Nexus Cracks

Windows 10 to get biometric sensor support with 'Windows Hello'

2015-03-25T22:43:00.000+05:30

©Image: ExtremeTech

Microsoft is trying to move beyond the present password system with its upcoming O.S Windows 10 by introducing a new feature called Windows Hello. That's the general term this technical giant is using to describe a set of biometric identification technologies, including facial recognition, iris scanning and fingerprint readers. These features will also be extended into the online world with Microsoft Passport thus trying to remove the need of typing a password ever again.

When it launches later this year, Windows 10 will include software support for Windows Hello, but it sounds like you’re going to need some specific hardware to take full advantage of it. Fingerprint readers are well-established, so any computer mobile device that has the necessary hardware will be able to use the built-in Windows Hello security features. The face and iris scanning, on the other hand, are probably going to require a new computer or add-on.

The facial recognition engine is based on technology used in the Kinect Xbox camera. It relies on IR illumination to capture more points of reference on the face and operate in a wider range of lighting conditions. It can even see past a beard or makeup that might confuse other systems. Microsoft says the system is very good at only unlocking for you, but what about a photograph of you? The IR camera should also be able to tell the difference between a real face and the photo. By comparison, the Trusted Face system on newer Android phones can still be fooled by a picture of the owner.

Microsoft is also working to make Hello an important part of the Microsoft Passport single sign-in service. So, let’s say you’ve got a Windows 10 PC with a front-facing IR camera and facial recognition set up. After the machine verifies that you are indeed who you claim to be, it will automatically authenticate with Passport. Any site, app, or service that integrates Passport should then allow you immediate access from that device without typing a password.

Passport doesn’t have to transmit your face or fingerprint anywhere to log you into websites, though. All the recognition happens locally first — then Passport cryptographically authenticates you with compatible services. If an Internet ne’er-do-well were to gain access to the information stored on a Passport-enabled website’s server, all they would get is your public encryption key, which isn’t of any use.

Microsoft is working with OEMs to make sure there are Hello-compatible systems available when Windows 10 launches. There will also be some advanced webcams like the Intel RealSense F200 that can be plugged into existing computers to allow face and iris scanning.

Apple releases 10.10.3 Yosemite Beta 5 for testing.

2015-03-25T14:52:00.002+05:30

Apple has released the fifth beta version of OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 to those participating in the OS X Public Beta program or have registered in the Mac Developer program. The new build arrives as build number 14D113c and continues to include a focus on the new Photos app for OS X, along with other bug fixes and feature improvements.

The new beta version is available to download now from the software update mechanism of the Mac App Store, refreshing the Updates tab should reveal the download if it’s not seen immediately.

OS X 10.10.3 beta 5

An update to the Yosemite Recovery drive is also available with the OS X 10.10.3 beta 5 download.

There is no known timeline for OS X 10.10.3 to debut, though Apple has stated that the Photos app will be available sometime in “early 2015″. With that said, the beta release schedule is clearing picking up steam, and it’s quite likely that we’ll see a public release of OS X 10.10.3 sooner than later. Apple typically goes through multiple beta versions before unveiling a final build to the public.

The new OS X Photos app will replace iPhoto for Mac, the app looks and feels quite similar to the Photos app experience in iOS that many users have become accustomed to.

Apple releases iOS 8.3 public preview for iPhones & iPads

2015-03-23T13:52:00.000+05:30

(Image: CNET/CBS Interactive)

Soon after the first beta of iOS 8.3, the Cupertino - California based giant Apple has opened a second pre-release beta program for its mobile software to the public.

Apple said that it hopes the released iOS 8.3 public previews of both its desktop and mobile software will help "shape" its future products. Although it is not clear what are the improvements which have been added to this update, it is expected that some goodies will be added to the 8.3 first version.

Some of the expected goodies include:

Speedier operation on older sets like iPhone 4s and iPhone 5, by which the complaints of slow functioning on these sets will get reduced noticeably.

Siri will get even more smarter and can speak languages including: Russian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and English for India. The update also will now allow the voice assistant to speak New Zealand English for the first time.

New emoji sets will include diversified emoticons including more diverse family units such as same-sex parents and those with multiple children. With some of these, you can change the skin color. The new offerings show up when you tap and hold the emoji.

There are also new international flags and an emoji for the Apple Watch.

Microsoft Sway enables you to embeds Web content and document.

2015-01-31T01:45:00.004+05:30

Microsoft Sway

Microsoft has been hard at work polishing its content creation tool Sway. The Web app now allows users to embed content from the Web, like videos, audio clips, maps and more.

The updated version of the app lets you paste the HTML embed code from online interactive media — think content from YouTube, Vine, Flickr and Giphy, OneDrive documents and Google Maps — and add it to your Sways.

In addition, Sway can now import content from PDF, Word and PowerPoint documents (including older .doc and .ppt file formats). You can do this by either uploading files or adding them from your OneDrive storage in the app, and Sway will add the text and images right into your creation.

Sway recently opened up its preview so you can sign up without an invite andwent worldwide earlier this month.

➤ Sway [Web/iPhone]

OnePlus all set to One on one with Google with it's own OS:OxygenOS

2015-01-31T00:29:00.001+05:30

After OnePlus had trouble with Cyanogen turning its back on the company in India, it started working on its own Android release for its phones.

Today, it announced that the upcoming operating system will be called OxygenOS, following a competition the company ran asking for community members to suggest names.

OnePlus says that “we will be launching our own ROM in the near future” and will be “software that is open, customizable, and free of bloat and unnecessary features.”

More information on the company’s forthcoming software will be announced on February 12th.

➤ OnePlus ROM: Oxygen OS [OnePlus Forums]

Microsoft plans to take on Android(Google) by investing in Cyanogen.

2015-01-31T00:11:00.000+05:30

Image: Digit.in

Microsoft is getting ready for a newer and unexpected battle with Google. This time, Microsoft plans to take on Android by investing in Cyanogen.

Cyanogen is a startup which makes and maintains its own version of Android. Cyanogen is currently being used in the OnePlus One, the flagship killer, a smartphone which has garnered rave reviews last year.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft is investing $70 million in Cyanogen which is best known for its customized version of Android. Cyanogen has reportedly raised $100 million to date. This should be noted that Cyanogen recently refused an offer from Google and hopes to live its dream of being an open version of Android alive.

WSJ writes:

“Microsoft would be a minority investor in a roughly $70 million round of equity financing that values Cyanogen in the high hundreds of millions.”

What could be Microsoft’s intentions?

Image: WSJ

This is important and unusual because Microsoft is owner of its very own Windows Phone operating system and is gearing up for the upcoming launch of Windows 10 for mobile devices. This move of Microsoft can be attributed to its commitment to embrace open source and maybe some mischief.

Cyanogen claims to have a team of 9,000 volunteer software developers. Cyanogen’s Chief Executive Kirt McMaster told WSJ last week:

“We’re going to take Android away from Google.”

Image: Gizmag

Apart from different versions of Android for the smartphone makers, Google also releases the Android core under an open-source license. This version is free for everybody and anyone can use and modify or fork this core without linking the Google services. The best examples are Amazon’s products which run on forked Android. These independent versions are already very popular in China where Google has struggled to leave its mark.

These types of Android versions, which are not under Google’s control, are a problem for Google because not every forked version promotes and uses Google’s services and hence, Google makes no money. Due to this Microsoft’s investment in Cyanogen, it will be harder for Google to bring all version of Android under its control.

Microsoft and Cyanogen, both have declined to comment. By investing in Cyanogen, Microsoft can get more users and claim a bigger share of the mobile market. Under the new CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has shown such commitments to open source in the past.

Facebook with new automated place tips to compete with Yelp and Foursquare

2015-01-30T06:04:00.000+05:30

Facebook is about to become a more serious competitor to Yelp and Foursquare. Now when you walk into a business, the suitably named “Place Tips” feature will pop up recommendations about the business.

When Facebook sees you’re at a business, you’ll receive a notification you can launch to view information cards about the place, including posts and photos from your friends. You’ll also get information on things such as the most popular menu items and upcoming events.

The information may also appear atop your news feed when you’re walking around near the establishment. The feature is turned on by default, so you’ll have to turn it off manually (under the “location” portion of your settings menu) if you find it annoying. Facebook at least gives you some granular control over which places you’d like to remove from the feature.

Currently the feature is rolling out slowly to specifc areas of high activity, like Central Park or Times Square in New York City. Facebook uses information from your wireless carrier, Wi-Fi and GPS to pinpoint your location, but the social network is even testing out Bluetooth connectivity via beacons at businesses to provide more accurate location details.

While Yelp certainly has dominance over business recommendations (in the US, at least), turning on the feature by default will certainly make users pay more attention to Facebook’s offering. Whether users actually keep it on, however, remains to be seen.

Now Spotify integration for RunKeeper in iOS

2015-01-30T05:40:00.000+05:30

Running and music go together like peanut butter and jelly. RunKeeper knows that, so now it’s adding Spotify integration into its app.

The fitness app is today announcing the iOS app will allow Spotify premium users to open up music directly from the app’s start screen. You have quick access to your playlists, and Spotify will even suggest some of its top workout collections if you want to mix things up with music outside your own library.

There’s no word on the functionality coming to Android yet, but it’s probably just a matter of time. To get started, you just need to connect your Spotify and RunKeeper accounts once you upgrade to the latest version of the fitness app.

Window's new browser Spartan will support Extension

2015-01-30T05:25:00.000+05:30

Spartan is a more modern browser

Project Spartan Windows 10 browser

Internet Explorer lacks many features compared to better browsers like Chrome and Firefox, including the popular add-ons called extensions.

That will change with Microsoft's new Windows 10 browser, codenamed Project Spartan, which the company hopes will appeal to fans of Google's and Mozilla's browsers.

Microsoft's @IE Dev Chat Twitter account confirmed during a conversation with users that they're "working on a plan for extensions for a future update to Project Spartan."

Off to a good start

Extensions let users customize their browsers with a variety of features.

According to The Verge Microsoft is also working on a way for developers to port their Chrome extensions directly to Spartan, streamlining the process and potentially ensuring Spartan gains a library of extensions as quickly as possible.

Project Spartan will ship with all Windows 10 devices beginning this year.

Bill Gates teased advanced personal assistant is Microsoft secret project...

2015-01-30T00:11:00.002+05:30

Bill Gates can spend his time doing whatever he wants at this point, and it seems currently he wants to work on a mysterious project at Microsoft called "Personal Agent."

He teased the project during a Reddit ask-me-anything session when asked how technology will evolve during the next few decades.

You can't beat Google's Nexus 5 at this price point

"There will be more progress in the next 30 years than ever," Gates replied. "Even in the next 10 problems like vision and speech understanding and translation will be very good. Mechanical robot tasks like picking fruit or moving a hospital patient will be solved. Once computers/robots get to a level of capability where seeing and moving is easy for them then they will be used very extensively.

"One project I am working on with Microsoft is the Personal Agent which will remember everything and help you go back and find things and help you pick what things to pay attention to," he continued. "The idea that you have to find applications and pick them and they each are trying to tell you what is new is just not the efficient model - the agent will help solve this. It will work across all your devices."

That's ambitious, but it seems pretty doable given the progress that Apple, Google and of course Microsoft have made in the virtual personal assistant space over recent years.

Cortana is a decent competitor there, but there are a million ways she might be improved. And coming from Mr. Gates, this is very exciting indeed.

Amazon announced today Its own Email Service,Challenges Google and Microsoft.

2015-01-29T23:43:00.003+05:30

Yes, Amazon is best known as an e-commerce company. But with its pioneering collection of cloud computing services, it’s also an IT company, a company that serves up tech to the world’s businesses. And its IT ambitions just keep getting bigger.

Today, the company announced an online email and digital calendar service dubbed WorkMail. According to the Wall Street Journal, WorkMail is meant to compete with email services from the likes of Microsoft. Amazon will charge $4 per month for each inbox, and workers can use it via Microsoft Outlook or other familiar email clients.

For added security, the WSJ reports, Amazon will provide technology needed to encrypt messages on WorkMail, while companies that use the service will control the keys needed to unscramble the encryption. Within certain industries and in countries where privacy is paramount—Germany and other European countries, for instance—Amazon will also provide a tool meant to ensure that emails are only stored in designated geographic regions.

With the new service, Amazon is joining a host of others in the quest to upend Microsoft as the king of email and other office productivity tools. Competitors include Google, with its Apps for Business, as well as myriad startups, including Dropbox, Evernote, Box.com, and Quip.

Aluminium air battery which be refilled with water,could blow past lithium-ion

2015-01-29T01:06:00.000+05:30

As battery technologies go, the world has a love-hate relationship with lithium-ion. On the one hand, breakthroughs in Li-ion designs and construction are responsible for the Tesla Model S, new installations, green energy research, and the modern smartphone. On the other hand, lithium-ion limitations are the reason why most EVs have a range of 40-60 miles, the Model S costs upwards of $80,000, and why your smartphone can’t last all day on a single charge. For all its promise and capability, lithium-ion has limited long-term utility — which is why a new announcement from Fuji Pigment is so interesting. The company is claiming that its new aluminum-air batteries can run for up to two weeks and be refilled with normal water.

How an c works

First, some basics. The problem with battery technology isn’t whether or not we can build better batteries — as the chart below shows, we can build batteries that blow traditional lithium ion out of the water. Keep in mind that the chart below is exponential, meaning that fuel cell technology has 10x the energy density of a typical cobalt-Li ion battery.

The various “Metal-Air” batteries, including zinc-air, aluminum-air, and lithium-air, have some of the highest energy densities its possible to build. The difficulties with aluminum-air construction, in particular, has been rapid degradation of the anode and, in early models of Al-Air, the release of hydrogen gas.

Fuji Pigment’s new announcement makes repeated reference to the work of Ryohei Mori, and while the referenced papers aren’t available for free, the abstracts are online. The studies in question are all aimed at enhancing the performance of Al-air batteries while extending their useful lifetimes — typically, Al-air solutions begin to degrade immediately after the first charge cycle. According to Mori’s work, creating a secondary aluminum-air battery adjacent to the primary buffered the accumulation of byproducts that normally prevent the battery from working properly over the long term.

The “rechargability” of Al-air batteries requires some explanation. Al-air batteries are primary cells, which means they can’t be recharged via conventional means. As the aluminum anode is consumed by contact with oxygen, hydrated aluminum forms as a byproduct. That material can be recycled and used to create a new aluminum anode, which is why the batteries are referred to as rechargeable. Periodically, the aluminum anode will have to be replaced — it’s not clear how often the Fuji Pigment battery would need servicing of this sort.

Could Al-air be the next big thing?

New battery technologies and announcements are a dime a dozen, but there’s reason to think that a workable Al-air technology could deploy within the next 2-5 years. Multiple manufacturers are working on commercializing designs (Alcoa partnered with Phinergy in 2013 with plans for a 2017 debut), and aluminum is abundant and relatively cheap. Al-air batteries have actually been used in specialized military applications for years, which is important — it means there’s some pre-existing expertise and known characteristics that can be leveraged to create additional capacity.

That said, there are question, too. The hydrated aluminum oxide solution produced during the battery’s normal operation would need to be recycled in some fashion, it’s not clear that fresh water is as effective an aqueous solution as saltwater (meaning there might be specific need for one particular kind of solution). The final price is also unknown, though previous estimations had put the cost of an Al-air system at roughly $1.1 per kg of aluminum anode. This was not given in precise terms relative to the cost of gasoline (and the weight of the aluminum anode in these batteries is unknown), but the team that performed that analysis noted that proper recycling would put Al-air in the same cost range as conventional internal combustion engines.

Fuji Pigment has stated that it intends to commercialize this technology as early as this year, which means we could see test demonstrations and proof of concepts by 2016. Whether auto manufacturers will jump for the technology remains to be seen — car companies tend to be conservative and Tesla has already thrown its weight behind the further use of lithium-ion technology.

Mindbogling 20 billion fps camera to film a laser in flight by scientist.

2015-01-29T00:54:00.000+05:30

We’ve all been spoiled by the fashylasers in science fiction to the point that the real thing can seem a little mundane. A laser, by definition, is tightly focused and all but invisible to the human eye. However, a team of physicists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK have managed to film a laser bouncing off mirrors with a new type of high-speed camera. It looks like something out of Star Wars, but it actually happened in real life.

Filming a laser pulse moving through air is no easy feat, and certainly no conventional camera was up to the task. So the team built their own, as really clever physicists sometimes do. Visualizing a laser as it moves through the air relies on exploiting the scattering of photons. You can get a feel for what’s going on in the video by shining a regular laser through smoke or water vapor. The light from the laser is scattered by the particulates in the air, which is why you can see it. You’re actually just seeing the photons split off from the focused beam.

The system devised by PhD student Genevieve Gariepy and colleagues at Heriot-Watt University is doing the same basic thing, but in air and much, much faster. Air scatters less light than fog or smoke would, so the camera used to capture the video below needed to be extremely sensitive. It’s composed of a 32×32 pixel grid of single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detectors. This type of CMOS sensor was chosen because it has high temporal resolution. That means the image data acquired by them can be accurately correlated with real life.
So how accurate is the SPAD camera system? It can has a temporal resolution of 67 picoseconds, or 0.000000000067 seconds. Looking at it another way, it can capture about 20 billion frames per second. That’s good enough to pinpoint a single photon within a few centimeters. When you’re talking about light, which is literally the fastest thing in the universe, that’s fantastically impressive. The camera is also tied into the laser emitter so it knows the exact time the pulse is produced.

The video of the laser bouncing shows a bit of haze around the beam, but that’s a consequence of the method used to capture it. Even though the SPAD camera is extremely sensitive, it still only picks up a few photons scattered from the beam. The video is actually a blending of 2 million pulses fired over the course of 10 minutes. The team simply had to combine all that image data and subtract the background. The result is the video you see above.

This was a pure research experiment to see if it was possible to visualize a laser in flight without interacting directly. Gariepy believes there could be practical experimental applications for a SPAD camera with high temporal resolution like this one. For example, observing the formation of plasma as ions are heated. This is, of course, in addition to it being used to create really, really cool videos.

Startups of Early 21'st century that terrified even microsoft

2015-01-28T23:34:00.000+05:30

Nineteen ninety-five was the inaugural year of the 21st century, a clear starting point for contemporary life. It was, proclaimed an exuberant newspaper columnist at the time, “the year the Web started changing lives.”

It was the year when the Internet and the World Wide Web moved from the obscure realm of technophiles and academic researchers to become a household word, the year when the Web went from vague and distant curiosity to a phenomenon that would change the way people work, shop, learn, communicate, and interact.

Excerpted from 1995: The Year the Future Began

By 1995, a majority of Americans were using computers at home, at work, or at school, the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press reported. The organization figured that 18 million American homes in 1995 had computers equipped with modems, an increase of 64 percent from 1994. The popularity of the computer and the prevalence of modems helped ignite dramatic growth in internet use in the years following 1995.

The Startup That Launched Millions of Internet Users

In 1995, no entity better represented the panache and wealth-making potential associated with the Internet than Netscape Communications Corporation, a startup in California’s Silicon Valley that made a graphical Web browser called Netscape Navigator. Netscape was an immediate success, if not in turning a profit then in attracting the goodwill of millions of new Web users. Netscape’s defining and most colorful figure was its cofounder, Marc Andreessen, a programmer with an agile mind who talked fast, persuasively, and seemingly nonstop. Andreessen turned 24 years old in 1995; he was less than two years out of college and had not shed all the trappings and eccentricities of undergraduate life. He worked late and got up late. His taste in clothes, it was said, ran to “frat-party ready.”

Andreessen seemed an unlikely character to be identified as “the über-super-wunder whiz kid of cyberspace,” as Newsweek called him at the end of 1995. After growing up in New Lisbon, a town in rural Wisconsin, he enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and studied computer science. Andreessen found part-time work at the university’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications. There, he and a few fellow programmers developed Mosaic, the predecessor-browser to Netscape Navigator. Mosaic was launched in 1993 and quickly won followers for granting relatively easy, point-and-click access to the previously hard-to-access World Wide Web.

Twenty-four-year-old Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen in 1995. Louie Psihoyos/Corbis

After graduating and moving to California, in 1994 Andreessen met James H. Clark, a founder of Silicon Graphics who was looking for the next big thing, and they soon decided to set up a company that would outdo Mosaic. Andreessen and Clark recruited several of Andreessen’s former undergraduate colleagues and brought them to California as core programmers at Mosaic Communications Corporation, the predecessor to Netscape Communications. After fighting an intellectual property lawsuit from the University of Illinois, Clark and Andreessen reluctantly changed the company name: Mosaic Communications became Netscape Communications, and they renamed the browser Netscape Navigator.

Netscape was capable of impressive innovation. Pre-release “beta” versions of its Navigator 2.0 browser came out in October and December 1995 and were hailed as something of a technological feat. Navigator 2.0 was faster and more powerful than its predecessor, which had claimed about 70 percent of the browser market. Among other advances, Navigator 2.0 incorporated plug-in architecture, allowing programmers to develop applications on the browser. Netscape 2.0 also supported the Java applets that made Web-browsing a more lively and animated experience.

In the summer and fall of 1995, Netscape was on a roll. They were the best of times for the swaggering startup. The company’s workforce had grown to 500 employees, a five-fold increase since the beginning of the year. Revenues were climbing, topping $40 million in the year’s fourth quarter, which was almost double sales in the previous three-month period. (Netscape’s sales came mostly from corporate licensing of its high-profile browser and from a diverse line of Internet servers and server software.) During those heady weeks, Netscape was touted as “the Microsoft of the Internet” and seemed to delight in poking at the software giant and its chairman, Bill Gates.

Silicon Valley’s Big Blood Feud

Gates had been slow to recognize the potential of the Internet and the Web. He mistakenly thought the Internet was just a precursor to some sort of elaborate, multidimensional information superhighway. But as Netscape’s browser demonstrated, the Web was becoming the information superhighway. And the browser’s potential as a platform for software applications represented an undeniable threat to Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Andreessen—who sometimes during the mid–1990s was called the “next Bill Gates”—supposedly boasted that Netscape would reduce Windows to a mundane set of poorly debugged device drivers.

The smoldering hostility between the companies turned acute on June 21, 1995, at a four-hour meeting at Netscape’s headquarters. In the run-up to the meeting, Netscape and Microsoft had tentatively explored a strategic relationship. But according to detailed notes that Andreessen took at the meeting, Microsoft’s representatives came on strong and proposed that the companies carve up the browser market—with Netscape Navigator confined to the older, less lucrative versions of Windows.

Andreessen, who could be disarmingly candid, likened the conduct of Microsoft’s team to “a visit by Don Corleone” of The Godfather films. “I expected to find a bloody computer monitor in my bed the next day.” Microsoft disputed Andreessen’s account, saying its representatives had made no attempt to intimidate Netscape. In any case, the meeting ended without agreement, and Netscape moved forward with plans for its most audacious act of all: a public offering of its shares. Netscape was not quite 16 months old and had not come close to turning a profit.

IT HAD TAKEN GENERAL DYNAMICS 43 YEARS TO BE WORTH $2.7 BILLION IN THE STOCK MARKET. IT TOOK NETSCAPE ABOUT A MINUTE.

The IPO, underwritten by Morgan Stanley and Hambrecht & Quist, included 5 million shares of Netscape, priced at $28 per share. The shares went up for sale August 9 on the Nasdaq exchange. The stock opened at $71 per share. It climbed as high as $74.75 a share before settling at day’s end to $58.25.

It was a smashing debut by any measure—“the best opening day for a stock in Wall Street history for an issue of its size,” the New York Times said. The IPO demonstrated that the Web could be a place to make fortunes fast. Clark’s stake in Netscape was worth more than half a billion dollars; Andreessen’s was worth more than $58 million. The Wall Street Journal observed that it had taken General Dynamics 43 years to become a corporation worth $2.7 billion in the stock market. It had taken Netscape “about a minute.” The IPO, as Robert H. Reid wrote in Architects of the Web, “put the Internet indelibly on the map with millions of people who hadn’t been there yet.”

Fifteen days after Netscape’s IPO, Microsoft unveiled its much-anticipated Windows 95 operating system, which coincided with the release of Internet Explorer 1.0, Microsoft’s Web browser. Explorer 1.0 was a meager product that, ironically, was based on a licensed version of the Mosaic code that Andreessen had developed at Illinois. Then, on December 7, came the emergence of a mortal threat to Netscape: Gates spelled out for journalists and industry analysts a strategy to insert and expand Microsoft’s presence online. Gates declared that Microsoft was “hard-core about the Internet.” Among other moves, Microsoft’s browser would be improved, made faster, and offered online for free.

The Bubble Bursts

The “browser war”—the blood feud between Netscape and Microsoft—was underway. Two days before Gates’ announcement, Netscape’s per-share price had touched $171. It would never again reach that high. Netscape mania had crested as markets sensed the unfolding browser war could become a lopsided fight that Microsoft would win.

Even so, Netscape entered the browser war with a huge advantage in market share. Its dominance unnerved Microsoft. “Netscape is already entrenched in our markets all over the world,” a senior Microsoft executive, Brad Chase, wrote in a confidential internal memorandum in April 1996. “The situation today is scary,” Chase stated. “We have not taken the lead over Netscape in any market yet.” But in time, that equation would change dramatically. As Gates had promised, the Microsoft browser was improved. Internet Explorer 3.0, introduced in 1996, was seen as at least the technological equal to Netscape’s latest version, Navigator 3.0.

THE NETSCAPE SAGA—FROM SPECTACULAR RISE TO DECLINE AND HUMILIATING ABSORPTION BY AOL—SPANNED FEWER THAN FIVE YEARS.

What’s more, computer users, especially new users, had little incentive to download and install Navigator on the Windows platform: Internet Explorer was already there, and technically it was just as good. Moreover, Microsoft had muscled its way into the commercial online market, and the largest service providers—including America Online, CompuServe, and AT&T Worldnet—replaced Netscape Navigator with Internet Explorer as their preferred browsing software. According to an America Online internal email, Gates asked an AOL executive in January 1996, “How much do we need to pay you to screw Netscape?” by designating Internet Explorer as AOL’s featured browser.

In the months that followed, Netscape Navigator steadily lost market share to Internet Explorer. The company lost $88 million in the fourth quarter of 1997, and its shares shed more than 20 percent of their value, sliding to less than $20. By August 1998, Internet Explorer eclipsed Navigator as the most popular Web browser.

Netscape’s celebrated run as the flamboyant startup of Silicon Valley reached a bitter end in November 1998, when America Online acquired the company in a stock deal valued at $4.2 billion. It was the first major merger of Internet companies, and it reduced the once-cocksure Netscape to a forlorn and mostly forgotten outpost of AOL. (In a final indignity years after the “browser war,” Microsoft in 2012 acquired from AOL the patents underlying the Netscape browser.)

Microsoft and the “browser war” were the major but not the exclusive reasons for Netscape’s inglorious descent. Netscape never converted its many browser users into paying customers. It never quite knew what to do with its much-visited homepage. The Netscape saga—from spectacular rise to near-hegemony to decline and humiliating absorption by AOL—spanned fewer than five years. In its run, Netscape helped define “Internet time,” an idiom of the late 1990s that meant everything moved more swiftly online. The compressed arc of Netscape’s meteoric trajectory was itself emblematic of Internet time.

More significantly, the rise of Netscape signaled the centrality of the Web in the digital age. Novelist Charles Yu described it this way: “I entered college in 1993 and graduated in 1997. Halfway through, the Internet became a thing. Netscape said: ‘Here you go, here’s a door to a brand-new place in the existence of the universe. We just started letting people in. Go ahead, it’s fun. It’ll keep getting bigger for the rest of your life.’” Like no other single event of the early digital age, Netscape’s IPO in 1995 brought the Web into popular consciousness.

PlayStation Music to be launch by Sony and Spotify together.

2015-01-28T23:18:00.002+05:30

Sony and Spotify have today announced a new joint partnership that will see the two companies launch a joint music streaming service called Playstation Music.

Launching in “Spring 2015,” the PlayStation Music service will roll out in 41 markets initially and will be available to users of PlayStation consoles and Sony Xperia smartphones and tablets.

PlayStation users will get a “deeply integrated” service, according to Spotify, and will be able to link PSN and Spotify accounts for direct billing through PlayStation Wallet. The integration will also enable things like background streaming from Spotify while playing games.

As a result of the new launch, the existing Music Unlimited service will close in all 19 markets where it is currently active on March 29.

➤ Hello PlayStation®, Spotify Here! [Spotify]

WeChat is now available for Windows Desktop user.

2015-01-28T18:10:00.000+05:30

WeChat has finally launched a version of its desktop client for Windows PC users, nearly a year after the introduction of its client for Macs.

Just like the WhatsApp Web client launched last week, in order to get up and running with WeChat for PC, you’ll need to scan a QR code from within the mobile app. Once your phone is linked to your computer, messages will be mirrored across both devices, but alerts will only show on your computer. For now, it’s only available in Chinese.

If downloading another program to your computer just feels like too much effort, you can, of course, still use the Web-based WeChat client from any operating system.

➤ WeChat for Windows [via Tech In Asia]

YouTube will now default to HTML5 over Adobe

2015-01-28T17:49:00.000+05:30

Today, YouTube announced that its Web video player will now default to HTML5 over Adobe Flash to add more flexibility for developers, bloggers and consumers.

The team wrote that it waited on switching to HTML5 players due to numerous technical issues. For example, HTML5 previously lacked support for Adaptive Bitrate (ABR), which helps reduce buffering.

With ABR support, YouTube says it is able to use MediaSource Extensions to run smooth live streams on a variety of devices, including the Xbox One, Playstation 4, Chromecast and most popular Web browsers such as Chrome, Safari 8 and IE 11.

YouTube also says that since HTML5 supports VP9 codec, it can help save bandwidth, load time and file size. The team encourages developers to start using the iframe API rather than Flash so mobile devices that do not support Flash can easily stream YouTube videos.

YouTube has offered HTML5 functionality for many years now, so it seems overdue for the company to finally make this the standard platform.

You can read the full details of YouTube’s HTML5 benefits here.

➤ YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

Snapchat has revealed new feature to add friends.

2015-01-28T17:26:00.002+05:30

Snapchat launched a big update today that added a new feature called “Discover” that shows you the latest news, but what it didn’t talk about is the cool new way to add friends.

The new feature (which doesn’t seem to have an official name yet, so I’m going to call it a “Ghostcode” for now) shows you a Snapchat logo with random holes in it.

It looks innocent enough, but it’s actually a secret QR code for you to share with people outside Snapchat so they can add easily add you.

You can access your Ghostcode from the Snapchat camera, then by tapping the ghost logo at the top of the screen.

It’s as simple as pointing your camera at someone else’s Ghostcode on another screen and they’re magically added to your friends list. It works great for sharing your account to other social media sites so people can find you without searching for your username.

Update: Snapchat now has a page that demos just how the new “Snap to add” feature works.

➤ Snapchat

Streamus changes YouTube into a amazing music service

2015-01-27T23:00:00.000+05:30

YouuTube launched its music platform late last year to little fanfare, offering all you can eat music for $7.99/month on the site, with no ads.

While many of us use YouTube to listen to the occasional song, it’s no match for a real music service like Spotify or Google Music since it doesn’t offer background listening or the ability to search for songs without using the site.

A new third-party Chrome extension called Streamus is changing that, however, turning the site into a legitimate music service that lives in a popup in your browser.

Streamus feels like something that Google itself should have built, but it’s actually built by someone who quit their job to work on the extension full-time. On Reddit, the creator says they’ve been working on it for over three years.

The extension is built with Google’s Material design language and allows you to search any song on YouTube right inside a popup, add it to a playlist and listen instantly without needing to have a YouTube tab open.

The extension does far more than you might expect. For example, once you’ve created a playlist, you can share it with friends via a URL, like you might expect on a normal music service.

Streamus even offers a radio service, like Spotify or Pandora that automatically picks similar songs and plays them for you. For a Chrome extension, this is awesome.

You’re also able to queue up songs from around the web by just right clicking on them, which makes it easy to listen all day.

Having used Streamus for a few days now, I’d be pretty surprised if Google didn’t end up offering to acquire the extension; it’s simply that good.

Streamus doesn’t require a YouTube Music Key subscription to work; it works with plain old YouTube.

It’s a little disappointing that Google itself couldn’t deliver something this awesome when it launched YouTube Music Key, but this extension brings it to its full potential.

➤ Streamus [Chrome Web Store]

Quitely but lastly Microsoft unveils Windows subscription pricing

2015-01-27T22:54:00.000+05:30

Microsoft rolled out its Enterprise Cloud Suite add-on in December 2014 for Enterprise Agreement customers and has now confirmed that the suite will cost between $7 (£4.66, AU$8.86) and $12 (£7.99, AU$15.18) per month per user.

The package includes a Windows Enterprise Edition license for a desktop or a laptop and a Windows tablet (with a display size smaller than 10.1-inch).

Other goodies included are Azure Active Directory for identity management, MDOP desktop optimization suite, Intune mobile deployment management, Office 365, OneDrive for Business as well as unlimited licenses to access Windows Enterprise

Dropbox acquires visual collaboration platform Pixelapse

2015-01-27T20:17:00.002+05:30

Dropbox has acquired visual version control and collaboration platform Pixelapse today for an undisclosed sum. Pixelapse will work towards integrating its service into Dropbox over the next year.

Pixelapse gives users version control over their graphics projects, and works across Windows and Mac on over 50 file formats covering apps like Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as Graffle and Sketch. It also lets teams collaborate on files by offering annotation and visual comparison tools.

Pixelapse says it will continue to work as a standalone product for existing users over this year and also accept new users. Once its service is fully integrated with Dropbox, Pixelapse will offer a migration plan so users can move their work to Dropbox accounts.

Pixelapse was founded by Shravan Reddy and Min Ming in Palo Alto in 2011, andthe company participated in the Stanford University-affiliated accelerator program StartX the next year.

This is Dropbox’s second acquisition in 2015. The cloud storage company bought Israeli mobile productivity firm CloudOn less than a week ago.

➤ Pixelapse + Dropbox

The New FACEBOOK LITE,Reduces App Overload

2015-01-27T20:17:00.001+05:30

Android: One of the biggest complaints about the Facebook app is that it can take up too many resources, particularly on older phones. Which is probably why Facebook released Facebook Lite, a super lightweight version of its app directed at developing markets.

Currently, the app is only available officially in a few countries—Bangladesh, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Zimbabwe—but there are so many ways to download the APK for yourself, it's unlikely to stay within those countries for long. The app itself is incredibly spartan, with very little excess. The APK is about 252KB, as opposed to the 27MB that the main app can usually take up, so if you're on an older device, a slower network, or just don't want all the extra junk, Facebook Lite is probably exactly what you were looking for. (But if you don't like it, the mobile site is always a good alternative.)

Desktop Touchscreen Visualized In Apple Lightmac Concept

2015-01-27T20:10:00.000+05:30

Desktop Touchscreen Visualized In Apple Lightmac Concept

Aiming to become Apple‘s next step in mobile computing, industrial designer Tomas Moyano has developed the Apple “Lightmac.” This concept design fuses the power of a desktop computer with the portability and use of tablets, integrating projected touchscreen technology. The design is realized with a Core i9 processor and 16 GB of RAM, in addition to a 24-hour battery life with live-syncing via Bluetooth 6.0. Peripheral additions include a wireless keyboard while the portable screen projector can be re-sized for convenience. This concept design offers an innovative and realistic look into the future of computing, with exciting insights into what may come next.

Apple's TestFlight beta testing service is now being turne down next month.

2015-01-27T20:07:00.000+05:30

After acquiring TestFlight maker Burstly last year and subsequently releasing a new iTunes Connect-based beta testing service and a native app on iOS, Apple will be shutting down the old version of TestFlight on TestFlightApp.com.

TestFlight sent out an email today, indicating that the website will close in exactly one month on February 26.

Note that apps on the older version will not be ported to the new TestFlight; developers must set up their apps from scratch in iTunes Connect.

TestFlightApp.com and Apple’s TestFlight previously ran as separate services, with the new version requiring apps to go through a review for initial submissions and any build that contains significant changes to the app. Naturally, the new TestFlight is only available for iOS 8.

➤ TestFlight

WhatsApp is now available with free WorldWide Roming.

2015-01-27T19:38:00.001+05:30

WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messaging services worldwide, with the company recently announcing 700 million monthly active users. Now, in an attempt to woo the large WhatsApp user base, an Italian company has launched WhatSim, a WhatsApp-only SIM that comes with a plan that will let you use the popular messaging app for free while travelling across about 150 countries.

(Also see: WhatsApp Now Available via Your Desktop Browser)

Manuel Zanella Rngineer, Founder and CEO of Zeromobile, the company behind WhatSim, says, "WhatsApp is the future of mobile communications. Its only "limit" is the data connection especially when you are traveling because the roaming charges are expensive and you can't always find Wi-Fi everywhere and it is not always free. As someone who appreciates and uses WhatsApp, I tried to figure out how to get around this problem. That's why WhatSim is an extraordinary opportunity for WhatsApp."

For EUR 10 (approximately Rs. 714), users will get a SIM card (standard worldwide shipping is EUR 5 - Rs. 350 approximately) unlimited text messaging for a year. While sending and receiving text messages, location updates, and contacts via WhatsApp is free, users will have to buy credits for sharing multimedia messages such as photos, videos, and voice messages. How much you get for your credits depends on where you are travelling.

Zanella further explains, "The solution we have developed is simple and intuitive. With €5 you get 1000 credits that you can use, for instance, to exchange 50 photos or 10 videos in many countries around the world. There are no limits to sharing your position and contacts. This way we guarantee the utmost transparency. Buying a recharge is quick and easy: just go to our website even from your smartphone and soon even from a dedicated app."

WhatSim is available to buy via the WhatSim website, with the company also planning to make it available via "network of local distributors in over 100 countries."

Of course this is not the first time someone's offering a SIM with unlimited WhatsApp usage, though earlier attempts have been limited to a specific country. Last year, WhatsApp, in partnership with E-Plus, a mobile telecommunications operator in Germany, started selling prepaid SIMs that offered unlimited WhatsApp usage.