Author: Shivaank Rana

Microsoft to drop ‘Metro’ name for Windows 8

A potential trademark dispute has forced Microsoft to drop the Metro name for Windows 8’s blocky, tile-based interface.

Talks with an “important European partner” have brought about the change according to internal memos seen by tech news site The Verge.

The partner is believed to be German retail giant Metro AG.

Microsoft is currently working out what to call the interface and said the new name would be announced soon.

The tiled interface is used on both Windows 8 and Windows Phone and has been called “Metro” ever since Microsoft started showing off its designs for the software.

Elements of it have also been used on older products such as the Zune media player.

In documents sent out to developers and media months ago, Microsoft said Metro was the “code name for our design language”.

It added that Metro was picked because the name was “modern and clean. It’s fast and in motion”.

Now documents sent out to developers are warning coders to avoid using the word when referring to the distinctive interface.

The warning is believed to follow on from an internal memo sent by Microsoft’s Legal and Corporate Affairs department which said the company had been threatened with legal action over its use of the name.

The threat is believed to have been made by German retailer Metro AG, which owns trademarks on the word. Metro AG declined to comment on the claim.

Instead of Metro, Microsoft has told developers to simply refer to the blocky display as a “Windows 8 style UI” for the time being.

[quote]

In a statement, Microsoft said: “We have used Metro style as a code name during the product development cycle across many of our product lines.

“As we get closer to launch and transition from industry dialogue to a broad consumer dialogue we will use our commercial names,” it said.

[/quote]

Source : BBC

August 4, 2012
Facebook Will Force Timeline Onto All 955 Million Of Its Users This Fall

If you’ve been keeping it old school on Facebook with the previous generation single-column profile page, your days are officially numbered. Big Blue says it is preparing to move all 955 million of its users over to the newer Timeline-style profiles this fall.

Timeline, which organizes all of your wall posts and status updates into a continuous two-column stream dating back to the day you first joined Facebook, was first introduced late last year. Since then, many users have already been forced to make the switch, but some others have managed to fall through the cracks.

Until now, the change to the new-look Facebook has been voluntary, but the site’s users around the world no longer have a choice as Timeline will be made compulsory from August 8.

Before being moved to Timeline, users have a 7-day grace period where they can configure their new profile (and presumably clear out those beer bong photos from 2005) before it is published.

August 3, 2012
LG Optimus L3 Dual available online at INR 8,299

LG has made available the dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) version of its budget phone Optimus L3 priced at Rs 8,299. The company launched phone’s single-SIM variant earlier in May this year.

The device runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system and is powered by a Cortex A5 800MHz processor. It has a 3.2-inch TFT display with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The Optimus L3 features a 3.2MP camera, 384MB of RAM, 1GB of internal storage and microSD card slot that supports storage up to 32GB.

For connectivity, the Optimus L3 Dual supports Wi-Fi, 3G, Blutooth and USB 2.0. The device comes with a 1,500 mAh battery, which is rated to deliver 17 hours on 2G and 10 hours on 3G.

The Optimus L3 Dual comes preloaded with a number of applications such as YouTube, Android Market, Google+, Gmail, Latitude, News and Weather Update, Software Update, Google Talk, Google, Gmail Sync, AOL, Yahoo, Hot Mail and LGE Mail.

August 3, 2012
Samsung begins manufacturing of ultra-fast 64GB NAND chips for smartphones

Samsung has begun manufacturing of ultra-fast eMMC NAND memory in sizes of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. The new chips will significantly improve read and write speeds for internal memory in smartphones, with speeds of 150MB/s and 40MB/s respectively.

According to Sammy Hub, “the new eMMC Pro Class 1500 uses 64-gigabit (Gb) NAND with a toggle DDR 2.0 interface fabricated with 20 nanometer class process technology and is the first to support JEDEC e-MMC v4.5 specification.”

It was rumoured earlier this summer that Samsung had cancelled the 64GB version of the Galaxy S III, as the 16 and 32GB versions were the only ones to come to market. The company has ensured us that the phone is still on track for a launch later this year, though we don’t know whether it will include these new ultra-fast chips.

August 3, 2012
Sharp to start shipping iPhone screens to Apple this month

Apple’s component suppliers seem almost eager to stoke iPhone rumor fires, and all the hot, hot consumer anticipation surrounding them.

On Thursday, Sharp’s new president, Takashi Okuda, said that his company will begin shipping iPhone displays starting this month, according to a report from Reuters. Okuda made the statement at a press event following the release of Sharp’s quarterly earnings report. Sharp’s president didn’t make note of the display’s size, but Reuters reports that the screens are destined for the next version of the iPhone.

[quote]“People are expecting a new iteration of the iPhone to hit the market sometime in the September-October time frame, so this kind of comment fits in to what we’ve been hearing in the market, generally,” IHS analyst Vinita Jakhanwal told Wired. Sharp, Japan Display, and LG Display are the three likely suppliers for the next iPhone’s display.[/quote]

The display of the next iPhone is expected to be larger than that of the iPhone 4S, stretching to 4 diagonal inches. The current iPhone has a 3.5-inch display. The new iPhone display will also reportedly be manufactured using in-cell technology, which means it will be thinner, lighter and more power efficient than current displays.

Okuda didn’t confirm the size or technology used in the production of Apple’s next iPhone display.

Various sources are reporting the next iPhone will be unveiled on September 12, so we should know soon if Okuda’s Thursday statement bears any weight.

August 3, 2012
Ice Cream Sandwich on 16 Percent of Android Devices

Ice Cream Sandwich’s share of the Android market continues to grow rapidly, with the operating system now present on nearly 16 percent of all Android phones.

Ice Cream Sandwich has more than doubled its distribution share over the space of a single month — variants of Android 4.0 have risen from a combined total of 7.1 percent to 15.9 percent, according to figures from Google.

Gingerbread still reigns supreme at 60.6 percent, but that was down from the 64 percent of the market it held inJune.

Ice Cream Sandwich just barely ekes past Froyo, which is still present on 15.5 percent of Android devices. Eclair is on 4.2 percent, Donut has 0.5 percent of the pie, and Cupcake is now down to 0.2 percent.

Android 4.1 ‘Jelly Bean’, which was officially unveiled at Google’s I/O conference on June 27th, and was released as an over-the-air (OTA) update for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus on July 11, has reached 0.8% market share.

The data was collected from Android devices that access Google Play, the Android app store formerly known as the Android Market, during the two week period ending August 1.

August 2, 2012
BSNL Penta T-Pad tablet launched, priced at INR 14,699

Pantel Technologies has launched a new 8-inch tablet PC – Penta T-Pad WS802C – that comes bundled with a 3G data plan of 2GB from BSNL valid over a period of 60 days.

Priced at Rs 14,699 , it runs on Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The tablet features an 8-inch capacitive touch screen and is powered by a 1GHz processor and 512MB DDRII RAM. Penta T-Pad Tablet PC, the WS802C, is portable and acts as a brillianthandheld tablet PC, according to the company. The tablet supports 1080P HD videos via HDMI and comes with a built-in GPS, 3G SIM slot and Wi-Fi option.

The tablet comes pre-loaded with several games such as Angry Birds and Wow Fish, and applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Talking Tom, Google Maps, and Skype video calling and e-book facilities.

August 2, 2012
Karbonn Smart Tab now comes with Android Jelly Bean

Karbonn Mobiles has announced that its Smart tablet will now come with Android Jelly Bean on board, making it the first affordable Indian tablet to offer the latest version of Android operating system.

The Smart Tab 1 tablet is the second with Android 4.1 after Google’s Nexus 7 was announced in late June. At rupees 6990, the price is lower than that of Nexus 7, which starts at $199.

The tablet has a 7-inch screen and runs on a single-core MIPS processor at a clock speed of 1.2GHz. It has a 2-megapixel front camera, 3G support through a dongle, and seven hours of battery life while surfing and eight hours of battery on video.

The Smart Tab 1 is the first Android 4.1 tablet to be available with a processor from MIPS, which two weeks ago said it had accelerated the port of the OS to work with its processors.

Karbonn Mobiles said an over-the-air update to Android 4.1 will be delivered to existing Smart Tab 1 customers, but did not specify a timeline. The company hopes to sell 200,000 tablets per month.

It also has plans to launch 9.7-inch tablet in September, which too will be running on Android Jelly Bean platform.

August 1, 2012
Hotmail.com relaunched as Outlook.com

Microsoft has ditched Hotmail after 16 years, relaunching the service in favour of the revamped Outlook.com.

Microsoft said its new service, available to preview at Outlook.com, would reimagine the way people use email and be the first major improvement in eight years.

Although it still claims 350 million users worldwide, Hotmail has been usurped as the leading email provider since Google launched Gmail in 2007. Google claims to have signed up 425 million users in the past five years.

According to the web metrics firm ComScore, Hotmail still boasts more traffic than any of its rivals. In June 2012, Hotmail had 324 million monthly visitors, compared to 290 million at Yahoo mail and 278 million at Google’s Gmail.

However, Hotmail users will be invited to transfer their accounts to the Outlook.com portal. The relaunch is part of a wider overhaul of Microsoft’s widely-used software products, including its Windows operating system and Office services.

Microsoft said Outlook.com would offer a less-obtrusive email experience, with fewer display ads and new connections to social networks including Facebook and Twitter.

Users will be able to see status updates from friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter with a new feature on the revamped email site.

[quote]

“We think the time is right to reimagine email. So today, we’re introducing a preview of Outlook.com,” said Chris Jones, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Windows Live.

“We realised that we needed to take a bold step, break from the past and build you a brand new service from the ground up.”

[/quote]

The demise of Hotmail brings to an end one of the earliest great brands of the consumer internet. Microsoft bought Hotmail from the entrepreneurs Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith for a reported a $400m in 1997 – a full decade before Google arrived on the email scene.

Hotmail quickly became known as the younger person’s email service as it was allied with Micrsoft’s instant-messaging platform, MSN Messenger.

After its initial success Hotmail faced intense rivalry in the US and Europe, first from email services from the likes of Yahoo and AOL, and more recently Google, with bigger storage capacity and tidier interfaces.

August 1, 2012
Micromax’s 10-inch Funbook Pro tablet now available for Rs 9,999

The new version of Micromax’s popular tablet Funbook, Funbook Pro, has hit the retail online shelves. The tablet, which is yet to be launched officially, is available at online Retailers for Rs 9,999.

The tablet has a 10.1 inch TFT LCD capacitive touch screen display (1,024×600 pixel resolution) and runs on the latest Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) operating system. It is powered by a 1.2 GHz Cortex A-8 processor (with Dual Mali 400- 2D/3D Graphics processor for multimedia processing) and comes with 1 GB RAM. The internal memory of the device is 8GB, which is expandable up to an additional 32GB with a microSD card.

The device features a front facing VGA camera for video calling. On the connectivity front, the tablet has Wi-Fi and it comes with a microSD port, USB port and a HDMI port, which means it will support HD video playback.

The exact dimensions of the device were not available, but the company has provided a 5,600 mAh battery in the device, which should offer decent battery life.

Micromax Funbook Pro is available in Slate Grey colour and comes with Tata Docomo+ data card for free.

August 1, 2012
Lava to launch 7-inch ICS tablet for Rs 5,499

According to a product listing on the retail website Flipkart, the Lava E-Tab Z7H will be sold for INR 5,499. This will be an Ice Cream Sandwich tablet with a 7-inch screen and will feature a 1.2GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB of internal memory, 2800 mAh battery and 3G dongle support. There is also 0.3 megapixel camera on board.

Lava had recently become the first company to launch an Intel processor powered smartphone in the country as well as world in the form of XOLO X900.

July 31, 2012
Taiwan University Sues Apple Over Siri

Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University said Monday it has filed a patent infringement complaint against Apple Inc. in a U.S. court over the Siri voice command system used in the latest iPhone and iPad models, marking the latest patent spat against the Cupertino, Calif.-company.

In a filing to the district court of eastern Texas, the university alleged that Apple’s Siri voice-activated assistant, which allows users to make phone calls and perform other tasks with voice commands, violated two of its patents: a speech recognition system and another system that controls how the device interact with a user’s voice command.

The university is asking for an undisclosed sum of damages from Apple, according to the filing dated Friday.

Apple has been facing ongoing legal battles against other smartphone makers including Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp. over patents on mobile device technology and features. Apart from seeking monetary damages, a ruling against Apple could effectively block shipments of its devices to some countries and significantly change the competitive landscape.

Apple introduced Siri last fall through the 4S iPhone and has been advertising it as a big differentiator for the hit device. The technology can perform a variety of tasks from searching for information to sending an email to scheduling meetings by voice. Unlike other types of voice-activated services, Siri can perceive normal human speech patterns.

July 31, 2012
Rumor : Apple to announce iPhone 5, iPad mini at September 12 event

The iPhone 5, iPad mini and perhaps two other Apple devices could be announced at a Sept. 12 event, according to a new report.

Long rumored to premiere in October, the sixth-generation iPhone is now reportedly expected to be announced in September, including a new report Monday by iMore.

The report says Apple will announce the new phone and the iPad mini, a 7-inch screen version of the iPad, six weeks from now, citing “sources who have proven accurate in the past.”

Though the report is unsure about the iPad mini’s actual launch date, it gives a specific launch date for the iPhone 5: Sept. 21, which is a date that’s been rumored before.

Along with the two iOS devices, iMore also reports Apple will use the event to launch a new iPod nano.

Along with the nano, iMore speculates that a new iPod Touch could also be announced. Recent reports have said the Touch could be in for a fairly substantial redesign as is expected for the new iPhone.

The next iPhone is expected to have a better and longer screen, at 4 inches, as well as other redesigns, including a new back plate and a smaller dock connector.

July 30, 2012
Oracle to Buy Cloud Infrastructure Technology Provider Xsigo

Oracle Corp. on Monday agreed to acquire network-technology provider Xsigo Systems Inc. for an undisclosed sum, broadening the software giant’s already growing footprint in the data center.

Based in San Jose, Calif., Xsigo provides appliances that more efficiently manage the tangle of connections needed to access stored data. The technology cuts electricity costs and boosts performance for companies that manage large data centers.

Privately held Xsigo has more than 300 enterprise customers, according to its website, including Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and BT Group PLC (BT).

Oracle’s latest acquisition, expected to close this fall, comes as more companies opt to run their computer systems in the cloud–a catch-all term for software and data accessed online rather than through an onsite machine.

Managing the software and servers that support such systems has become a multibillion-dollar business, prompting Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison, who once dismissed the “cloud” term as “complete gibberish,” to actively pursue the model along with his Silicon Valley peers.

Cloud computing relies on virtualization, a process that allows users to run the operations of several computers on a single machine. The process puts an enormous burden on networks.

Now, cloud-computing companies are taking a growing interest in controlling the routers and switches of networks by using a similar virtualization model in order to manage data-center hardware and cut down on bottlenecks and inefficiencies.

VMware Inc. (VMW), which pioneered the virtualization model with software, last week agreed to pay up to $1.26 billion for networking-software provider Nicira Inc.

Xsigo’s technology differs from Nicira’s, which uses software to virtually manage an entire network. Xsigo’s hardware addresses a narrower part of the cloud.

“Most people think of software-defined networking as something that creates a new network…on top of the existing physical network,” ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall said.

Oracle also has remained active in the software sector. Just this month, the technology giant agreed to buy the social-marketing company Involver and said it would acquire privately held Skire, a provider of capital program management and facilities management applications.

Oracle has also bought the cloud-based customer service company RightNow Technologies Inc. for $1.43 billion and the human-resources software maker Taleo Corp. for $1.9 billion.

“They are already racing ahead on the software side,” said Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry. “Now they are strengthening their cloud infrastructure.”

Xsigo, founded in 2004, was funded by Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures, Greylock Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners.

July 30, 2012
Google unveils world’s fastest Internet connection

Internet giant Google has unveiled what it says is the world’s fastest internet connection through its ultra-high speed service, offering lightning-fast access of one gigabit per second.

The service, which uses optical fibre to deliver speeds far in excess of traditional web services, offers speeds faster than almost anywhere else on Earth.

After being chosen more than two years ago by Google as the place to unveil its fledgling Google Fiber gigabit-speed Internet and cable television services, residents of Kansas City are already signing up to be the first customers now that Google has started to take preregistrations.

Google Fiber’s ultra high-speed connections and television offerings are aimed at surpassing those of current providers, allowing users to search live channels, Netflix, YouTube, recorded shows and tens of thousands of hours of on-demand programming.

However, no phone service is available.

“The phone is really a 1940s thing. Why have a landline? It’s sitting there, you use it once every two weeks,” Mr Pichette said.

Google said it also intends to roll out product packages for businesses, but would not provide details.

Google Fiber includes more than 100 networks and costs $120 a month for a package of TV, 1 gigabit per second Internet speeds and 1 terabyte of cloud storage.

“People are going to have high expectations for this. The worst thing they can do is come out and disappoint.” said Mr Ben Schachter, an analyst with Macquarie Research.

Google is also offering an Internet-only package priced at $70 a month. The download speeds would be around 1 gigabit a second, according to Google executives.

Google is charging a $300 installation fee, saying consumers should treat it as a “home improvement” cost.

July 29, 2012