Games, Apps, Softwares, Operating Systems and Software Hacks
Google has just officially announced that they are working on the next build of Android that works together on all devices. In their own words “One OS that runs everywhere.” This OS will adapt to its device identifying the smartphone from a tablet and customizing itself to fit the bill properly. The launch of ICS is scheduled for Q4 2011.
Microsoft and Skype have made it official , The Mega Software/Hardware giant has acquired the Video Chat mega-enterprise for a whopping 8.5 Billion (Yes BILLION) US dollars. There is also a mention of XBOX and Kinect Support.
The other important aspect of the acquisition is that non-MS users (existing Skype users) will not be affected in any way with the acquisition.
According to data: Skype was first sold to eBay in 2005 for 2.5$ Billion US who in turn sold it for 2.75 Billion US $ to Silver Lake. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year and you can read Microsofts and Skype’s full announcement below.
PRESS RELEASE
Microsoft to Acquire Skype
Combined companies will benefit consumers, businesses and increase market opportunity.
REDMOND, Wash., and LUXEMBOURG – May 10, 2011 – Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: “MSFT”) and Skype Global S.à r.l today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Skype, the leading Internet communications company, for $8.5 billion in cash from the investor group led by Silver Lake. The agreement has been approved by the boards of directors of both Microsoft and Skype.
The acquisition will increase the accessibility of real-time video and voice communications, bringing benefits to both consumers and enterprise users and generating significant new business and revenue opportunities. The combination will extend Skype’s world-class brand and the reach of its networked platform, while enhancing Microsoft’s existing portfolio of real-time communications products and services.
With 170 million connected users and over 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations in 2010, Skype has been a pioneer in creating rich, meaningful connections among friends, families and business colleagues globally. Microsoft has a long-standing focus and investment in real-time communications across its various platforms, including Lync (which saw 30 percent revenue growth in Q3), Outlook, Messenger, Hotmail and Xbox LIVE.
Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices, and Microsoft will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities. Microsoft will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.
“Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world.”
Skype will become a new business division within Microsoft, and Skype CEO Tony Bates will assume the title of president of the Microsoft Skype Division, reporting directly to Ballmer.
“Microsoft and Skype share the vision of bringing software innovation and products to our customers,” said Tony Bates. “Together, we will be able to accelerate Skype’s plans to extend our global community and introduce new ways for everyone to communicate and collaborate,” Bates said.
“Tony Bates has a great track record as a leader and will strengthen the Microsoft management team. I’m looking forward to Skype’s talented global workforce bringing its insights, ideas and experience to Microsoft,” Ballmer said.
Speaking on behalf of the investor group that sold Skype to Microsoft, Egon Durban, managing director of Silver Lake, said: “We are thrilled with Skype’s transformation during the period of our ownership and grateful for the extraordinary commitment of its management team and employees. We are excited about Skype’s long-term future with Microsoft, as it is poised to become one of the world’s most dynamic and comprehensive communications platforms.”
Founded in 2003, Skype was acquired by eBay in September 2005, and then acquired by an investment group led by Silver Lake in November 2009. Skype has made impressive progress over the past 18 months under Silver Lake’s leadership, increasing monthly calling minutes by 150 percent, developing new revenue streams and strategic partnerships, acquiring the intellectual property powering its peer-to-peer network, and recruiting an outstanding senior management team.
Other members of the selling investor group led by Silver Lake include eBay International AG, CPP Investment Board, Joltid Limited in partnership with Europlay Capital Advisors; and Andreessen Horowitz.
The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. The parties hope to obtain all required regulatory clearances during the course of this calendar year.
About Skype
Skype is communications software whose purpose is to break down barriers to communication. With an Internet-connected device, families, friends and colleagues can get together for free with messaging, voice and video. At low cost, they can also call landlines or mobiles virtually anywhere in the world. Skype has recently introduced group video, allowing groups of more than two people to do things together whenever they’re apart.Founded in 2003 and based in Luxembourg. Skype can be downloaded onto computers, mobile phones and other connected devices for free.
Microsoft’s upcoming “Mango” update is the next exciting thing for all Windows Phone 7 users. Windowsphonesecrets.com revealed the new features of the upcoming update and they seem to be adding quite a few interesting things.
Are you insanely popular, or a mass emailing spammer? Either way, Google has got you covered! The new Gmail address book can now store contacts upto 25,000. This number has gone up from the original 10,000. What is also interesting is the fact that the data entry size has been increased to 128kb from the existing 32kb = more entries per data entry. Celebrations all round!
How many people have had to enter the funny squiggly text while registering on a new website? We have, and we’re sick of it. So when we went looking for alternatives, we found a brilliant piece of software. Its the same old captcha theory, with a new twist. It’s called PeopleSign. Instead of using text as a input field, it uses pictures. What you basically have to do is that you match a picture from a list of pictures. Spambots are currently programmed to decifer text captchas but they have no image processing capabilities. We have faced a huge reduction in spammers by using this captcha technology. Try it for yourself and leave your comments below.
You can sign up for this service here: http://www.peoplesign.com/main/registerToHostPeoplesign.html
RIM has just announced a new Revision of the Blackberry OS for their new series of Smart-Phones which were announced today. The OS will bring better features to the interface, web browsing and overall usability of the New Blackberry Devices. Another thing to note is that none of the old devices including the current gen BB OS 6 devices will be eligible for an upgrade as the OS lacks any form of QNX.
FULL PR
RIM Introduces New BlackBerry Bold Smartphones
New BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 Smartphones are the Thinnest and Most Powerful BlackBerry Smartphones yet, Featuring the Renowned BlackBerry Keyboard Together with a Brilliant Touch Screen and the New BlackBerry 7 OS
Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today unveiled two new BlackBerry® Bold™ smartphones. The high-performance BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones feature a stunning and iconic design that integrates an incredibly easy-to-use BlackBerry keyboard with a brilliant, high resolution, capacitive touch screen. These exceptional smartphones are built on a new, performance-driven platform powered by the BlackBerry® 7 operating system and designed to deliver the ultimate in communications, multimedia and productivity for users around the world.
“The new BlackBerry Bold smartphones and BlackBerry 7 OS are inspired by millions of customers around the world who want the ultimate combination of performance, functionality and style,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion. “These fully-loaded and beautifully crafted smartphones offer a highly refined user experience with blazingly fast performance, a brilliant touch screen and an outstanding typing experience.”
Thin, Sleek, Iconic Design
Distinguished by an iconic design and the industry’s best keyboard, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones feature the premium materials and finishes that characterize the BlackBerry Bold line. Both models have a lustrous exterior with a brushed stainless steel frame and a high-gloss glass-weave backplate. They are also the thinnest BlackBerry smartphones yet, at only 10.5mm. The quality materials and optimized design of the new BlackBerry Bold smartphones are instantly evident when held in the hand.Performance-Driven
These BlackBerry Bold smartphones are built on a new performance-driven platform featuring a 1.2 GHz processor, Liquid Graphics™ touch screen, and support for high speed 4G/HSPA+ wide area wireless networks.The Liquid Graphics touch screen, a key new feature powered by BlackBerry 7, delivers fast, smooth performance for highly responsive touch-based navigation, web browsing, pictures, video and graphics intensive games*. Offering up to 60 frames-per-second performance with instant UI action/response, Liquid Graphics gives customers a visually rich and immersive experience that’s responsive to the touch. In addition, the smartphones feature brilliant displays with an eye-popping 287 dpi to deliver crisp, stunning visuals.
The new platform also provides support for 4G networks; the 9900 supports HSPA+ connectivity, and the 9930 supports CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and HSPA+ global roaming on GSM/UMTS networks.
NFC
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones include built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communications), a new technology that will enable many rich and exciting experiences. Through NFC, users will be able to, for example, pair the BlackBerry Bold to an accessory or read information such as a web link from smart tags by simply tapping their BlackBerry Bold to an NFC tag (eg. Smart Poster).Augmented Reality
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones feature a built-in compass (magnetometer) to support location-based services and augmented reality. APIs will allow third party developers to take advantage of the new functionality within their applications. The new smartphones will also include Wikitude, the leader in mobile augmented reality, which overlays contextual information on what the user sees through the smartphone’s camera viewfinder.HD Video
The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones support up to 720p HD video recording and playback. Users can easily share their videos directly from the smartphone or sync videos, as well as music and photos, to their computer using Media Sync in the BlackBerry® Desktop Software.BlackBerry 7
The BlackBerry 7 OS is designed to power the new performance-driven BlackBerry Bold platform. It provides an easier and faster user experience with improved browsing, voice-activated searches, the ability to manage personal content separately from corporate content, as well as additional personal and productivity apps out of the box.The BlackBerry Browser has been significantly enhanced in BlackBerry 7. In addition to the general performance gains of Liquid Graphics, which helps deliver faster rendering and seamless panning and zooming, the BlackBerry 7 browser includes a new JIT (just in time) JavaScript compiler to improve the load time speed of web pages. The new browser also includes support for additional HTML5 elements, such as HTML5 Video.
Building upon the Universal Search feature introduced in BlackBerry 6, BlackBerry 7 expands the capability to include voice-activated search. This new capability makes it even easier and more convenient to search for content on the smartphone or web.
BlackBerry 7 also integrates BlackBerry® Balance™, which separates personal content from corporate content on the smartphone, giving users the freedom and flexibility to use the handset for personal email, Facebook®, Twitter®, multimedia, games and other apps while satisfying the very real need for corporate data to be highly secure and manageable. BlackBerry Balance works in conjunction with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 5.0.3, which provides a number of unique IT policy controls such as wiping only corporate data from the handset or blocking work related content and apps from being copied or forwarded to personal contacts.
With BlackBerry 7 on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones, users will also get the full version of Docs To Go® with all “premium” features enabled out-of-the-box so that users can easily work with Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the smartphone. Docs To Go also includes a native PDF viewer.
Availability
The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones are expected to be available from carriers around the world beginning this summer.For additional information please visit www.blackberry.com/touchbold
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The Latest version of the most popular open-source Operating system for Computers is out. The new version adds some interesting UI changes
Their servers are higly overloaded. We are downloading the new build right now, we will be back soon with a full change-log, tweaks and setup instructions shortly.
Looks like a bunch of Rumors floating around the web including a tweet which talks about the Nexus S – Video Chat on Gingerbread 2.3.4.
What this means is that all Android Devices with front facing cameras and the latest version of Gingerbread will be Able to use it to Video Chat amongst other with similar availabilities.
Microsoft has accidentally confirmed that its next major Windows Phone update aka Mango will be infact Called WIndows Phone 7.5.
Mango update will bring
Microsoft also showcased several new features of the Mango Update Earlier this Year at the MIX developers confrence.
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Today we are going to show you how to Install GingerBread 2.3 on your SAMSUNG GALAXY ACE mobile PHONE.
What you will NEED!
1. A Samsung Galaxy ACE (DUH!).
2. The 2.3 Firmware S5830( click here to download password = samfirmware.com).
3. ODIN downloader (click here to download). and USB Driver (Click HERE)
4. OPS files (click here to download).
5. A windows PC + samsung data cable.
Important NOTES:
If you get errors after upgrade : i.e. error: phone application has stopped working or get constant crashes,do the following:
To fix phone not working, initiate restore phone to factory settings command from Settings – Privacy
TAKE SERIOUS CONSIDERATION BEFORE UPGRADING AND HAVE YOUR BACKUP IMAGE READY IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG – use the OLD FIRMWARES: (All backup images can be found here)
AFTER BACKUP – FACTORY RESET YOUR PHONE BY ENTERING THE FOLLOWING CODE
*2767*3855#
STEP 1
Download all the files above, and make sure you have the latest version of KIES software installed.
STEP 2
Extract the RAR to get a .tar file.
STEP 3
Open ODIN Downloader.
MAKE SURE you select One Package, Auto Reboot and Protect Ops checkboxes.
Select the Ops file (the file we downloaded earlier).
And finally select the tar package we extracted from the RAR downloaded earlier.
(You can also extract the rtar and select packages indivisually)
NOW CLOSE ODIN.
STEP 4
Backup you phone and data with the KIES software (after you are done exit KIES)
Turn OFF the Galaxy ACE and remove the Battery
Reinsert The Battery and Press the following buttons together
CENTER HOME BUTTON + POWER BUTTON + VOLUME DOWN Together
Hold the buttons together till you see the downloading screen
STEP 6 (Final Step)
CLICK START and wait for process to finish, once done your device will automatically reboot and will have Android 2.3 running on it.
A Few Things you will notice with 2.3
Test this out at your own risk, if you have feedback please leave it below
Rom Files courtesy (samfirmware.com)
Froyo’d or Doomed? The official update Galaxy 3 Update for Android 2.2 came out a couple of Days ago and multiple users are reporting several problems with the update:
So if you did update and are facing issues select your issues in the poll below and vote. If You still have not updated and want to despite the errors visit our Step by Step Guide
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The latest version of iOS 4.3.2 was released by Apple just days after the jailbreak for the iOS 4.3.1 came out. But, in an exciting turn of events looks like the newest version is still vulnerable to i0n1c’s untethered jailbreak method. Although a lot of failures occurred and the Dev-Team decided to pull the iPhone 4 jailbreak from redsn0w, leaving iPhone 4 users to rely on a tethered jailbreak, atleast till i0n1c has a chance to fix the venerability patch for iPhone 4.
You can download the latest version of Redsn0w Here.
Please Note : Jailbreak does not mean unlock, if your device is locked to a carrier network this will not work to unlock your device.
The newest updated version of the Google Translate app on Android Devices brings Japanese, Korean and Arabic languages in its text to speech recognition, apart from the currently supported 21 languages. The new version also enhances the 15 other popular languages including Russian, Chinese and Portuguese.
Now, if you are not already aware the app already supports text-text translation in over 55 languages.
This app is available Free in the Android Marketplace.
A Weekly dose of what we think are the top apps of this week.
LinkedIn is possibly the only social network for professionals, which has become popular all across the globe. Although the app for mobile platforms on iOS and Blackberry existed for some time the app was recently announced for the Android Platform. We reviewed the App and found it to be a perfect portable companion to the full desktop version of the app.
The app has six modules to view updates from your professional network, updates from newly established connections, changes to people’s profiles, and articles and information being shared by your contacts.
Something new to the application is the sharing aspect where now you can share news and information across facebook and twitter. it also allows you to share information among your contacts, making the network aspect of LinkedIn stronger.
You can also access the profiles of your connections and send them messages and invites. Messaging is an integral part of the network and is now fully featured in the app. You can also, read and respond to messages and invites directly from your mobile phone. Another new feature of the app is the” people you may know ” section which allows you to search for your contacts and aconnections easily suggesting the people through the search criteria and already existing connections.
Overall the app provides good interaction with the network, leaving little or no features compared to the desktop mode, we also like the module look which makes navigating through the app fairly simple. Some people also reported crashing and the app not working on some devices. We also faced issues on our Desire HD which was resolved after reinstalling the App.
Download the App.
Android : Android App Download
Apple iOS :LinkedIn – LinkedIn Corporation
Not everyone can afford an iPhone or an HTC phone, that come with an added feature of geo-locating the device. Also making a device ring even though its in silent mode should be easier than just logging on to the internet and opening websites and whatnot. This is where “Wheres my Droid” comes in. a free and novel app that allows users to find their phone by simply making it ring at full volume.
“How do you make it ring?” you ask. Well just use any other cellphone around you and sms a pre-defined passcode message to your device. The message with the passcode will trigger the app which in turn will trigger the phones ringer to ing at full volumes. a fairly simple idea which well “WORKS”. The app also gives the users ability to customize the passcode to one that you remember.
Now the feature that was most interesting to us was the fact that you can also find the location of the device using this app. Using a different GPS only passcode you can ping the device to send you back an SMS with the location based in google maps. This feature works brilliantly if you have a smartphone which has google maps installed(mostly all smart-phones have Google MAPS). we tested it out and it worked brilliantly between our iPhone and our “lost Desire S”
Download The App
Android : Android App Download
Similar Apps For iOS/ iPhone
Find my iPhone : Free : Find My iPhone – Apple®
Premium : Device Locator: Track and Locate Your Lost or Stolen iPhone + Google Latitude Integration
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