Technology archive for 2012-02-07

Facebook has started rolling out a new photo viewer that looks like what Google+ currently offers: image on the left and everything else on the right. Do you have it yet?

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:Jive Swings To A Loss, But Revenue Up 53 Percent To $22.5M In First Quarter As A Public Company  —  Enterprise software company Jive has just reported fourth quarter results, which represent the company's first earnings report as a public company.  Q4 total revenue came in at $22.5 million, up 53% year-over-year.

A partnership between Microsoft and customer service company 24/7 may not exactly sound like the most exciting proposition on the face of things, but the two are making some fairly lofty promises, and Microsoft seems to be making a serious investment in the initiative. As ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley reports, part of the deal will see Microsoft send at least some of the 400 employees it brought on in its 2007 acquisition of TellMe Networks to 24/7, and it will also license some of its speech-related IP to the company (in addition to taking an equity stake in it). The goal there being to combine natural user interfaces with a cloud-based customer service platform, which Microsoft promises will "redefine what customer service looks like." To that end, it gives the example of a credit card company getting in touch with you to report suspicious behavior; rather than a phone call, you could get a notification with all the pertinent details sent directly to your phone, which could anticipate a number of potential actions and let you respond by voice (or touch, presumably). Unfortunately, while the two are talking plenty about the future of customer service, there's not a lot of word as to when that might arrive.Continue reading Microsoft strikes deal with 24/7, promises to 'redefine' customer serviceMicrosoft strikes deal with 24/7, promises to 'redefine' customer service originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of[..]

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:Windows 8 on ARM: The desktop is still there  —  Summary: A new Microsoft blog post strongly implies that both Metro-style and Desktop apps will be supported on Windows 8 on ARM, as Microsoft originally promised.  —  This is kind of a back-handed way to confirm something …

The Mozilla Foundation is inviting all email providers to adopt its BrowserID technology and begin validating their users' log-ins to Web sites that support the protocol.

SGI said it will restructure its European operations after a major shortfall in its fiscal second quarter.

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:LinkedIn Is Acquiring Contacts Start-Up Rapportive  —  Rapportive, which makes a browser plug-in that overlays Gmail with contextual information about email contacts, is being acquired by LinkedIn, sources said.  —  LinkedIn declined to comment, while Rapportive CEO Rahul Vohra ducked our attempts to talk to him.

A lot of Americans took their holiday shopping online last year, which helped push e-commerce spending up 14% in the last quarter.

Google's popular Chrome browser is finally coming to Android-based phones, but only if you have the very latest version of the operating system.

AT&T and carrier equipment provide Sandvine released some interesting wireless and Internet usage figures from Sunday's Super Bowl victory for the New York Giants over the New England Patriots.

Adobe next plans to tackle Microsoft's Internet Explorer in its ongoing work to "sandbox" its popular Flash Player within browsers, Adobe's head of security said today.

The FBI Tuesday reaffirmed its rule that all cloud products sold to to U.S. law enforcement agencies must comply with the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Systems security requirements.

Brad Lucier writes "The Saylor Foundation has a vision: Free and open materials for a complete undergraduate university education. To that end, they've announced the first winners in their Open Textbook Challenge: Four textbooks were relicensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC-BY 3.0) Unported license, the most open of the CC licenses, and in return the authors were awarded a prize of $20,000 for each book. See the blog entries and the accompanying press releases for details. The second wave of submissions will be accepted until May 31, 2012." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Exactly twelve months after the unveiling of the Optio WG-1 family, Pentax is now introducing the successors to its colorful and ruggedized shooters. And while its macho design hasn't changed much, the newcomers usher in a host of predictable spec bumps. The new all-terrain shooters are sporting a 16-megapixel, back-illuminated CMOS sensor, 1080p (30fps) movie mode, micro-HDMI for when you feel like sharing your adventures and a 3-inch, 460,000 -dot LCD to help you frame your shots. Of course, this wouldn't fall under the rugged category if it couldn't handle anything you threw at it, which is why any WG-2 is waterproof up to 40 feet, shock-resistant and dustproof. If you're thinking about taking one of these on the trails with you, be ready to unleash around $350 for the unguided model or about $50 more for a GPS-enabled number. Neither will be available until March, so you'll have to wait a while, but in the meantime we've got the full PR below along with some press shots. Gallery: Pentax Optio WG-2Continue reading Pentax refreshes its rugged camera lineup with the Optio WG-2 seriesPentax refreshes its rugged camera lineup with the Optio WG-2 series originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:For $99 per Month, Socialflow Will Help You Publish Your Tweets at the Right Time  —  SocialFlow, which analyzes your Twitter and Facebook stream and followers to help you get the maximum exposure for your status updates, came out of beta today.  After a bit more than a year of slowly adding accounts …

At the end of the day, you're always accountable for the data that you hold. It doesn’t matter where you put it and how many other parties they subcontract that out to.

The Chrome browser is now available for Android phones and tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich. Here's Chrome captured on video in action.

A new Microsoft blog post strongly implies that both Metro-style and Desktop apps will be supported on Windows 8 on ARM, as Microsoft originally promised.

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc Chairman Roy Bostock and three other board directors will step down as the struggling Internet company keeps up discussions on overhauling its prized Asian assets, including stakes in China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan.

Want to print stuff from your iPad, but hate drivers and cords and stuff? Good news, Canon's offering up the Pixma MX512 and MX432, two all-in-one inkjets that offer up Apple AirPrint support, letting users wirelessly prints photos, docs and the like from their iPad, iPhone and iPod touches running iOS 4.2 or later. Canon also used the announcement to reaffirm its commitment to the technology, ensuring as before that it "will be available with the majority of Canon PIXMA Wireless All-In-One inkjet printers launched from this point forward." A brief, fully printable press release can be found after the break.Gallery: Canon Pixma MX432 & MX512Continue reading Canon unveils two AirPrint printers, thinks you should print more stuff from your iPadCanon unveils two AirPrint printers, thinks you should print more stuff from your iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink iPodNN  |  Canon  | Email this | Comments

Tom Warren / The Verge:Exclusive: Nokia Lumia 800 Microsoft Store bundle launching February 14th for $899  —  Microsoft will launch Nokia's Lumia 800 device in the US as a special bundle item priced at $899.  That's the word from sources close to Microsoft's Lumia launch plans, who have confirmed the bundle …

Yahoo's reshuffling continues as four board members -- including the chairman -- announce their departures as two more are elected in.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Social media network Facebook has promised to release more information about the data it collects from millions of users, an Austrian group lobbying for respect of privacy laws said on Tuesday.

(Reuters) - Japan's Renesas Electronics Corp, Fujitsu Ltd and Panasonic Corp have begun discussions toward integrating their system chip operations, the Nikkei business daily said.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Police in the German state of Lower-Saxony will soon use their networks of Facebook "friends" to find missing persons and hunt out suspected criminals, according to the state's interior minister.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Apple Inc. is in talks with Canada's two biggest telecom companies about becoming partners in the launch of iTV, a device combining features of the wildly popular iPad tablet with those of a television set, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

An anonymous reader writes "If we break a bone it can take weeks or even month to heal depending on the type and severity of the break. In some extreme cases the complexity of the fracture can make it impossible to heal properly. Researchers at the University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center have come up with a new solution for healing broken bones that cuts recovery time to days. It relies on the use of stem cells that contain a bone generating protein. These cells are injected in gel form directly into the area of the broken bone, where they quickly get to work forming new bone. The end result is very rapid recovery, possibly sidestepping the muscle atrophy that can come with long bone healing times. The gel has been proven to work on animals as big as a sheep and has funding from the DoD. Lets hope it is proven to work on humans in the coming years." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

(Reuters) - British chipmaker Wolfson Microelectronics plc expects another weak quarter before customer additions and product launches boost revenue this year.

The Washington Post today announced its Social Reader app for Facebook, which includes news stories from over 30 publications, has been ported to Google's Android, Apple's iOS (iPhone and iPod...

It took three years, but the popular Google Web browser, has finally arrived for Android users... well Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, users anyway.

Grant Gross / PC World:FTC Warns Makers of Background Checking Apps  —  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has sent warning letters to the makers of six mobile apps used for background checks, saying the apps may violate a consumer credit protection law.  —  The FTC has sent the warning letters to Everify …

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget:Chrome Beta for Android hands-on (video)  —  So, Google is finally making the move we've been expecting for some time now and bringing Chrome to Android.  Now, you'll need a device running Ice Cream Sandwich to get the new mobile browser up and running but, thankfully, we happened to have a Galaxy Nexus on hand.

VMware has introduced a new software platform that makes it easier for service providers to wholesale their cloud-services infrastructure to other providers.

So, Google is finally making the move we've been expecting for some time now and bringing Chrome to Android. Now, you'll need a device running Ice Cream Sandwich to get the new mobile browser up and running but, thankfully, we happened to have a Galaxy Nexus on hand. As you might expect, mobile Chrome (much like its desktop sibling) is fast -- a little buggy perhaps, but fast. It isn't, however, the fastest browser for the platform. Chrome Beta holds its own, but the standard Android browser, the stable version of Firefox and Dolphin HD all edged it out in SunSpider. Numbers don't tell the whole story though, so head on past the break for more.Continue reading Chrome Beta for Android hands-on (video)Chrome Beta for Android hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Chrome for Android (Android Market)  | Email this | Comments

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:Exclusive: Four Yahoo Board Members to Depart, Two New Ones Arrive and Three More on the Way (Like I Said)  —  According to sources close to the situation, Yahoo will announce the impending departure of four of its longtime board members, including chairman Roy Bostock.

Mike Lewis / The Corner:Introducing SocketRocket: A WebSocket library for Objective-C  —  The WebSocket Protocol is a network protocol designed for the web to enable browsers to have bi-directional communication with a server.  —  WebSockets are also useful in native mobile applications.

We've sorted through the nominations and now we're relying on you to determine the real tech winners from 2011. So, if your smartphone of choice didn't get all the love you hoped it would, hop on over to the voting page and cast your vote. Keep in mind you have until 11:59PM ET on Monday February 20th to let your voice be heard. Check back for the leading vote getters along with our Editors' Choice gadgets before the end of the month. Hit the voting page here to submit your ballot.Reminder: Vote for the 2011 Engadget Awards! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

redletterdave writes "Proview Technology, which currently uses the 'iPad' name on several of its products including computer monitors, stands to win up to $1.6 billion and an apology from Apple for allegedly infringing upon Proview's trademarked name to use on its bestselling tablet. Proview International, which owns subsidiaries Proview Technology in Shenzhen and Proview Electronics in Taiwan, originally registered the name 'iPad' in Taiwan in 2000 and mainland China in 2001. Proview eventually sued Apple in 2011, and even though the Cupertino-based company retaliated with a counter-suit of its own, Apple lost the case in local Chinese courts. Depending on the court's findings, Apple could be fined anywhere from $38 million to the $1.6 billion that Proview is seeking. In addition to the money, Proview also wants Apple to apologize. 'We have prepared well for a long-term legal battle,' said one of Proview's lawyers." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:Japan's DeNA generates $445M in Q4 revenues for mobile social gaming network  —  Japanese mobile social gaming company DeNA reported that its sales for the third fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31 were $445 million, up 16 percent from a year ago.  —  The numbers are pretty big for a mobile game platform …

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:Path 2 uploads your address book, but says it's to ‘match friends’ and will be opt-in soon  —  Developer Arun Thampi was doing a bit of hacking around with Path 2, trying to get a version of it running on OS X as an experiment, when he discovered that the app actually uploads your entire address book when it is launched.

There are shockingly few hyperlinks in PR materials prepared by PR firms for their clients. Why? And why aren't clients mad about this?

Still baffled by the Tablet P's existence? Well, Sony's here to help! Earlier today, our brethren over at Engadget Chinese met up with Takeshi Goto, the head honcho of VAIO and mobile product producing, to learn how the Android clamshell went from several mockups (one of which was made out of a $4 wallet) right after the PDA era to the final product today. Between those two pivotal points on the timeline, Sony explored screen sizes between five to seven inches before settling on 5.5 due to hardware limitation; though the entire device ended up being about the same size as the 7-inch mockup. Later on, the manufacturer hooked up a couple of VAIO UXs to power a Nintendo DS-like dual-screen prototype -- that was when Windows and x86 were under consideration, before Sony eventually went with Android on ARM. Intrigued? Hit the link below to take a look at the aforementioned goodies.Sony Tablet P's product manager shows off prototypes, tells the clamshell story originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Engadget Chinese (translated)  | Email this | Comments

Arun Thampi:Path uploads your entire iPhone address book to its servers  —  It all started innocently enough.  I was thinking of implementing a Path Mac OS X app as part of our regularly scheduled hackathon.  Using the awesome mitmproxy tool which was featured on the front page of the Hacker News yesterday …

CANCUN, Mexico -- Adobe security chief Brad Arkin has a message for the benevolent security research community: Your work is driving down the cost and complexities of attacks against...

Instagram has become the iPhone photo sharing app of choice, but cut through the hype and you'll find a compelling business lesson in managing scale.

Facebook has clarified its policy when it comes to photos of breastfeeding: only photos of babies actively nursing are allowed. Everything else is considered nudity and will be taken down if reported.

Nearly half a million jobs in the U.S. have been created because of the 1 million-plus applications designed for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, according to a new study.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has sent warning letters to the makers of six mobile apps used for background checks, saying the apps may violate a consumer credit protection law.