Monthly Archives: May 2012
Core HP Enyo team employees going to Google
Some big news that went down a little earlier today: Google has nabbed some people who were pivotal to the development efforts of HP’s “Enyo” development framework, which premiered on the HP TouchPad last year. Only a handful of employees are going over to Google, but it’s said those that are were involved in over 90% of the code developed to date.
HP had the following to say about the acquisition:
We’re pleased with the traction Enyo has gained to date and plan to continue its development along with the open source community. The Open webOS project is on schedule and we remain committed to the roadmap announced in January.
Apple begins “App of the Week” promotion
If you’ve got yourself an Android phone or tablet, you’ve long been able to enjoy the fruits of the Amazon App Store’s “Free App of the Week” promotion, where they put a new application every week on the homepage and reduce the price whatever it is to free. They’ve put some pretty great apps up there to date, including even the most popular ones such as Angry Birds Rio at one point.
It seems that Apple has now decided to join in on this parade, and has begun an “App of the Week” promotion of their own for iOS devices. The first app they’ve decided to bestow upon us is Cut the Rope: Experiments, sequel to the greatly popular Cut the Rope game. You can hope on this deal here.
Absinthe 2.0 jailbreak tool released for (almost) all iOS 5.1.1 devices
Absinthe, the popular tool that allows users to jailbreak their iOS devices, has been updated to version 2.0. New in this release? The ability to jailbreak all iOS 5.1.1 devices with the exception of the revised 16GB iPad 2 (the one with the more efficient processor). Absinthe 2.0 offers devices what’s called an untethered jailbreak, meaning you won’t need to plug it into the computer and re-jailbreak every time you reboot the device.
Another great thing about Absinthe 2.0 for users who chose to partake in such activities is the wide range of platforms it supports. Absinthe works on OS X Leopard, OS X Snow Leopard, OS X Lion, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and even Linux. The day must be coming near at this point where we’ll be able to jailbreak out iDevices from other iDevices.
Jailbreaking has been around almost as long as iOS itself has, since the release of the original iPhone back in 2007. Back in those days jailbroken devices were among the first to run 3rd party applications, almost a year before Apple announced and launched the App Store.
Source: greenpois0n
Fortune looks at Tim Cook’s Apple, ten months in
Ten months ago today, Tim Cook became Chief Executive Officer of Apple Inc, a small, humble company responsible for a few niche products that are enjoyed by a meager, yet loyal group of fans throughout the world.
Oh, did I say small, niche, and meager? I meant giant, trend setting, and ginormous. In the last ten years, Apple has went from that small company to one of the largest, most valuable in the entire world, creating hit product after hit product, redefining not only the computer industry but the music industry, phone industry, and practically created the tablet industry as well. All of this was done under it’s late CEO Steve Jobs, who resigned, you got it, ten months ago today. He passed away not long after.
Fortune has today posted an inside look at how the internal company culture at Apple has changed under it’s new CEO Tim Cook, including his unique, blunt management style, his renewed focus on it’s manufacturing process in China, his decision to grant shareholders a dividend, and even his willingness to meet with investors.
Fortune has put together an extraordinary read and would highly recommend everyone checking it out at the source link below.
Source: Fortune
Facebook Camera for iOS hands-on
As you may of heard, Facebook today released a new application for iOS devices aimed at making it faster and easier to take, post, and consume photos on Facebook. Developed by a separate branch of Facebook than the original Facebook app and the newly acquired Instagram, Facebook Camera offers some interesting features on social photo sharing.
How does Facebook Camera fair? Find out after the break!
Intel releases x86 Android 4.0 emulator image for developers
Anyone who’s even touched Google’s official Android 4.0 SDK knows that the bundled emulator is slow, sluggish, and anything but elequent – which can make developing and debugging applications a real pain in the betookie. This is derived from the fact that the Android 4.0 SDK’s emulator emulates phone hardware, ARM processor and all. This is a problem that Intel’s new x86 Android 4.0 virtualizer is designed to solve.
Since most computers used today run on a variation of the x86 platform (including all desktop/laptop AMD and Intel chips), this means that developers now have access to an Android debugging platform that can take advantage of most of today’s processors speed and features without being held back by ARM emulation.
Developers can grab the image from the official SDK Manager now.
Source: Android Central
Yahoo to launch new web browser “Axis” tonight
Of all the companies to release their own web browser, did Yahoo ever even cross your mind? But that’s exactly what they seem to be doing – the latest buzz on the web is that the turbulent search engine/web portal company will be launching their very own web browser, called Axis, tonight at 9pm (presumably PST).
Here’s the email that’s said to have made the rounds today at Yahoo:
Subject: Yahoo! Axis launches on May 23- Redefining what it means to search and browse
Hi team,
I am so excited to announce that tonight at 9pm we will launch Yahoo! Axis! Since you are one of my most valued clients I am giving you first notification. Since this is not launching publically until tonight, we ask that you please keep this information confidential until tomorrow.
Yahoo! Axis is a new browser that redefines what it means to search and browse- enabling a seamless search experience on your iPhone, iPad, and even your desktop. Here are some highlights of how Yahoo! Axis brings search to life in a whole new way:
· Smarter, Faster Search with Rich Design: Get instant answers and visual previews so you can continuously discover and explore content without interruption. Never leave the page you are on to view your search results again.
· Connected Experience: Move seamlessly across devices, picking up wherever you left off as you move across your desktop, iPhone, and iPad. Recently visited sites, searches, saved articles, and bookmarks are automatically accessible across all your devices.
· Personal Home Page: Get direct access to your favorite sites and content across all your devices with the customizable Home Page.
Although initially there will not be paid opportunities for advertisers, we do plan to integrate this at a later time and will definitely keep you updated. However, our goal remains to grow our search base and traffic to you. We believe Axis will help accomplish this goal. It is a great opportunity to grow search volume on all devices, perhaps most importantly on phones and tablets. The end result should be new users and greater search volume, translating into increased traffic and value for advertisers in the future.
Want to know more?
· Visit axis.yahoo.com to watch a short video demonstrating how Axis is sure to wow, and woo, searchers. And more importantly, once there, download Axis or get the app! (After 9pm on 5/23)
· FAQ doc with additional detail is attached
· View our blog post on advertising.yahoo.com (After 9pm on 5/23)
· Checkout the examples below of how Yahoo! Axis will look across your devices
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions.
Thanks!
With the web browser market already crowded by the likes of Microsoft, Mozilla, Google, and Apple is there really room for another web browser? Or will the product be fated for nigh irrelevance in this race, such as what Opera become?
Edit: Axis has now launched to the public here, and the picture has become more clear: Axis for desktops is merely a browser plugin, the full browser experience comes only on iOS devices.
Source: Launch
Metro Internet Explorer to bundle Adobe Flash
While Microsoft had not too long ago taken to their popular Building Windows 8 blog and reported that Metro Internet Explorer would forgo plugins such as Adobe’s Flash and Microsoft’s own Silverlight for a pure open web based initiative such as Google’s Chrome for Android and Safari on Apple iOS. However it would seem today that Microsoft has somewhat reversed their decision ever so slightly, choosing to bundle a specialized version of Adobe Flash in for use with Metro Windows 8.
According to Rafael Rivera of Within Windows, Adobe actually shared the source code of Flash with Microsoft so they could create a specialized, secure version of the software that Microsoft deemed acceptable.
Presumably Microsoft believed that choosing to forgo Flash support in Windows 8′s native Metro environment would create unacceptable incompatibilities for users, a sacrifice that they were not willing to make, even for the sake of a free and future web.
Source: Within Windows
IBM has no love for Siri on its employees’ iPhones
Some interesting bit of news to start the day – MIT Technology Review (yes, that MIT) has revealed that though employees of IBM are allowed to use whichever phones they’d like while at work, one new limitation of this freedom is that Apple’s Siri voice assistant is not allowed to be used on their phones, citing security concerns.
Essentially, the issue here comes from the fact that all data going in and out of Siri is first processed through Apple’s servers. Apple is then allowed to collect and use that data in a variety of different ways according to the ToS you agree to by simply using the device. IBM does not deem this a worthwhile security list, apparently afraid that Apple could see and use private company information in undesired ways.
Security implications are nothing new when it comes to modern smartphones – it’s practically standard industry practice these days to disallow phones’ cameras these days, but this is the first I’ve heard anything about Siri.
Via: The Verge
Source: MIT Technology Review
DICE employee: future games to require 64-bit operating system
If there’s anything that’s been a long time coming, it’s the computer industry’s transition from the x86 architecture to the 64-bit. While OEM’s have been stuffing the 64-bit version of Windows 7 into most new computers these days (after all, who wants to be restricted to 32-bit’s limited 3.75 GB RAM max in 2012?), here’s another sign of the changing times – popular game developer DICE’s Rendering Architect Johan Andersson has taken to Twitter and announced that all future games running on their Frostbite engine, which Battlefield 3 runs on, will require a 64-bit operating system.
We’ll have Frostbite-powered games in 2013 that will _require_ a 64-bit OS. If you are on 32-bit, great opportunity to upgrade to Windows 8
— Johan Andersson (@repi) May 21, 2012
This will exclude a large amount of PC’s sold around and before 2007 or so, as many of those machines came with 32-bit only processors that will be unable to upgrade to newer 64-bit operating systems.
Apple named world’s most valuable brand for second year in a row
Year after year, Millward Brown publishes a list of what it considers to be the most valuable brands based on “their dollar value, an analysis based on financial data, market intelligence and consumer measures of brand equity.” For the second year in a row, Apple has topped that chart with a brand value of $182,951 million.
Millward Brown had this to say regarding Apple’s topping the list:
Apple continues to innovate and maintain its ‘luxury’ brand status, but faces future competition from Samsung. Now worth more than $14.1 billion, thanks in part to the success of its Galaxy handsets, Samsung is successfully outpacing Apple in a significant number of markets by positioning as a cool, well-priced alternative to the ubiquitous iPhone.
Other companies that topped the list include IBM at the #2 spot, Google at #3, McDonald’s at #4, and then finally Microsoft at #5.
Via: MacRumors
Source: Millward Brown
Nokia pulls Skype for Lumia 610 from Windows Phone Marketplace
Well, all good things must come to an end: Nokia has decided that, despite their best efforts, the Skype for Windows Phone 7 client does not work at what they consider to be an “expected level”, and have thus removed the application from the Lumia 610′s Windows Phone Marketplace.
Skype and Microsoft had previous stated that Skype would not work on low-end “Tango” devices with only 256MB of RAM, such as the Lumia 610, but Nokia remained convinced that they could offer the application to their users anyways – until now, that is.
Check out Nokia’s full statement on the matter after the break!
Via: Engadget Mobile
Source: WeLoveWP
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