Samsung and Corning team up to tackle OLED displays
Corning Incorporated and Samsung Mobile Display Company on Thursday announced they are beginning an equity joint venture in Korea that focuses on making the glass substrate for Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays.
OLEDs were a big topic at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, especially the large-panel TVs sporting the display technology. But OLED tablets were also on the menu, as Toshiba teased with a 7.7" concept tablet with a high contrast AMOLED display.
Ashampoo WinOptimizer 9 Beta is ready for Windows 8
Ashampoo has released a beta version of the forthcoming Ashampoo WinOptimizer 9. The all-in-one maintenance and performance tool for Windows PCs will include two brand new components and promises improved performance over its predecessor thanks to tweaked algorithms that will scan quicker and more thoroughly to identify more areas for improvement.
Version 9 also boasts a redesigned user interface and promises to be compatible with the forthcoming Windows 8, due for release later this year.
How fast has Facebook grown?
That's a question many people will ask today following Facebook's IPO filing. In March 2007, less than a year after opening to the public, the social network had 30 million users. The number is more than 800 million today. But neither number truly reveals Facebook's global impact.
Last summer, Pew Internet found that 92 percent of social network users are on Facebook -- just 17 percent on Twitter. Today, comScore released data on Facebook penetration across the globe, as measured as percentage of total Internet audience.
Facebook's IPO is light on guarantees, heavy on risk
So Facebook is set to go public today. It's the most anticipated initial public offering since Google in 2004, and may net the Menlo Park, Calif. social network between $5 billion and $10 billion, according to estimates. That said, I am still lost as to how Facebook's going to be able to wow Wall Street from quarter to quarter, and we all know that's what investors (and the tech press) are looking for.
The IPO will cause pandemonium on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, as investors attempt to cash in on one of the most successful Web companies in history. This type of market hysteria is prone to pitfalls: fellow social networking site LinkedIn saw its shares skyrocket to nearly $95 in the first day of trading from an IPO of $45, but it has since given back about half of those gains.
Google+ tops 100 million users
That will be the number by end of today, according to FamilyLink founder and unofficial Google+ statistician Paul Allen. The number has grown from 90 million since Google CEO Larry Page's official statement just two weeks ago.
Allen's announcement comes as rival Facebook announces its public offering, and quite possibly the largest one ever. Not since Netscape's IPO at the dawn of the World Wide Web era has a tech company generated so much interest going public. But Facebook has a new rival that's growing fast and leveraging hard existing Google assets. By year's end, Google+ could have half as many users as Facebook does today.
Mint launches personal finance app for Android Tablets
Mint, the elegant personal financial management app owned by financial software company Intuit has finally released a version of its application specifically for Android tablets. Mint's app has been available on Android-based smartphones for over a year, but with the growing prevalence of tablets, and Ice Cream Sandwich promising to unify Android's smartphone and tablet interfaces, the time was right for a Mint tablet app.
Because Mint is so UI-centric, the tablet app doesn't try to cram more information into the larger screen real estate, but instead provides a clearer, easier-to-navigate interface.
GooReader: When you need Google Books to go
Google Books is a gigantic and ever-expanding online library of books and magazines that can be used to read classic titles free of charge as well as to purchase new releases in all manner of categories. But you may be one of the many people who have found that the interface for the website and the way you interact with books leaves a little to be desired. Enter GooReader, a desktop app that enables you to browse your books both on and offline.
You can take advantage of a handy interface that makes it easy to navigate through the pages of your books and you can also zoom in and out, which is great if you are using a laptop with a smaller screen, and perform searches. All of the books you have purchased can be accessed from within the app and organization of your library is delightfully simple. When it comes to lengthy tomes or even an average sized novel, bookmarks can be used to quickly jump the place you left off.
Quick ‘n’ Easy Web Builder lives up to its name
Creating a website is something that many people feel an urge to do but, as with many things, the perceived steep learning curve is enough to put most folks off the idea. In reality, it is actually quite simple to create web site -- obviously, the greater your knowledge the more impressive site you can create -- and there are a number of WYSIWYG editors to choose from that mean you do not need to know HTML, CSS or any other form of coding.
Coming from the team behind WYSIWYG Web Builder, Quick ‘n’ Easy Web Builder is a cross-platform website creation tool that shows great signs of promise.
Howard Stringer steps down, Sony looks to Kazuo Hirai to stop the bleeding
Sony will promote Kazuo Hirai to president and CEO in April, ending Sir Howard Stringer's six year reign as the company's chief executive. Hirai was Stringer's personal recommendation to succeed him, and Stringer will continue to serve in an executive capacity with the company as chairman of the board beginning in June 2012.
"Three years ago, I started to work with the Board on succession plans, and in February, 2009 we named a new generation of leaders to be my management team", Stringer says. "Among them was Kaz Hirai, who had distinguished himself through his work in the PlayStation® and networked entertainment businesses".
Google kills Chrome usage growth
Chrome's browser usage share fell in January, according to Net Applications, after 14 months of consecutive, solid growth. Competition didn't kill Chrome growth, Google did, with its decision to reduce the browser's search page rank. Which browser benefitted most? Internet Explorer, of course.
It's a stunning turnabout for Chrome, which likely will see continued trend during February. On January 3, Google announced a temporary downgrading of Chrome's page rank -- how high it appears in searches -- following a minor scandal with a third-party ad agency. The marketer paid bloggers to write about Chrome, which violates Google policies on sponsored links. The search and information giant treated itself like other advertisers, perhaps more harshly, and lowered Chrome's search ranking for 60 days.
Microsoft opens commercial licensing for Kinect for Windows applications
Microsoft on Wednesday launched its Kinect for Windows commercial program, allowing businesses to build for-profit applications and solutions using Microsoft's popular free-space interface.
More than 300 companies are already developing their own solutions using Kinect for Windows, Microsoft said on Wednesday, including United Health Group, American Express, Mattel, Telefonica, and Toyota. So we expect to see a whole family of new Kinect applications hitting the market in the next year for health care, education, and industry.
Salesforce launches 'mobile-to-mobile' support system Desk.com
Salesforce, the gold standard of cloud-based CRM, launched on Tuesday a new customer support application called Desk.com, which gives small and medium-sized businesses a "social help desk" designed so ultraconnected, smartphone-toting employees can appropriately connect with the ultraconnected, smartphone-toting customer.
Desk.com grew out of Salesforce's 50 million dollar acquisition of Assistly just five months ago. The Assistly application was notable because it took customer relationships on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and then integrated them with "traditional" support channels such as e-mail and telephone, making social network relationships among the most important methods of communication for companies.
CCleaner for Mac 1.01 released, but Windows users get more
Piriform Software has released the first stable release of CCleaner for Mac, its free cleaning utility for Mac OS X. Based on the popular Windows version, CCleaner for Mac 1.01 FINAL boasts fewer features compared to its long-established sibling, but we expect this to change over time.
The new release enters an increasingly crowded market for free cleanup tools, and will compete against the likes of EASEUS’ CleanGenius Free as it bids to establish a foothold on the Mac platform.
MegaUpload users may gain temporary access to their files
Users of MegaUpload may have a brief window to retrieve files from the site after the law firm representing the file sharing service says it is negotiating a solution with the US Government. While the primary function of the negotiations is likely to gather evidence so that MegaUpload's lawyers can build their defense, it is possible the general public may temporarily gain access to their accounts.
In the United States, the file sharing service uses two hosting providers to store data, Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications. When US authorities shut down the service two weeks ago, it also froze MegaUpload's assets, leaving it no money to pay bills.
Got Android? Get Firefox 10
Hey, Firefox fans, don't settle for just the desktop browser that popped up on Mozilla servers overnight. Firefox 10 mobile is also available at the Android Market. While the big browser offers significantly improved plug-in support, it's still DOA on the small one. That means no Adobe Flash for you, Bud.
New features include anti-aliasing for WebGL and accelerated layer-support via OpenGL ES. Firefox 10 mobile improves sync and HTML5 capabilities, as well. Among the fixes: "Extremely rare case where the browser may become unable to load web pages or close tabs".
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