Bing Maps gets another graphical overhaul, feature upgrade
Wednesday, the mapping component of Microsoft's search engine Bing got another significant UX upgrade and new features for both the desktop and mobile versions of the service.
Last August, a new style of the Bing Maps was unveiled, which focused on providing a cleaner visual experience for users. Today, that new style has been updated even further with subtle changes to color contrast and brightness, as well as to the density of information and size of text to help in overall legibility and usability.
MetroPCS takes on mobile's 'big four,' expands 4G LTE presence further
MetroPCS may be the fifth largest wireless network operator in the United States, but it is the first in LTE, the next-generation wireless standard that will eventually be used by market leaders Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Wednesday, the company expanded its LTE network footprint to three more major markets: New York City, Boston, and Sacramento.
In September, MetroPCS opened the first commercial LTE network in the United States in Las Vegas, and a little more than a week later switched on the second deployment in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area. Since then, the company has activated LTE networks in the Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia metro areas in Pennsylvania, in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California.
Kinect hackers presented with legitimate opportunities in 3D interface design
Hacking the Xbox 360 Kinect controller is all the rage right now, but it's not exactly sanctioned by Microsoft. The future for 3D gesture-based controls, however, looks extremely promising and Belgian software company Softkinetic launched a content developer program for engineers looking to make a legitimate entry into the field.
Ever since an open source PC driver was devised to turn Kinect into a standard USB device, amateur developers have been coming up with clever new ways of using the "controllerless controller."
Google includes personalized voice recognition in new search for Android
Google launched an update to Android's voice search capability on Tuesday that incorporates speaker recognition to improve results.
The new "personalized recognition" feature is currently quite limited: it's only available in English in the United States on Android devices running 2.2 and above.
After 7 years, SlySoft ending lifetime update subscriptions
SlySoft, maker of the popular decryption software AnyDVD HD, and Game Jackal announced on Monday that it will be discontinuing its lifetime update subscription service on January 1, 2011.
Since 2003, SlySoft has developed circumvention techniques for the various methods of disc copy protection and incorporated them into its software packages. In 2007, for example, the company announced it had cracked BD+ Blu-ray copy protection which was developed by Cryptography Research Inc. The following year, the company announced it had cracked BD+ again, allowing its software to have a more complete Blu-ray copying solution.
Paul Allen's patent troll suit against Google, Apple, et al, stalled
The patent infringement lawsuit against AOL, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo and YouTube filed by Interval Licensing LLC has been dropped. Interval is widely associated with entrepreneur Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft, and served as chairman of Charter Communications until late 2009 when the company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Interval sued the eleven tech companies last August, claiming violations of four patents for Web technology related to product search and user alerts.
Group finds 5 main flaws with proposed Net Neutrality rules
A group of more than 80 advocacy groups including The Media Access Project, Reporters without Borders, Daily Kos, Common Cause, and Nonprofit Technology filed a letter with the Federal Communications Commission on Friday citing five main areas that need improvement in the Net Neutrality legislation coming up for vote on December 21.
Unlike former FCC Commissioner Michael Powell, whose main concern is keeping the Internet lean and loosely governed to empower investors, entrepreneurs, and businesses, these groups are focused on the rights of the user.
Plantronics Savor and Vocalyst hands-free mobile service
2010 was without a doubt the year of distracted driving legislation. Eleven U.S. states this year banned texting while driving, and a further eight states banned drivers from using handheld phones altogether.
In total, 30 of the 50 states now have local laws regarding mobile phone use.
Windows Phone 7's first big payout rolls in early
Microsoft on Thursday provided some good news for Windows Phone 7 app developers in the form of a handful of new information about the Windows Phone Marketplace.
In October, Windows Phone developers were told the first Marketplace payouts would arrive "some time in February 2011," but today Microsoft said payments will be processed in the fourth week of January. While tecnically only a tiny bit ahead of schedule, it's surely good to know when the money will start coming in.
Swype for Android gets fifth beta update, accepts more testers
Innovative soft keyboard Swype has released a new beta on the Android platform, and is now accepting more beta testers.
Late last year, Swype made big waves in the mobile tech world when it launched its alternative "paint to type" touchscreen keyboard software.
Level 3 Communications: 'Why doesn't Comcast accept our offer?'
Comcast, the United States' largest cable provider, and content delivery network Level 3 Communications remain at odds over how they will work together in the future. A major issue arose between the two companies in late November, after Netflix announced Level 3 would be its primary CDN, and Comcast sought to collect new fees from Level 3 due to the massive increase in traffic the Netflix arrangement would cause.
Level 3 argued that Comcast was abusing its monopolistic position to squeeze money out of a service working "over the top" of its broadband connections. Comcast, on the other hand, said it's simply re-negotiating a "peering" (free traffic) arrangement to a "transiting" (paid traffic by volume) arrangement.
EU fines LCD price fixing cartel $857M, Samsung given immunity
Wednesday, the European Commission announced the fines it will hand out to the LCD price-fixing cartel that it has been investigating since 2006. The EC first began its investigation of leading LCD panel manufacturers, which it found had been conspiring to artificially inflate the cost of LCD screens for televisions and personal computers between October 2001 and February 2006.
"In total...six manufacturers met around 60 times for the purpose of agreeing prices, including price ranges and minimum prices. They exchanged information on future production planning, capacity utilization, and trading conditions," Joaquín Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy said today. "All of these discussions were clearly illegal under EU competition rules. And the evidence shows that the participants were aware of the illegality of their conduct."
Net neutrality debate needs a reset, says former FCC head Powell
At the next open FCC meeting on December 21, the first order of business will be the Open Internet Order, a revision to the FCC's Net Neutrality policies that have sprung from the nearly seven-year old doctrine on preserving internet freedoms by former FCC Chairman Michael Powell.
With net neutrality policy coming to the forefront of the FCC's agenda in just a matter of days, it's only fitting to hear how former Chairman Powell assesses the state of net neutrality.
Internet Explorer 9 will feature "do not track" functionality
In light of the recent rash of "history sniffing" bugs and the Federal Trade Commission's proposed "do not track" list, Microsoft today announced that release candidate of Internet Explorer 9 will feature a new tracking protection setting that will keep a user's browsing habits private from sites looking to harvest browser histories.
The new feature of IE9 will let users opt out of sharing their browser information with sites they may not know or necessarily trust. It includes a Tracking Protection List of Web addresses that the browser will call only if the user specifically types the URL into the browser bar. That means any content from a URL that the user has blocked will also not show up in the browser.
Google announces Chrome OS hardware and first pilot program
One year ago, Google gave the world its first look at Chrome OS, a project taking a new approach to thin clients and terminal computing. The long and the short of Chrome OS is: if the browser is the most-used application on a PC, why would you load it down with anything else?
Chrome OS focuses on computers that are permanently connected, where all apps, data, and user identities and desktops are stored in the cloud. The computers running the OS are designed to be as unencumbered by software as possible, so they can run quickly and reliably. Businesses can run them in secure private clouds just as well as consumers can run them on the public Web.
Tim's Bio
Tim Conneally was born into dumpster tech. His father was an ARPANET research pioneer and equipped his kids with discarded tech gear, second-hand musical instruments, and government issue foreign language instruction tapes. After years of building Frankenstein computers from rubbish and playing raucous music in clubs across the country (and briefly on MTV) Tim grew into an adult with deep, twisted roots and an eye on the future. He most passionately covers mobile technology, user interfaces and applications, the science and policy of the wireless world, and watching different technologies shrink and converge.
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