Google, bring back Nexus Q
Nexus devices are largely sold out this holiday season. Supply can't meet demand, particularly the new smartphone. But one Google gadget is missing altogether, pulled before official sales started. I've got Nexus Q, and you should be able to have one, too. The entertainment device is quirky, but I like it. Surely there is stock sitting around in some warehouse somewhere. Sell it out, Google. Give geeks something else to clamor for and recover some of the development and manufacturing costs.
The sphere-shaped device is a remarkable product, and changes fundamental concepts about digitally-delivered entertainment. Users stream music or movies from the cloud, using Android smartphone or tablet as remote control. The approach solves a fundamental end-user problem with digital content: Simple sharing.
Gmail for iOS gets a major update
Although there was an odd blip where Google’s new Gmail app appeared in the App Store, and then vanished mysteriously (a "rollout issue" according to Google), it’s back again and is available to actually download this time. And the good news is: it’s worth grabbing.
As a Gmail user, and an owner of an iPad and a few iPod touches, I’ve never really rated the old, official app, preferring to just to stick with the mobile web version. After ten minutes use I can say that while the update is not perfect, it is a huge step in the right direction and a massive improvement over its predecessor.
Qualcomm invests in Sharp to speed release of new low power mobile display
Qualcomm on Tuesday announced that it will become a minority shareholder in Japanese consumer electronics company Sharp via Qualcomm subsidiarly Pixtronix. The investment focuses on display technology and follows Qualcomm's long-running interest in new mobile display technology with a small energy footprint.
For the last three years, Qualcomm has shown off an impressive MEMS-based full-color e-reader screen called Mirasol which went into commercial production this year and now appears in e-readers from Hanvon, Bambook, and Kyobo.
System Explorer 4.0 beefs up stats
The Mister Group has released System Explorer 4.0 and System Explorer 4.0 Portable, a major new update of its freeware system resources monitoring tool for Windows.
Version 4.0 tweaks the program’s color schemes for making text more readable, plus updates its Performance and Networking sections to show more information. There’s a minor tweak to how the disk and network usage statistics are displayed, plus a number of bug fixes designed to make System Explorer more stable and secure.
Adobe holds Creative Cloud, Photoshop media event December 11
Well, the Apple-copycats are at it again. The iPad and iPhone creator made something of holding specialized media events, and generating lots of buzz and rumors around them. Perhaps it's no coincidence that more tech companies follow Apple's lead, by suddenly announcing a media event, days ahead of time, with scant details. It's Adobe's turn. I just got an email about a December 11 virtual "Create Now Live" media event to "announce major updates to Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Photoshop".
Interested parties can sign up at Adobe's Facebook event page. The show starts at 1 pm EST next Tuesday. Forgive my poo pooing Adobe, but I don't expect the kind of online rumor chatter Apple gets. That said, given recent tablet app updates and Creative Cloud opened for business more than half a year ago, time is right for something from Adobe.
Americans shift shopping to smartphones and tablets
US consumers love to use cloud-connected mobile devices to enhance their shopping experience -- surely something more than a few of you do now that holidays are here. Perhaps least surprising is the number of Americans using smartphones to find local stores -- 78 percent, says Nielsen. That's good news for Google Now, standard browser search services or even Apple's Siri. Sixty-three percent of shoppers check prices in the store. Hey, I do that all the time. Place orders, too. Can you say Amazon?
More Americans use tablets to research items than smartphones (68 percent to 61 percent) or to read reviews of recent or future purchases (53 percent to 45 percent). Forty-eight percent of tablet owners purchase digital items and 43 percent physical goods from their devices. Mea culpa, I do both.
Redesigned SoundCloud comes out of beta with beefed up user engagement
Social audio-sharing site SoundCloud announced on Tuesday that the beta of its redesign is complete and that "Next SoundCloud" is now welcoming users from the public.
The redesign was first rolled out in private beta last May, and SoundCloud says it has helped increase user engagement by as much as 30 percent over the previous version.
What does that mean? For musicians, podcasters, and audio creators, it means quite a bit, actually. When a user navigates to one of the redesigned SoundCloud sites, they listen to 30 percent more sound (music, audio, whatever) than they did on the classic sites. Generally speaking, it's an update to the aesthetic of the site that propels increased usage.
Holiday Android tablet sales surge as selling prices plummet
Analysts continue to crunch Black Friday numbers, and NPD has fresh data out today on several consumer electronics categories, including Android tablets. The good news: sales at US retail are up 177 percent from the same period last year. Revenue: 91 percent. However, average selling prices are way down -- to $151 from $219 a year ago.
The sales figures do not include Kindle Fire, which likely would lift ASPs, as the lowest-priced model sells for $159, which is higher, and new models range from $199 to $499. However, a $129-promotional price days later likely drove down overall selling prices. Right now, that data isn't available.
Google Analytics Cookie Cruncher exposes your online activities
When you need to know more about the websites someone is visiting (you want to make sure your kids haven’t been straying on the darker side of the web, say) then checking their cookies has always been one option. But the information you’ll get is often very limited, maybe just to a domain name, and so won’t always be particularly useful.
Google Analytics Cookie Cruncher may be able to help, though, by focusing on Google Analytics cookies. These contain much more data, and in a standard format, so with just a little work you may be able to see the sites someone has browsed, the search keywords used to locate them, the date and time of the last two visits, and the number of times a site has been visited in total.
CyanogenMod 10.1 nightly builds available for Google Nexus 10, soon for US Samsung Galaxy S IIIs
Almost a week ago the team behind the popular custom Android distribution CyanogenMod announced that Android 4.2-based nightly builds for the Google Nexus 10 were on the way. The developers kept their word and have now delivered the first official CyanogenMod 10.1 release for the 10-inch tablet.
The CM10.1 builds for the Nexus 10 (codename "Manta") are available with December 3 and December 4 time-stamps. Users should expect a number of features to be missing due to the early nature of the development and on-going feature porting process. However, Quiet Hours, the battery percentage indicator, and Trebuchet launcher are all included. Steve Kondik, the project's founder, has further good news for CyanogenMod fans.
Ashton Kutcher is Steve Jobs
The Apple co-founder passed away a little over a year ago, but such is the continuing interest in Steve Jobs’ life, there’s not one, but two Hollywood biopics in development. Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of Walter Isaacson’s biography (which will apparently be set behind the scenes of three of Jobs’ biggest product launches -- the Mac, NeXT and the iPod), is due to start shooting next year, while jOBS, Joshua Michael Stern's more typically-structured take on events, is already in post-production and has been booked to close next year's Sundance Film Festival.
jOBS has attracted a lot of interest, partly for its choice of leading man. Ashton Kutcher’s movie career hasn’t exactly set Hollywood alight, and it’s fair to say the news that he was to play Jobs didn’t exactly go down well with the Apple faithful. Still, the actor seems to be taking the role seriously, and certainly looks the part in the promo photo released today.
A third of Android devices now run Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean
Jelly Bean may be the youngest member of the Android family, but it’s also enjoying some amazing month-on-month growth, based on the number of devices accessing Google Play during the 14 days ending December 3. It still has some way to go to match Gingerbread though, which is yet again the green droid ruler.
On November 13, the search giant introduced its latest sugary treat, Android 4.2. Three weeks later, the new version of Jelly Bean had claimed a distribution level of 0.8 percent, a number aided by Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 sales, and Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7 upgrades. That growth however, pales in comparison to 4.1 Jelly Bean which is now found on 5.9 percent of green droid devices, an increase of 118 percent when compared to the previous figures released in early November.
Easily reveal hashes in file Properties
There are plenty of tools available to help you calculate file hashes, but using them may not always be convenient. You’ll need to load the application, import your files, choose appropriate options, export the hashes, maybe more.
If you get tired of all this, though, you could always install the free HashTab, which makes life much easier. Just right-click a file, select Properties > File Hashes, and maybe copy your hash of choice to the clipboard in a couple of clicks.
3 big reasons to oppose any UN attempt to rewrite rules of the Net
The Pope may be making news headlines in the tech world by opening his own Twitter account, but there's a much more worrying headline that is keeping its nose under the covers this week. The Internet as we know it could be in trouble if representatives from free-speech oppressors such as China and Russia have their way at a UN telecom regulations conference starting this week in Dubai.
The 11-day conference is billed as a gathering of the world's top nations to discuss ways to update rules last touched in 1988 on oversight related to telephone networks, satellite networks, and the Internet at large. Proponents of the conference say that the Internet has changed so radically since the 1980s that it is now time for others to have greater say in how it's regulated and controlled.
Microsoft quietly releases Office 2013 desktop and server software
Microsoft would like everyone on the planet to adopt Office 365 and in doing so, move to subscription pricing. Customers get access to their stuff anytime, anywhere and on anything, while Microsoft sees consistent revenue stream and everyone using the newest features. But that's not happening soon. So for the majority of businesses presumably continuing with what the company describes as "on-premises versions", Office 2013 desktop and server software is now available for purchase.
Office 2013, Exchange Server 2013, Lync Server 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, Project 2013 and Visio 2013 are immediately available to volume-license subscribers. Everyone else must wait. "Broad availability of the new Office through retail and online channels is planned for the first quarter of 2013", Microsoft's Sanjay Manchanda says. The company released a trial version to MSDN and TechNet subscribers.
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