Tech Roundup: Jul 22, 2012
Apple preparing a smaller iPad version to compete with Kindle Fire is blasé! But in an interesting role-reversal of sorts, the New York Times is now reporting that Amazon is developing a larger Kindle Fire to compete with the 10.1 inch iPad. It has also added that it will be less expensive than its Apple doppelganger and is being expected to be launched later this year.
The Next Web reports that despite this, Borodin says he's processed 30,000 individual "purchases" and has moved his server to a country that's not likely to respond to requests from Apple. Promising to fix the issue in the upcoming iOS6, Apple, as a temporary workaround, has begun including a unique_identifier in its in-app purchase receipts and has asked the developers to validate the purchases from their end instead of from the device. Meanwhile, developer Borodin has not been sitting idle either; he has modified the hack to make it work with OS X apps brought from the Mac App Store. Worrisome without a doubt!
If Microsoft is found breaching the commitments, it could end up paying 10% of its total annual profit. The company is already battling sharp disapproval from Google and Mozilla for indulging in anti-competitive practices by limiting browser choices in its upcoming operating system Windows 8 RT, which supposedly blocks out third-party browsers like Chrome and Firefox and will run only Internet Explorer. The EC has also confirmed that it’s investigating these allegations in Windows 8 RT.
LOL affair of the week!
Microsoft had an discomfiting moment when a programmer spotted the following hexadecimal string buried in the code that helps Microsoft programs to run on Linux: ‘0xB16B00B5’. In plain English, the string reads ‘Big Boobs’. The blunder came to light when the programmer, Paolo Bonzini, took to the Linux Kernel mailing list saying ‘Somone (sic) was trying to be funny, I guess.’ The Redmond based firm was swift to apologize for the offensive string and has stated that a forthcoming patch would change the spelling.
“We thank the community for reporting this issue and apologize for the offensive string. We have submitted a patch to fix this issue and the change will be published in a future release of the kernel,” Microsoft said in a statement. But Linux developer Dr. Matthew Garrett terms it as outright childish humour and noted that Microsoft has used a similar string ‘0x0B00B135’ (translates to ‘Boobies’) before, his comments thus sparking a gender debate. “Puerile sniggering at breasts contributes to the continuing impression that software development is a boys club where girls aren’t welcome,” Garrett had said.
Quarterly Results:
Nokia posts $1 billion operating loss for Q2 2012, sells 4 million Lumia devices.
Microsoft posts its first ever quarterly loss of $492 million – a one-time loss owing to its failed aQuantive acquisition, despite raking in $18.06 billion in revenues.
Google announces $12.21 billion in revenue, $233 million loss in its recently acquired Motorola Mobility Inc.
Google / Android:
Samsung states the OTA updates that removed Universal Search feature from Galaxy S III for Sprint / AT&T was a precautionary measure to ensure that their products can be enjoyed without any interruptions.
Custom build of Android Jelly Bean, Cyanogen Mod 10, previewed on Samsung Galaxy S III.
German court rules that Motorola Xoom doesn’t infringe on Apple iPad design.
Sony announces a new Walkman music player with 3.5 inch screen and Android 4.0 with complete access to Google Play.
Google SMS launched in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, allows exchange of emails through SMS without even an Internet connection.
YouTube outs face blurring tool for sensitive videos.
Google Play Music gets a facelift, allows playlist reordering.
HTC confirms Jelly Bean upgrade to One X and One S.
Samsung to announce the next big thing on August 15, likely to be the Galaxy Note successor.
Google acquires popular iOS third-party email client Sparrow.
Samsung sells 10 million units of Galaxy S III in a record two months.
Android Jelly Bean update rolling out to Samsung Nexus S.
Microsoft / Windows / Windows Phone:
Windows Phone 8 to allegedly support USB Mass Storage mode.
Metro flavored Office Suite 2013 announced with tighter social network integration, cloud sync and touch improvements, revamp on the way for Windows Phone 8.
Official launch of Windows 8 to customers – both upgrades and new installs – on October 26th this year.
Nokia Drive 3.0 out for Lumia Windows phones.
Pricing strategy of Windows 8 apps revealed, to cost between $1.49 to $999.99.
Apple / iOS:
Movies for iTunes now available in 37 more countries.
New iPad now available in China.
Other:
Professional social network LinkedIn undergoes a homepage overhaul.
Yahoo! appoints top Google executive, Marissa Mayer – who was behind the development of Google home page amongst others, as its next CEO.
Skype bug sends instant messages to wrong contact when the app crashes mid-way during exchange, subsequently fixed.
Six LG Display employees charged with stealing OLED technology from Samsung.
Mozilla Firefox 14 available for download, brings in HTTPS searching.
Barnes & Noble begins its web-based access to ebooks – announces Nook for Web, a browser-based desktop reader.
Rotten Tomatoes suspends the comments section of Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ following threatening comments on negative reviews.
Russia’s controversial Internet Censorship Bill clears one more hurdle, passes the upper house of Parliament.
Facebook acquires Acrylic Software, developers of the iOS news reader app Pulp.
Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing gives $3 million of his personal bonus to production-line workers, other junior-level employees.
Tech Roundup is a weekly recurring feature on the latest trends in Technology.
***
Apple had initially pulled out its 39 products from the EPEAT green scheme for reasons unknown but after the ensuing kerfuffle, it did a surprise volte-face by not only adding all the eligible products back on the council’s registry, but also went one step further by giving Gold labels to all the four new models of its new MacBook Pro with Retina Display, devices whose batteries are firmly glued to their aluminium frames in such a way that it couldn’t be removed without leaking the glue. The Electronics TakeBack Coalition (ETBC), which was quick to spot this gaffe, has expressed concerns about these MacBooks qualifying for EPEAT at any level, let alone Gold, stating it has flunked two design criteria.
***
A couple of days back, a Russian developer published a simple iOS hack (http://www.in-appstore.com/) that allowed users to buy apps without paying. Not only the hack didn’t require any sort of jail-breaking, it could run on any iOS version starting from 3.0 – including the latest 6.0. Apple took the incident seriously – as it can hamper its revenues – and following investigations, it has blocked the IP address that’s hosting the hack tool. Alexey V. Borodin, who developed this, says that although his system is still working, he's had to make changes to get around Apple's block. The company has also ordered YouTube to take down the original video explaining it.The Next Web reports that despite this, Borodin says he's processed 30,000 individual "purchases" and has moved his server to a country that's not likely to respond to requests from Apple. Promising to fix the issue in the upcoming iOS6, Apple, as a temporary workaround, has begun including a unique_identifier in its in-app purchase receipts and has asked the developers to validate the purchases from their end instead of from the device. Meanwhile, developer Borodin has not been sitting idle either; he has modified the hack to make it work with OS X apps brought from the Mac App Store. Worrisome without a doubt!
***
Well, rumors of the upcoming iPhone 5 (or the new iPhone?) are heating up with every passing day. Financial Times is now reporting that carriers are piling up the recently approved 4FF nano-SIM cards that’s expected to be incorporated in the next-gen smartphone from Apple. The nano-SIM is 40% smaller than the current 3FF micro-SIM cards available on the current iPhone and Nokia Lumia models among others, while the 2FF mini-SIM cards (the conventional ones) continue to dominate the landscape. Also, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the company is planning to introduce a new in-cell touch based display technology to make sure that the screen remains thin, thereby reducing the thickness and weight of the phone. Current models of the iPhone have layers of glass, LCD and capacitive sensors to detect touch.
***
Apple's move to fight against Samsung over its iPad design backfired recently when a UK court straightaway stated the Galaxy Tab "does not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design," and that "they are not as cool." Apparently, the Cupertino based firm is likely to suffer more embarrassment after a UK judge ordered the company to publicly publish a notice on its UK website (for six months) and in British newspapers declaring that the Samsung’s tablet didn’t copy the iPad design. Will Apple bend and publish a news about its rival? Let’s wait and watch. But I bet you want to take a snapshot or paper cutting of this!
***
Microsoft has apologized for a ‘technical error’ that prevented millions of PC’s running Windows 7 Service Pack 1 from seeing a browser choice screen – the list of alternative browsers installed on the machine – following European Commission’s (EC) revelations that the company failed to comply with a 2009 browser commitment. The tech giant has offered to extend its compliance period for an additional 15 months and is said to have launched a ‘formal investigation’ to look into this.If Microsoft is found breaching the commitments, it could end up paying 10% of its total annual profit. The company is already battling sharp disapproval from Google and Mozilla for indulging in anti-competitive practices by limiting browser choices in its upcoming operating system Windows 8 RT, which supposedly blocks out third-party browsers like Chrome and Firefox and will run only Internet Explorer. The EC has also confirmed that it’s investigating these allegations in Windows 8 RT.
LOL affair of the week!
Microsoft had an discomfiting moment when a programmer spotted the following hexadecimal string buried in the code that helps Microsoft programs to run on Linux: ‘0xB16B00B5’. In plain English, the string reads ‘Big Boobs’. The blunder came to light when the programmer, Paolo Bonzini, took to the Linux Kernel mailing list saying ‘Somone (sic) was trying to be funny, I guess.’ The Redmond based firm was swift to apologize for the offensive string and has stated that a forthcoming patch would change the spelling.
“We thank the community for reporting this issue and apologize for the offensive string. We have submitted a patch to fix this issue and the change will be published in a future release of the kernel,” Microsoft said in a statement. But Linux developer Dr. Matthew Garrett terms it as outright childish humour and noted that Microsoft has used a similar string ‘0x0B00B135’ (translates to ‘Boobies’) before, his comments thus sparking a gender debate. “Puerile sniggering at breasts contributes to the continuing impression that software development is a boys club where girls aren’t welcome,” Garrett had said.
Quarterly Results:
Nokia posts $1 billion operating loss for Q2 2012, sells 4 million Lumia devices.
Microsoft posts its first ever quarterly loss of $492 million – a one-time loss owing to its failed aQuantive acquisition, despite raking in $18.06 billion in revenues.
Google announces $12.21 billion in revenue, $233 million loss in its recently acquired Motorola Mobility Inc.
Google / Android:
Samsung states the OTA updates that removed Universal Search feature from Galaxy S III for Sprint / AT&T was a precautionary measure to ensure that their products can be enjoyed without any interruptions.
Custom build of Android Jelly Bean, Cyanogen Mod 10, previewed on Samsung Galaxy S III.
German court rules that Motorola Xoom doesn’t infringe on Apple iPad design.
Sony announces a new Walkman music player with 3.5 inch screen and Android 4.0 with complete access to Google Play.
Google SMS launched in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, allows exchange of emails through SMS without even an Internet connection.
YouTube outs face blurring tool for sensitive videos.
Google Play Music gets a facelift, allows playlist reordering.
HTC confirms Jelly Bean upgrade to One X and One S.
Samsung to announce the next big thing on August 15, likely to be the Galaxy Note successor.
Google acquires popular iOS third-party email client Sparrow.
Samsung sells 10 million units of Galaxy S III in a record two months.
Android Jelly Bean update rolling out to Samsung Nexus S.
Microsoft / Windows / Windows Phone:
Windows Phone 8 to allegedly support USB Mass Storage mode.
Metro flavored Office Suite 2013 announced with tighter social network integration, cloud sync and touch improvements, revamp on the way for Windows Phone 8.
Official launch of Windows 8 to customers – both upgrades and new installs – on October 26th this year.
Nokia Drive 3.0 out for Lumia Windows phones.
Pricing strategy of Windows 8 apps revealed, to cost between $1.49 to $999.99.
Apple / iOS:
Movies for iTunes now available in 37 more countries.
New iPad now available in China.
Other:
Professional social network LinkedIn undergoes a homepage overhaul.
Yahoo! appoints top Google executive, Marissa Mayer – who was behind the development of Google home page amongst others, as its next CEO.
Skype bug sends instant messages to wrong contact when the app crashes mid-way during exchange, subsequently fixed.
Six LG Display employees charged with stealing OLED technology from Samsung.
Mozilla Firefox 14 available for download, brings in HTTPS searching.
Barnes & Noble begins its web-based access to ebooks – announces Nook for Web, a browser-based desktop reader.
Rotten Tomatoes suspends the comments section of Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ following threatening comments on negative reviews.
Russia’s controversial Internet Censorship Bill clears one more hurdle, passes the upper house of Parliament.
Facebook acquires Acrylic Software, developers of the iOS news reader app Pulp.
Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing gives $3 million of his personal bonus to production-line workers, other junior-level employees.
Tech Roundup is a weekly recurring feature on the latest trends in Technology.
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