders, it is pretty clear that the Nano 6 is running on some derivative of the iOS because it has Mobile Safari onboard for surfing. That also means that the Nano 6 is connecting to the Internet somehow. Now I am pretty sure that this little thing won’t be connecting to a 3G network. Not that it is technologically difficult. Apple surely won’t be cannibalizing their own product sales. Plus AT&T would basically cry at the thought of more pressure on their teetering-on-the-edge network.

The images of this case with the iPod Nano 6 renders were taken from a listing in the trading site Alibaba. They were listings for screen protectors and privacy screens for the new and yet to be announced iPods. Of course, these manufacturers only know about the dimensions and the placements of the controls, so they cannot leak anything about the specs. So other than the Nano 6′s render with the Safari icon and the earlier rumors about the iPod Touch, we know next to nothing about the models that will be released this 2nd September.

The iPod Touch might have the retina display, rumors have been suggesting and some have been of the opinion that it might also have the A4 chip. The A4 chip would actually be a good thing to have in it because Apple is projecting and developing the iPod Touch as a handheld gaming device that has access to the wealth of iOS App titles at the iTunes App Store.

The Nano 6 gaining a touchscreen when there is already the iPod Touch in the line up shows that Apple is now full steam ahead on turning everything into touch. This after the touchscreen iMac is definitely a sign of the days to come.

The iPod Touch already has everything that it can possibly inherit from the iPhone without the phone part of it. The only thing that remains is the camera and since Apple gave it a miss last time (due to technical problems, rumor has it), it is almost a certainty this time. Especially because now the iPhone is sufficiently different and advanced to separate it from the iPod Touch. Plus the iPhone now looks a lot different too.

But that is where the A4 issue comes in. Apple would probably withhold the A4 from the iPod Touch till the next evolution of the iPhone. If only to get people to buy the iPhone when they want sheer power. What Apple might add to the new iPod Touch is the Gyroscope to give it the six-axis motion sensing that the iPhone 4. The gaming and 3D-related entertainment potential that this has is quite good.

Looks like this thursday is going to be quite interesting.

[via]

Apple to Introduce New iPods

George Garza — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:34:36 +0000

This coming Wednesday, September 1, Apple has an event on the books and Steve Jobs will probably announce new iDevices, specifically an iOS-version of the Apple TV and new iPods. With all of the work and publicity that Apple has generated over the last few months, this is not a mementos occasion, at least not like the other technology revelations that it has had in the past few months.

If things go down as the leaks seem to say, you might actually want a dedicated PMP device again. The iPod is set to have a second coming.

The sixth-generation iPod nano could shrink the device to less than half of its current size, as pictured in the mockup above.

iPod_nano New Version?

Reports from Techcrunch and Zdnet indicate that the iPad will be more like the iPod shuffle than the iPod nano. However, even with this small size it should have a traditional iPod dock connector, allowing compatibility with the existing iPod accessory ecosystem.

The new iPod nano could use the tiny 3 x 3cm display that surface in part form as an Apple-branded component earlier this summer.

Some of the designs were leaked earlier this year. For instance though it may not be a carbon copy of the iPhone 4 minus the phone, it’ll probably follow the example of previous devices in providing similar functionality. The tiny cases suggest a square-faced device with space on the back for a clip. It looks to be the right size for a 3cm square touchscreen.

The next iPod touch incarnation should have at least a front-facing cam. This makes the iPod touch turn into more than a media player. It would be a pre-iPhone.

So one question is, what will happen to the iPod Shuffle? If this idevice, the iPad Nano will be the next generation, then what innovations remain?

AMD To Drop ATI Brand From Its Line

Robert Boland — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:57:35 +0000

AMD is dropping the ATI Technologies name from it’s graphic products, which it picked up 4 years ago for the sum of $5.4 Billion. AMD hoped that the ATI brand name would help in gain traction in the graphics card and chipset market, and for the most part it did, but now after its purchase in 2006,AMD are dropping it.

ATI was a popular name among gamers and video junkies and to be honest I knew about ATI before AMD. However based on some market research and looking towards some future products, AMD reckon that consumers now know the AMD name well enough that it will succeed on its own. Specifically AMD have found 3 reasons in its research.

According to Anand Tech

AMD brand preference triples when the person surveyed is aware of ATI-AMD merger.
AMD brand stronger than ATI vs. graphics competitors.
Radeon and Fire Pro brand awareness and consideration very high.

So these 3 points are why AMD feel that ATI is no longer needed. They feel that customers will recognise the AMD brand more than the ATI one. Then again, only two of AMD’s proudcts are still tagged with the ATI name, Radeon and Firepro, and AMD as well as myself feel that these brand names are strong enough and popular enough on their own that they don’t need the ATI name to be tagged along with them.

AMD are said to start the switch from ATI later this year in some upcoming new products that it has in store for us. To go along with the new brand, AMD have also got some new logos in store for us as well if OEM’s want to use them on their hardware.

What do you think about the change? Will it make much of a difference?

Let us know in the comments

Paul Allen Sues Major High Tech Companies – except Microsoft

George Garza — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 16:23:01 +0000

Paul Allen has decided to sue a boatload of high tech companies (except Microsoft of course) for patent infringement. My reaction is…gee Paul how much free time does a billionaire have on his hands?

Background

Ok, let’s look at it.

Back in the 1990’s Paul decided to fund a high tech research firm called Interval Research. The company was involved in browser technology innovations. So Allen is filing a suit for a violation of patent number 6,263,507 among others. The patent was issued for an invention revolving around browser navigation in a body of information and audiovisual data.

Who is Paul Allen Suing?

Well it is a bevy of high tech and maybe not so high tech companies. They include AOL, Apple, eBay, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo, and YouTube. (notice Microsoft is absent as well as Amazon.com, also in Seattle WA.)

Other patents include 6,034,652, 6,788,314, 6,757,682. All of the patents involve e-commerce and search process. Allen, however, has a lot of documentation that Google may be the main benefactor of the illegal transactions. Consider this statement in the law suit:

“For example, Interval Research served as an outside collaborator to and provided research funding for Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page’s research that resulted in Google. Indeed, a Google screenshot dated September 27, 1998 entitled “About Google!” identifies Interval Research in the “Credits” section as one of two “Outside Collaborators” and one of four sources of “Research Funding” for Google.”

Google Give Credit to Interval Research

Where does this leave Paul Allen?

Paul Allen, one of the co-founders of Microsoft, has not been with the company since the 1990’s. He has spent his time and money of projects that he has found interesting, like a Rock and Roll museum in Washington State.

Paul Allen Co-founder of Microsoft

His interest in technology may have peaked back in the 1990’s, but he has had some contact since with other projects. However, this is the first serious foray into an area that is going to be costly, for everyone. Some have called him a patent troll, helping to make patent attorneys wealthy, but not doing anything more. His company, Interval Research, by the way is defunct.

Is Paul Allen a patent troll? See the Wall Street Journal.

For another, different, opinion see: ZDNET

Diaspora The Open Source Facebook Killer Coming Sept 15th

Robert Boland — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:37:25 +0000

Facebook is without doubt, the biggest social network out there. It’s unrivaled by the likes of linkedin, myspace and bebo in this day and age and is easily the most visited site on the web. It seems like it’s too big to take down, but that’s not going to deter some students from New York University.

Daniel Grippi, Maxwell Salzberg, Raphael Sofaer, and Ilya Zhitomirskiy are the creators of Diaspora, the open-source social network that they are hoping will take down Facebook. They describe Diaspora as a “distributed network, where totally separate computers connect to each other directly, will let us connect without surrendering our privacy.”

The recently announced in a blog post that Diaspora is set to hit the web on September 15th.

“We have been coding. We have Diaspora working, we like it, and it will be open-sourced on September 15,”

So how is it different from Facebook? Well, the main difference is there will be a lot more privacy and you can control what gets shared with who and how much you want them to know about. All the information is stored on your machine, and not actually on a third party host or server. Your computer will be known as a “seed” and once it’s all set up, it will aggregate all of your information, like Facebook Profile, Tweets etc…. all in one place for you.

The main priority for the team is to make sure it’s as easy as possible for people to share only what they want and to maintain their privacy.

Diaspora has been completely funded by donations from individuals, and has managed to receive over $200,000 in funding to date, so some people must be interested in it.

We’ll see if it’s any good on Sept 15th anyway, and if you want to find out anything more about it, head over to join dispora

What are your first impressions of it, let us know in the comments

All Of Google Acquisitions On An Infographic

Robert Boland — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:42:42 +0000

Google are constantly amazing me with all of these small un-heard companies that they snatch up and buy for huge sums of money. Of course to Google it’s all really just loose change and I’ve yet to find another company that acquires so many companies so frequently. Every month it seems a new start up has been bought over by the giant, but you also hear of the odd major player being bought out.

Of course, it’s very hard to keep track of Google and all of their acquisitions, so we’ve got an easier way for you to follow where their spending their money. Scores.org has an interesting infographic that showsGoogle’s acquisitions through the past 10 years, starting with their purchase of Deja, which became Google Groups, right up until their most recent purchase of Like.

From looking at it, you can see how as Google as grown, so have the number of acquisitions, dramatically. Last month they got their hands on 3 more companies, and so far this month they’ve added another 3 under their belt.

This infographic can be a bit complicated to look at the first time, but if you take time to just read and understand the legend it becomes much easier and all begins to make sense.

Source:

Scores.org

Click image to see full size

Amazon Kindle Selling Very Fast

George Garza — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:41:06 +0000

Kindle is an e-book wireless reading device with a 6″ Display. It is sold by Amazon.com. Now, however, Amazon has announced that it has received more orders for Kindles in the first four weeks of availability than at any other time. In fact, customers recently ordered more Kindles through Amazon.com and the British version combined than any other product.

This isn’t a complete surprise since Amazon’s recent announcement that more Kindle books were sold in the first half of 2010 as they did in the first half of 2009. So with the Kindle continuing to be the number one product sold on Amazon it will have a wide customer base. Recently, Amazon said the U.K. Kindle store now has over 670,000 books. This makes Kindle very hot and it has reportedly been sold out until the fall.

Kindle comes in two price version. $139 and $189. The difference is that the updated version has athinner, sleeker design with a smaller body and lighter weight. It can perform faster page turns, and it comes with up to one month of battery life with wireless off. You have storage upto 3,500 books. It also comes with built-in Wi-Fi for the price of $139.

The upgraded version has all of these features plus 3G wireless. It sells for $189.

Kindle is very popular in Britain as evidenced by the UK Kindle store with more than 400,000 book titles. But that is not all. Customers in 6 continents in over 125 countries have requested that the product be shipped to them on deferred orders since there are none currently available.

How does this compare to the Apple iPad and the Barnes and Noble NOOK e-book reader? Apparently, Amazon is not concerned that the market will be dominated by one player. More importantly, however, is the view that Amazon holds that the reading experience created by the authors will dominate, not the product.

Rumor: Apple TV To Be Re-Launched As iTV With iAD Support

Shailpik Biswas — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:10:54 +0000

Here’s more from Apple because obviously today seems to be a day for big Apple leaks and rumors. This piece of news comes from Digg co-founder Kevin Rose — he has apparently been hearing rumors about the Apple TV making a come back as iTV. Not only that, it will have a whole new look, new iAd Supported channels and the iPad as a remote! Now that’s what I call a revamp.

According to a weekend post by Kevin Rose, Apple might be releasing a new avatar of the Apple TV rebranded as iTV. It will have its own portion of the iTunes store and have media channels supported by iAd. Users can download ad supported content from the various TV stations and have Mobile Me integrated with the device to share photos and videos with friends and family.

If what the post says is true, then the hardware will also go through a revamp and will be running on the iOS mobile platform. It will then likely have a section of the app store dedicated to it where users can buy iTV specific apps (and services may be?). With the iOS in place, it will be much better suited to running on minimal hardware and maximum speed. It will also play well with other iOS devices; namely the iPad and the iPhone. And this is where comes another point — the iPad will apparently double up as a (rather large) remote for the iTV. Looks like the world of the couch potato just got a whole lot more futuristic.

Apple’s TV initiatives have always lacked that zing that most of their other products tend to have. Steve Jobs has been oft quoted for his famous line about the Apple TV being just a hobby. But as regular, conventional entertainment continues to move online with Apple’s products and services playing a large role in it, it would be illogical for Apple to let this opportunity to go by without capturing yet another market and revolutionizing it.

The TV has for too long been the proverbial idiot box and a lot of companies have been trying to change that over the years. First came the time delayed TV courtesy TiVo. And then as technology matured, online streaming became a reality. TV episodes began appearing online — first illegally and then for paid download. After a lot of false starts from many companies, Hulu came up became an instant hit. So traditional TV content has constantly been moving on with the ages and this is the right time for Apple to take this step.

With the new iTV running the iOS and having iAD supported channels, the solution might be a good one for the consumer. It will entail attaching the iTV to your TV and instantly being greeted with a host of online TV content. That is of course only if Apple is successful in using their influence to crack lucrative deals with the usually tight-fisted and non-progressive media houses. As with music online, proper and easy availability online is often a good way to reduce piracy and generate more sales. As the CD dies a silent death, the DVD already seems to have one foot in the grave with the advent of HD streaming and downloads.

Kevin also mentioned Google TV coming up next year and said that it too would be quite exciting. iTV might be launched in September at the annual iPod-centric and will be priced at $99 apparently.

[via]

Updated:Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 Leaked Running Android 2.2

Robert Boland — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:48:31 +0000

Update: Samsung have gone and officially confirmed the Samsung Galaxy Tab and released a short teaser trailer for us, with a date of 2nd September in Berlin for the official unveiling.
Enjoy

Samsung have been rumored to be working for quite some time now on an Android based tablet device set to rival the iPad. However they’ve remained fairly tight lipped on details but, inevitably some photos and specs have been leaked onto the web by Chinese site iFanr.

The leaked images that they have confirm that it seems to be running Android 2.2 with the model number GT-P1000.

The site also gives their first impressions of the device and first off the Galaxy Tab seems very plasticky and much lighter than the more solid iPad.

Specs wise, it seems the Galaxy Tab will come equipped with a 7-inch 1024 x 600 AMOLED screen and a 3.2 megapixel camera. It also comes with built in support for 3G networks and also an “ebook” app which according to iFanr, is the best they’ve ever used on a device.

There also appears to be a front facing QVGA camera, a GPS receiver and WiFi (802.11n) to keep you connected. It’s quite likely that Samsung will release two versions of the Galaxy Tab, one with 3G support, and one without, just as Apple did with the iPad.

When you quickly look at it for the first time you could be forgiven for mistaking it for the iPad as it does look fairly similar. But as I mentioned earlier it seems to be made from cheap plastic materials which really take away from its finish. I personally hate using devices that seem all cheap and nasty made from plastic, while they may be lighter, it just takes away from the quality of the device.

We’ve no word on pricing, availability or memory capacity for the Galaxy Tab but I’m sure it will definitely undercut the iPad. It’s hoped it will be released later this year on Verizon in the US and Vodafone in the UK.

Source:

iFanr

Apple Patents Touchscreen All-In-One Desktop — Touchscreen iMac?

Shailpik Biswas — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:26:48 +0000

The tech community is abuzz with a patent that was recently granted to the Cupertino company. Unearthed yet again by the good folks of Patently Apple — this patent describes an all-in-one desktop computer that looks very much like an iMac, that can switch between touch-based and mouse inputs. This looks like a fusion of the iMacs of the past that could bend and twist and the iMacs of present that can only be adjusted for vertical angles.

The report shows a confirmed patent for a touch-based iMac which will have a touchscreen layer on top of the regular screen. from the images of the patent, it is quite clear that the OS will be undergoing considerable changes to facilitate this new feature. But then it isn’t like the OS X is not touch-aware already. In fact, we should have seen it coming with all the complex gestures that Apple has been incorporating into their MacBooks and Magic Trackpad.

The logic behind having dual input is to make sure that the user gets the best of both worlds. The iMac is after all a powerful desktop computer that can do much more than a mere iPad. So there will, for a long time to come, be applications that will require the mouse and the keyboard for proper operations. But then the usefulness of touch-based inputs in some applications simply cannot be denied. So it looks like Apple is slowly bridging the gap to an all-touch world by doing it in steps.

The two interfaces for touch and mouse/keyboard-based inputs will not be interoperable. So the OS will transition between the two interfaces by sensing the change on its own. This can easily be done through an accelerometer to change the interface to suit the orientation the display is in. Another way to do it would be to include a rotation sensor on the display’s mount so that when the display is rotated it can switch to the appropriate interface automatically by calculating the angles of rotation. Another option being explored is having a strategically located touch sensitive area which the user grabs when changing the orientation and that acts as the transition switch.

This there will be two different input modes — a high resolution and a low resolution input mode with the lower resolution being suited for touch based input. The patent describes that when the system is entering the low resolution input mode, the typical elements of the high resolution input mode can “slide off” the screen. This would be a very Apple style transition where things like mouse pointer, directory items, menu bars, dock, etc. will simply move out of sight in a smooth transition animation; leaving the user with a clean and finger friendly-controls.

The terms high-resolution and low-resolution here are in no way connected to the display though. They simply mean that the interface elements will become larger or smaller, depending on the input mode. The display resolution will stay the same.

From the patent, it seems that proximity from the screen could also be a determining factor when it comes to transitioning. When you are using a mouse and a keybaord, you are usually sitting at a distance from the screen. But when you are using the touch-based input, you are likely to pull it closer to yourself, in the manner of reading a book perhaps. Depending on you individual habit, you can set the threshold of the transition in angles, so that it does not change without you wanting it to.

As for what applications are to be used with this, you can take your cues from the iPad already. There’s the iWork Touch that works splendidly well on the iPad. There’s also the iLife bundle. And there’s always the third-party ecosystem to give you the rest.

[via]

Two tools to help with secure passwords

Mike Halsey — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:19:37 +0000

Choosing a secure password to use online is second only in difficulty to knowing if that password is really secure or not. I thought I’d share with you two tools that can make choosing a secure password easy, and that would help you find out just how secure the password(s) you use at the moment really are.

How Secure is My Password is a simple little site that checks your current password and reports back on how long it might take an average modern desktop computer to crack it. There’s nothing on this site to identify you. There’s no log-in or account needed so there’s no way for the site to ever be able to associate your password with any username or email address.

To use the site all you need to do is type your password into the white box on the screen and it will immediately report back on how long it would take to secure your password.

Simple dictionary words and names can be cracked in a matter of seconds using brute-force methods. Adding a year or date of birth will make it more secure but it’s still something that a password cracker will check for early on.

Adding random characters such as * or & and subst1tuting numb3rs for letters can make the password more secure still but there’s no substitute for having a really long password, ten characters or more if you can do so.

PasswordCard is a site for people who really do want a secure password and don’t mind a little inconvenience to get it. The site will auto generate an image (one example is seen here) with completely random characters and two keys.

The first key is again random images along the top, the latter is a more conventional numbering up the side of the card.

You can print out your card (my advice would also be to save a copy or two in case you lose it). You then choose a random character along the top, a number down the side and decide how long your password should be.

You now have a super-secure password and even if somebody gets hold of your password card, they’d never find your password hidden within it.

I’d always recommend having a secure password and these two sites can help keep you safe and secure on your computer and on-line.

Thanks to James Lidster for the tip

Top 10 Facebook Fixes

Mike Halsey — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 10:27:39 +0000

Social Networking site Facebook has been heavily criticised in recent months for problems with privacy. What’s more the site is annoying for many users because of its heavy emphasis on apps such as farmville and advertising.

Now though, those helpful people over at LifeHacker have published 10 top tips to get Facebook working the way you want it to. You can read the tips here.

The tips include information on third-party Facebook clients (my personal favourite is TweetDeck) and how to back up your account.

One interesting thing they cover is what happens to your account after you die. For many people Facebook is their online home of all their photographs and, essentially, their life. With the number of physical printed photographs dwindling sharply, online repositories of our photographs could now be our only link to family and social history. Fortunately, more and more companies are now planning services with this in mind.

The guide contains some extremely helpful tips on how to make sure your Facebook privacy settings are up to date, including how to use the new Geo-Location services to make sure your friends don’t accidentally reveal your location to others. Finally there are also facebook security tools and some useful wigets.

You can read the tips here.

Stumbleupon has APPS for iPhone and Android

George Garza — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:54:17 +0000

Yesterday, Stumbleupon introduced Apps for the iPhone and Android mobile telephones. This puts the site’s signature Web stumbling program into a mobile and convenient size. Both platforms have a built-in frame bar that sits on top of, or beneath an embedded Web browser. This makes using the App easy.

The frame bar contains the usual suite of StumbleUpon buttons with the thumbs up and thumbs down icon that takes users to a random page. There’s also the toggle that allows you to share the pages that you’re on with cohorts both on StumbleUpon and with social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

One thing that is different from using the web version is that to use the App users need to be registered members of StumbleUpon, else they can’t use it; however, there’s a way to sign up even if you’re not, so that is not a game killer. The one upside to this is that the App carries over all your current StumbleUpon preferences, including favorites and topics of interest. These can be browsed like TV channels from inside the App.

Thumbnail Mode

A slow network connection is inevitable, but should be avoided if possible. So, one feature that’s been added to accommodate a potentially slow network connection is the thumbnail mode. This gives you a look inside preview of the page which the App wants to load up, as well as other information such as how many views it’s received, plus the likes and reviews from other StumbleUpon members.

Thumbnail mode can be turned on or off, though Android users will have an advantage since they can change that mode without leaving the App. iPhone users, on the other hand, will have to go to their system settings in order to make the switch. On the plus side, you can perform fast App switching, with StumbleUpon so you can return to it from any other App and not lose what you were viewing.