GPS in 3D may be coming to the US
Nav N Go, a producer of navigation software for handhelds, may finally be ready to bring its 3D GPS software to American handhelds, as it debuts its latest version this week at CeBIT in Hannover.
The company only recently began a strong appeal to United States clients, making its first appearance in the US at CES 2008 in January. At that time, the company was showing off its iGO multimedia navigation software, which today it has made official.
On second thought, IE8 will default to full Web standards
Should Microsoft choose for IE8 to follow the standards developers want or the ones they use? It's been a tough call, and late yesterday, the company reversed that call.
In a complete reversal of policy that will probably be reflected in later builds sent to private beta testers, the team building Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 has decided to make its Web standards-compliant mode -- the one reported to have passed the Acid2 standards compliance test -- the browser's default operating mode. The team made this choice apparently knowing full well that some existing Web pages -- those designed to work well with the majority browser rather than with written W3C standards -- may break.
Yahoo launches mobile web aggregator
Yahoo demoed a mobile application which it says will help users better manage online content.
OnePlace utilizes a bookmarking system to help users organize their data. Anything from news feeds, web sites, videos, images, e-mails, to search queries and other items are storable and automatically updatable without user interaction.
Broadcom acquisition could lead to cheaper Blu-Ray players
Without the format war going on in the background, Blu-ray consoles may no longer be able to justify artificial price premiums. So tech provider Broadcom may be stepping in to drive the adoption of cheaper components.
Broadcom announced Monday that it has acquired Sunext Design Incorporated, the US arm of Taiwanese company Sunext Technology which specializes in chips and architecture for optical drives.
Not your usual Microsoft keynote: Tom Brokaw
Last Wednesday in Los Angeles, developers and admins expecting Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer were treated to Tom Brokaw, a developer of a different kind with a message that changed the tone of the day, and maybe of Microsoft as well.
LOS ANGELES (BetaNews) - The message this time wasn't about how great things are, or how empowering the acceleration of agility can motivate the enterprise to harness the power of workflow. It was a mangled metaphor-free message, and it came from a source no one expected to hear from that day: former NBC News managing editor and NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw.
Microsoft Online Services extends SaaS to SMB users
At the Microsoft Office SharePoint Conference on Monday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates unveiled plans to provide a software-as-a-service offering not just to the large enterprises already eligible for such a service from Microsoft, but to companies of all sizes.
Through the new Microsoft Online Services, business with less than 5,000 employees will be able to subsribe to Internet-based applications from Microsoft and its partners instead of buying hardware servers and software licenses. Initially, the company will offer subscription-based applications around e-mail and its SharePoint teamware.
Top-of-the-line phone added to pay-as-you-go service
Sprint Nextel's Boost Mobile brand this morning added the MOTOKRZR handset and two other phone models available to its Unlimited by Boost customers.
The Motorola MOTOKRZR was originally released in the middle of 2006, but is just now making the move to Boost Mobile, almost two years late. Specifically, the phone is available to Unlimited By Boost customers, who receive unlimited local and nationwide voice calling, plus talk, text, and Web for a fixed rate of $55 per month.
Growth in servers and mainframes may be slowing down
Worldwide server shipments showed "modest growth" during the last quarter of 2007, according to the latest numbers from analyst group IDC. Yet clearly, much of the growth happened at the lower end of the market, in x86-based Windows and Linux PC servers.
All told, server revenues picked up 2.4 percentage points from the final quarter of 2006 to reach $15.7 billion during the last three months of 2007. But Microsoft Windows-based servers shot up 6.9% in revenues and 9.8% in shipments during that same time.
Adding LINQ to Visual Studio: Does this change everything?
For over a decade, database developers have been begging for a kind of bridge that enables procedural language programs to access relational databases relationally. Now that bridge is coming. But are developers ready for LINQ? We asked Microsoft's Visual Studio general manager, Jason Zander.
LOS ANGELES (BetaNews) - The first genuine effort to create a uniform set of database drivers for Windows came in 1988, when an independent firm started as a consultancy called Pioneer Software launched a product and an idea called Q+E -- a tool for linking its own database editor, and later Microsoft applications such as Excel, to any number of existing databases through stand-alone providers. It was indeed a revolutionary concept, and it gave birth to a never-equaled database connectivity standard called ODBC.
Visto, Microsoft settle patent dispute out of court
Just ahead of a hearing set to begin next Monday on Visto's claims of patent infringement against the Redmond company, the two sides have settled.
Both sides will drop any legal claims as a result of the agreement. Visto had accused Microsoft of infringing on three patents surrounding the synchronization of mobile data. The original suit was filed in December 2005.
Near Field phones come one step closer to replacing cashiers
Imagine if your cell phone represented your bank account. Rather than a "smart card," you could wave your smart phone in front of a payment kiosk. Today, the standard to bring that about worldwide took a huge leap forward.
Today, "wallet phones" took one step closer to becoming a reality with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's (ETSI) approval of another Near Field Communications (NFC) standard.
Sprint leaps onto the 'unlimited' heap with voice + data plan
Sprint Nextel last Friday announced two unlimited calling plans in response to the price war launched by Verizon Wireless, two weeks ago, and followed up by AT&T, T-Mobile and US Cellular.
The new "Simply Everything" unlimited calling plan for $99.99 per month includes unlimited voice, data, text, e-mail, Internet browsing, Sprint TV, Sprint Music, GPS Navigation, Direct Connect and Group Connect. A cheaper $89.99 plan includes unlimited voice and text messaging, but does not include the other amenities.
Facebook users translate the site again, this time to German
The translation project that was only announced at the beginning of the year for Facebook has already made massive progress with only the help of volunteers.
Early in February of this year, the social networking site announced that a team of 1,500 volunteers had translated the entire site to Spanish in just under four weeks.
Analyst: Recording industry needs even newer business models
JupiterResearch analysts are pointing to the music industry's need to revolutionize its business model even further, as social networking sites, Internet radio stations, and legit P2P services are taking command of the market.
As music steps more and more toward online distribution, it will become increasingly important for the entertainment industry to find new business models along with new device paradigms, according to analysts at JupiterResearch.
Asus to show off keyboard-less UMPC
Asus will be showing off the new design of its upcoming UMPC, and instead of being modeled after a laptop like the Eee PC, it's a keyboard-less tablet design.
At CeBIT in Hannover, Germany, Asus is preparing to unveil what could become its next generation UMPC design: the R70, the 7" cousin to the 5" R50 announced in November. Like the smaller model, the R70 lacks a keyboard, but relies instead on a control pad and Asus' "InfoPen" stylus controller. The result is a device somewhat similar to the Samsung Q1.
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