1. Your Phone Will Magically Charge In Your Pocket Thanks To This New Fabric
Imagine having jeans that charge your phone just by putting it in your pocket. That’s what this material — developed for the British Army — does. The fabric is made of yarn that conducts electricity, and while it needs a power source — say, a belt buckle — it has the potential to totally change the way we charge our gadgets. The fabric, which is developed by Intellige ...
2. Feature: The Nokia Lumia 900 review
The Nokia Lumia 900 has the weight of two big names on its shoulders. It's Nokia's big re-entry into the US market; it's also the flagship Windows Phone Mango in this country. In anticipatory articles, you can hardly find the term "Lumia 900" separated from the word "premium." The phone is as important as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and as, well, every new iPhone is to iOS.
The phone was recently announced at the two-year contract price of $99, a tag usually applied to new mid-range or old high-end phones (even more recently, AT&T announced the Lumia 900 will be free online for new customers). But the implication is that the low price is meant to attract attention to an OS that has yet to win a significant chunk of the market. It's not a reflection of the handset's quality. Because of this, we largely compare the Lumia 900 to the two flagship phones of the other two major OSes, the iPhone 4S with iOS and the Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0. The iPhone 4 also makes a brief appearance, since it has the same list price as the Lumia 900.
3. Solve Windows problems with Microsoft Fix it Portable
If your PC isn’t working properly then Microsoft’s Fix it Solution Center is a great place to start looking for solutions. It has troubleshooters to address problems with performance, stability, security, media playback and a whole lot more, and most of these can be launched in just a couple of clicks.
Of course if your PC isn’t connected to the internet, and network connectivity might be the very reason you need some help, then the site isn’t going to be able to help. But fortunately there’s also a local version available in the shape on Microsoft Fix it Portable, and while it has some problems the program could be a welcome addition to your troubleshooting toolkit.
Fix it Portable starts, just like the online version, by asking you to choose the area where you’re having difficulties. Categories including “Connect to the Internet or networks”, “Fix performance, errors or crashes” and “Fix security, privacy or user accounts”.
Once you’ve chosen one of these, Fix it Portable will display any relevant troubleshooters for that area. So if you’ve selected the “Install or upgrade software or hardware” category, say, you’ll see troubleshooters to “Diagnose and fix printer and printing problems”, “Diagnose and fix Windows USB problems”, “Hardware devices are not working or not detected in Windows”, and more. If you see one that matches your requirements then just click it, and watch as the troubleshooter goes to work, tweaking your settings and hopefully restoring normal working operations.
While all this sounds good, there are a few issues here. Most notably, despite being a bulky download of up to 40MB there are only 26 troubleshooters on offer; if you can get online then you’re far more likely to achieve success by visiting Microsoft’s online Solution Center.
There’s some overlap between the troubleshooters you do get, too. Click the Security category, for instance, and you’ll find one which aims to “Fix security issues to protect and secure Windows automatically”, while another is titled “Automatically fix Windows security settings to keep your PC safe”: it’s not exactly clear which one you should use, even after reading the more in-depth explanation (although you can of course use both).
And the interface is a little odd. If you want to run a particular troubleshooter then you’ll probably instinctively click the “Run Now” button immediately to its right. But the screen also explains that actually you should click the troubleshooters name, a hyperlink which downloads the relevant file to make sure you’re using the most up-to-date version.
Still, for all this, Microsoft Fix it Portable is generally easy to use, and provides a lot of valuable troubleshooting power: if you regularly need to fix PCs which aren’t connected to the internet then it could prove a real timesaver.
7. SMB cloud adoption begins to acclerate, study finds
Small and medium sized business are quickly moving to the cloud to reduce IT costs, a new study shows. The number of cloud services is expected to double over the next five years, and the number of small business using at least one cloud service will triple during that same period.
Cloud computing offers small business the opportunity to access the computing power of much larger corporations at a fraction of the cost. In fact, the survey shows that half of all SMBs see the cloud as becoming more important to their business.
"The cloud levels the playing field for SMBs, helping them compete in today’s quickly changing business environment, by spending less time and money on IT and more time focused on their most important priority —- growing their businesses", argues Microsoft operator channel vice president Marco Limena.
Microsoft commissioned the study of 3,000 small and medium sized businesses in 13 countries. The survey was conducted by Wayland, Mass.-based research firm Edge Strategies.
The most commonly used cloud services are email, instant messaging, voice communications, and backup. Edge also looked at SMB cloud plans over the next three years and the same cloud services also are in the IT plans of those embracing the cloud.
From this data, it certainly could be argued that SMBs seem to be quick to embrace the cloud in order to enhance communication. It makes sense: in small business, communication is key to ensure rapid growth.
The biggest motivators for migration to the cloud among SMBs is to save money (54 percent), followed by increases in productivity. Decision makers also mentioned flexibility as a fairly common response. Of those already using the cloud, 59 percent reported productivity increases as a result.
Such an increase in productivity is vital in an economy where revenues are hard to come by. Even in this environment, cloud-enabled SMBs are expected to do well. 63 percent report that they expect to increase sales within the next 12 to 18 months, with 58 percent believing the cloud makes them more competitive in the marketplace.
"Gone are the days of large enterprises holding the keys to enterprise-class IT and services", Limena says.
Imagine having jeans that charge your phone just by putting it in your pocket. That’s what this material — developed for the British Army — does. The fabric is made of yarn that conducts electricity, and while it needs a power source — say, a belt buckle — it has the potential to totally change the way we charge our gadgets. The fabric, which is developed by Intellige ...
2. Feature: The Nokia Lumia 900 review
The Nokia Lumia 900 has the weight of two big names on its shoulders. It's Nokia's big re-entry into the US market; it's also the flagship Windows Phone Mango in this country. In anticipatory articles, you can hardly find the term "Lumia 900" separated from the word "premium." The phone is as important as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and as, well, every new iPhone is to iOS.
The phone was recently announced at the two-year contract price of $99, a tag usually applied to new mid-range or old high-end phones (even more recently, AT&T announced the Lumia 900 will be free online for new customers). But the implication is that the low price is meant to attract attention to an OS that has yet to win a significant chunk of the market. It's not a reflection of the handset's quality. Because of this, we largely compare the Lumia 900 to the two flagship phones of the other two major OSes, the iPhone 4S with iOS and the Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0. The iPhone 4 also makes a brief appearance, since it has the same list price as the Lumia 900.
3. Solve Windows problems with Microsoft Fix it Portable
If your PC isn’t working properly then Microsoft’s Fix it Solution Center is a great place to start looking for solutions. It has troubleshooters to address problems with performance, stability, security, media playback and a whole lot more, and most of these can be launched in just a couple of clicks.
Of course if your PC isn’t connected to the internet, and network connectivity might be the very reason you need some help, then the site isn’t going to be able to help. But fortunately there’s also a local version available in the shape on Microsoft Fix it Portable, and while it has some problems the program could be a welcome addition to your troubleshooting toolkit.
Fix it Portable starts, just like the online version, by asking you to choose the area where you’re having difficulties. Categories including “Connect to the Internet or networks”, “Fix performance, errors or crashes” and “Fix security, privacy or user accounts”.
Once you’ve chosen one of these, Fix it Portable will display any relevant troubleshooters for that area. So if you’ve selected the “Install or upgrade software or hardware” category, say, you’ll see troubleshooters to “Diagnose and fix printer and printing problems”, “Diagnose and fix Windows USB problems”, “Hardware devices are not working or not detected in Windows”, and more. If you see one that matches your requirements then just click it, and watch as the troubleshooter goes to work, tweaking your settings and hopefully restoring normal working operations.
While all this sounds good, there are a few issues here. Most notably, despite being a bulky download of up to 40MB there are only 26 troubleshooters on offer; if you can get online then you’re far more likely to achieve success by visiting Microsoft’s online Solution Center.
There’s some overlap between the troubleshooters you do get, too. Click the Security category, for instance, and you’ll find one which aims to “Fix security issues to protect and secure Windows automatically”, while another is titled “Automatically fix Windows security settings to keep your PC safe”: it’s not exactly clear which one you should use, even after reading the more in-depth explanation (although you can of course use both).
And the interface is a little odd. If you want to run a particular troubleshooter then you’ll probably instinctively click the “Run Now” button immediately to its right. But the screen also explains that actually you should click the troubleshooters name, a hyperlink which downloads the relevant file to make sure you’re using the most up-to-date version.
Still, for all this, Microsoft Fix it Portable is generally easy to use, and provides a lot of valuable troubleshooting power: if you regularly need to fix PCs which aren’t connected to the internet then it could prove a real timesaver.
4. How is Linux Built? Our New Report and Video
When you work for the Linux Foundation you get a lot of questions on just how Linux is built. Given the massive scale of the development and ubiquity of Linux today, some of us in the community might think everyone understands how the largest collaborative project in computing works. How you submit a patch. How maintainers work with Linux creator Linus Torvalds. But because of Linux's unprecedented growth in mobile, embedded and cloud computing, among other areas, new companies and developers are looking to participate. More than ever before, actually. In our "Who Writes Linux" report (http://go.linuxfoundation.org/who-writes-linux-2012) published today at The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit (https://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/collaboration-summit), we find that more than 7800 individuals from about 800 companies have contributed to the Linux kernel since 2005 and that the rate of development continues to accelerate. The...
5. Google Gets Going With Go
Google has rolled out version 1 of its experimental open source Go computer programing language, 14 months after it first announced the language back in 2009. Go "is an attempt to combine the ease of programming of an interpreted, dynamically typed language with the efficiency and safety of a statically typed, compiled language," Go team lead Rob Pike told TechNewsWorld. "It also aims to be modern, with support for networked and multi-core computing," Pike continued.
6. An x86 PlayStation 4 could signal a sea-change in the console industry
The successor to the PlayStation 3, apparently codenamed "Orbis," will use an AMD x86 processor with an AMD "Southern Islands" GPU, according to rumors emerging last week. Xbox 360's replacement, purported to be named "Durango", is also rumored to use an AMD GPU—either a Southern Islands variant or an equivalent to a Radeon HD 6670—this time paired with a PowerPC CPU.
Though these rumors are thoroughly unconfirmed at the moment, they're all well within the realm of plausibility. But if they prove true, the Orbis and Durango will be decidedly mid-range at launch when compared to top-of-the-line PC hardware. The Xbox 360, launched November 2005, and the PlayStation 3, launched November 2006, were both cutting-edge systems at their release. Their capabilities were unmatched by PCs of the time. If these rumors are to be believed, the eighth console generation won't be a repeat of the seventh.
5. Google Gets Going With Go
Google has rolled out version 1 of its experimental open source Go computer programing language, 14 months after it first announced the language back in 2009. Go "is an attempt to combine the ease of programming of an interpreted, dynamically typed language with the efficiency and safety of a statically typed, compiled language," Go team lead Rob Pike told TechNewsWorld. "It also aims to be modern, with support for networked and multi-core computing," Pike continued.
6. An x86 PlayStation 4 could signal a sea-change in the console industry
The successor to the PlayStation 3, apparently codenamed "Orbis," will use an AMD x86 processor with an AMD "Southern Islands" GPU, according to rumors emerging last week. Xbox 360's replacement, purported to be named "Durango", is also rumored to use an AMD GPU—either a Southern Islands variant or an equivalent to a Radeon HD 6670—this time paired with a PowerPC CPU.
Though these rumors are thoroughly unconfirmed at the moment, they're all well within the realm of plausibility. But if they prove true, the Orbis and Durango will be decidedly mid-range at launch when compared to top-of-the-line PC hardware. The Xbox 360, launched November 2005, and the PlayStation 3, launched November 2006, were both cutting-edge systems at their release. Their capabilities were unmatched by PCs of the time. If these rumors are to be believed, the eighth console generation won't be a repeat of the seventh.
7. SMB cloud adoption begins to acclerate, study finds
Small and medium sized business are quickly moving to the cloud to reduce IT costs, a new study shows. The number of cloud services is expected to double over the next five years, and the number of small business using at least one cloud service will triple during that same period.
Cloud computing offers small business the opportunity to access the computing power of much larger corporations at a fraction of the cost. In fact, the survey shows that half of all SMBs see the cloud as becoming more important to their business.
"The cloud levels the playing field for SMBs, helping them compete in today’s quickly changing business environment, by spending less time and money on IT and more time focused on their most important priority —- growing their businesses", argues Microsoft operator channel vice president Marco Limena.
Microsoft commissioned the study of 3,000 small and medium sized businesses in 13 countries. The survey was conducted by Wayland, Mass.-based research firm Edge Strategies.
The most commonly used cloud services are email, instant messaging, voice communications, and backup. Edge also looked at SMB cloud plans over the next three years and the same cloud services also are in the IT plans of those embracing the cloud.
From this data, it certainly could be argued that SMBs seem to be quick to embrace the cloud in order to enhance communication. It makes sense: in small business, communication is key to ensure rapid growth.
The biggest motivators for migration to the cloud among SMBs is to save money (54 percent), followed by increases in productivity. Decision makers also mentioned flexibility as a fairly common response. Of those already using the cloud, 59 percent reported productivity increases as a result.
Such an increase in productivity is vital in an economy where revenues are hard to come by. Even in this environment, cloud-enabled SMBs are expected to do well. 63 percent report that they expect to increase sales within the next 12 to 18 months, with 58 percent believing the cloud makes them more competitive in the marketplace.
"Gone are the days of large enterprises holding the keys to enterprise-class IT and services", Limena says.
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