A Quick Sneak Peak at Windows 8 (CES 2012)
Earlier today at the Consumer Electronics Show, Intel showed off its new Windows 8 operating system. In addition to some new form factors, Intel showed some interesting new Windows 8 interface ideas. Keep in mind that these are proofs-of-concept rather than working devices, so they may or may not actually appear on the market.
The most interesting new UI demo was the Nikishki notebook, a clamshell with a big transparent trackpad below the keyboard. The trackpad works as a traditional trackpad and then “disables” when you press your palms on it to type. Then, when you close the laptop, some of the screen is visible and you are able to see and use the Windows 8 tiles available through the transparent portion.
Another concept was a Kinect-like gesture control for laptops that lets you make gestures in the air to control the system.
USB 3.0 Coming To Your Smartphone
Companies have been saying that by the end of 2012, USB 3.0 will be implemented in your smartphones and tablet PCs which will allow speedier data transfer than the current USB 2.0 standard.
USB 3.0 allows for data transfer rates of around 625 MB/s, which is 10 times faster than USB 2.0, whose maximum data transfer speed is 60 MB/s. The USB 3.0 transfer speed on mobile devices won’t be that fast, but it will be much faster than now.
Devices using USB 3.0 will also take a lot shorter of time to fully charge.
USB Implementers Forum also said it aims to reduce the size of USB 3.0 ports on laptops, as it’s becoming a limiting factor in laptop thinness.
Google Maps Introduces Indoor Navigation
Google Maps 6.0 brought a promise of indoor navigation back in November of last year, but outside of a few dozen airports, transit hubs and retail outlets, we had no idea where it was or wasn’t implemented. Luckily, Google made the smart move of mapping out most of Las Vegas before this year’s annual Consumer Electronics Show. As of right now, not much is mapped out (it is obviously still a work in progress) but it brings the promise of yet another amazing “add-on” of technology to the year of 2012.
Many Free Spotify Users Will Start Getting Charged Soon
Within the last few months, Spotify has really taken off. Many users are enjoying the free membership and using it to its full potential. But like everything else, nothing comes free. Business Insider pointed out that many of you who have been using streaming music service Spotify for free in the US from when it launched last July are now going to have to start paying.
What we’re really looking at here is two parts of a conversion funnel — the traffic growth part, then the paywall part — for what appears to be a legitimate contender to iTunes (and any other music service out there). Presumably, that was the plan.
Full access will cost you $9.99 per month. You can also choose to pay $4.99 a month but you will not receive mobile, or offline access.
Spotify currently has 5.4 million users as well as 12.3 million active monthly users. This blows Pandora out of the water (9.5 million monthly actives).
This is all very unfortunate but we should know by now that nothing in life comes free.
Computer Worm Steals Facebook Accounts
This week, a computer worm called Ramnit has been used to compromise approximately 45,000 Facebook accounts, most of them in Europe and the UK, a security firm reported this week. According to Seculert, the Ramnit worm, which has been described as “a multi-component malware family which infects Windows executable as well as HTML files,” is now targeting social media sites such as Facebook.
The Seculert team also stated, “We suspect that the attackers behind Ramnit are using the stolen credentials to log-in to victims’ Facebook accounts and to transmit malicious links to their friends, thereby magnifying the malware’s spread even further. In addition, cybercriminals are taking advantage of the fact that users tend to use the same password in various web-based services (Facebook, Gmail, Corporate SSL VPN, Outlook Web Access, etc.) to gain remote access to corporate networks.”
Facebook is assuring people that the issue is under control.
“Our security experts have reviewed the data, and while the majority of the information was out of date, we have initiated remedial steps for all affected users to ensure the security of their accounts”.
Developer Sells Complete Ownership to App on Ebay
That’s right, now is your chance to make hundreds of dollars off of an iPhone app, and you don’t even have to do anything!
Mobile app developer Neal Schmidt, maker of the scavenger hunt game Buckshot, is selling his iPhone app on eBay where it had a starting price of just $1.00 (On December 29th). According to the listing, the purchase is for “complete ownership” of the game including both the free and paid versions.
The bidding started slow but as of right now (January 3rd), there has been 69 bids and the selling price is at $4,650!
According to the seller “nSchmidt7,” the multi-player photo scavenger hunt game now has attracted 20,000 registered players since its May 2011 launch. It generates $300/month in revenue from sales and iAds in the free version. In addition, the Amazon cloud server the app runs on is a little more than $2/day.
The bid war ends on January 5th so get your bids in!
New Asus Memo Pad Gets Leaked
Shortly after getting a sneak peek at the Eee PC Flare, new images of another leaked tablet are showing up. Apparently, these images are showing the Asus Memo Pad.
The Memo Pad will be running on a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 16-64GB of internal storage, built in 3G and Wi-Fi. The screen resolution will be 1280×800 making the screen 7 inches. The version of Android that it will run on is not known yet but we can expect to see this product shown at CES this year.
Facebook Messenger Client For Windows
Close to a month ago, Engadget.com gave us an early look at the Facebook Messenger client and now, it’s finally available for download. A copy of the Facebook messenger app was recently leaked on the TechIT website. Not much in the way of surprises here, but if you’re the sort that prefers desktop applications to websites or mobile apps, you’ll be glad to know that it provides access to not just Facebook chat, but status updates and notifications from your friends as well.
Download the client here.
Rumor States Two New iPads With Be Released In January
A recent DigiTimes article reported that Apple will be unveiling two new versions of the iPad at iWorld/Macworld on Jan. 26, 2012. These new models will both include a 9.7 inch screen (Just like the current iPad), but at least one will have a QxGA screen, which is 1536×2048 pixel resolution.
Also, one of the new models is said to have a 8 megapixel rear facing camera and the other will have a 5 megapixel camera. The new battery being used in these tablets is supposedly a 14,000mAh battery which is the largest battery that we have seen on a tablet before.
Not too much is known and once again, these are just rumors…for now. Other rumors state that the release date might not be until Feb. 24, 2012 which is the birthday of Steve Jobs.
All we can do right now is wait and see.
Verizon Fixing 4G Network Problems
Verizon released a statement this evening saying that although there has been “hiccups” recently, they have seen 99% availability for its 4G LTE network for the year and the recent problems that have popped up have been unrelated to one another.
“Each incident has been different from a technical standpoint,” the company said. “Our engineers have successfully diagnosed those past triggering events, and they have not re-occurred. We also work diligently to rectify technical problems in the Network before they affect any customers.”
Verizon is still working on some key changes in the network in order to prevent these outages from happening in the future.
“Among the numerous measures we have taken or will take are: geographic segmentation, which enables us to isolate, contain and rectify network performance issues, and maintain service to the majority of customers when an issue does develop.”
Verizon also said that it’s rolling out “software fixes” that will boost performance and improve reliability.
“Being a pioneer comes with growing pains,” Verizon said. “The recent issues that affected our customers’ 4GLTE service were unforeseen despite careful, diligent planning, deployment and ongoing upgrade programs.”
muzztech
techtonicc
