Tech Roundup: Feb 10, 2013
A buggy iOS 6.1 update?
Apple recently announced its iOS 6.1 update with LTE enhancements and several other bug fixes but curiously the update has proved to be causing a significant amount of overheating and battery problems. While I haven't experienced any overheating of my iDevice, battery does seem to be a problem. If yours hasn't been upgraded to iOS 6.1 yet, be warned and do so at your own risk. Apple iOS 6.1.1, currently in beta, is presumed to fix these issues.
Run Windows apps on Android using Wine:
Wine (not to be confused with Twitter's Vine) software, which allows Windows applications to be run on Linux and Unix environments, is currently being ported to Android as well. Though this porting is far from complete, such an initiative will definitely be a welcome boost to Android's ecosystem. Let's wait and watch!
Dell goes private with help from Microsoft and others, HP outs Chromebook:
After weeks of speculation, struggling PC maker Dell has made its plans to go private official in a $24.4 billion deal. With the buyout now closed, including a $2 billion loan from Microsoft (which was heavily rumored last week), the company's shares will no longer be traded on a public stock exchange as it can look for options to turnaround its future. It's worth noting that Dell failed to reinvent itself with the changing times and even when it did in the end (can anyone forget the Dell Streak smartphone?), it was by then too late to play catch up. Thus it makes perfect sense that Microsoft which is as well trying hard to stay relevant in this 'post PC' era invested its money in owning a chunk of Dell.
Expectedly not all shareholders are happy about the announcement. Southeastern Asset Management, which owns a 8.5% of Dell's shares, has said in a missive that the deal grossly undervalues the company and that a $13.65 price per share is too low. Hewlett-Packard, in the meanwhile, has finally begun to realize the declining trend with Windows and has finally embraced the Google's Chrome OS by unveiling the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook.
Instagram going the opposite way:
It's indeed strange. In today's times, when almost every service that has a web presence is going the app way, Instagram is going the other way. Originally available only as apps on the iOS and Android, the Facebook acquired photo-sharing social network has been looking to consolidate its presence on the Internet. As a step towards this realization, Instagram has launched a web photo feed that lets its users to scroll through their photo streams comfortably on a desktop.
Chrome and Firefox indulge in software-sans video calling:
Users of Chrome and Firefox browsers should be soon able to initiate video chats and voice calling without the need to download any extra software or plug-ins, thanks to Web Real-Time Communication. WebRTC API is still being drafted by the guys over at World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and hence don't jump the gun and uninstall Google Talk or Skype! If you do want to try this out, you need to have the Chrome 25 Beta or a nightly build of Firefox installed on your PC.
Twitter now aims to conquer television:
Twitter and television almost go hand in hand. Just take a look at those trending topics whenever a popular show (or event) is telecast on TV. In an attempt to monetize this space, Twitter has acquired a TV analytics firm Bluefin for a reported $40 million USD. Getting a clear understanding of the TV viewing patterns would be of immense use, wouldn't they?
Get ready for Ubuntu smartphones this October:
Canonical recently demoed its upcoming gesture-based Ubuntu OS for smartphones and if reports from the Wall Street Journal are to be believed, Ubuntu OS phones will arrive as early as this October in two geographically large markets. Despite a eye-catching user interface and a quicker app development, the platform will face uphill battle from BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone 8 which are both vying for the third place in ecosystem wars.
In other news:
Apple recently announced its iOS 6.1 update with LTE enhancements and several other bug fixes but curiously the update has proved to be causing a significant amount of overheating and battery problems. While I haven't experienced any overheating of my iDevice, battery does seem to be a problem. If yours hasn't been upgraded to iOS 6.1 yet, be warned and do so at your own risk. Apple iOS 6.1.1, currently in beta, is presumed to fix these issues.
Run Windows apps on Android using Wine:
Wine (not to be confused with Twitter's Vine) software, which allows Windows applications to be run on Linux and Unix environments, is currently being ported to Android as well. Though this porting is far from complete, such an initiative will definitely be a welcome boost to Android's ecosystem. Let's wait and watch!
Dell goes private with help from Microsoft and others, HP outs Chromebook:
After weeks of speculation, struggling PC maker Dell has made its plans to go private official in a $24.4 billion deal. With the buyout now closed, including a $2 billion loan from Microsoft (which was heavily rumored last week), the company's shares will no longer be traded on a public stock exchange as it can look for options to turnaround its future. It's worth noting that Dell failed to reinvent itself with the changing times and even when it did in the end (can anyone forget the Dell Streak smartphone?), it was by then too late to play catch up. Thus it makes perfect sense that Microsoft which is as well trying hard to stay relevant in this 'post PC' era invested its money in owning a chunk of Dell.
Expectedly not all shareholders are happy about the announcement. Southeastern Asset Management, which owns a 8.5% of Dell's shares, has said in a missive that the deal grossly undervalues the company and that a $13.65 price per share is too low. Hewlett-Packard, in the meanwhile, has finally begun to realize the declining trend with Windows and has finally embraced the Google's Chrome OS by unveiling the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook.
Instagram going the opposite way:
It's indeed strange. In today's times, when almost every service that has a web presence is going the app way, Instagram is going the other way. Originally available only as apps on the iOS and Android, the Facebook acquired photo-sharing social network has been looking to consolidate its presence on the Internet. As a step towards this realization, Instagram has launched a web photo feed that lets its users to scroll through their photo streams comfortably on a desktop.
Chrome and Firefox indulge in software-sans video calling:
Users of Chrome and Firefox browsers should be soon able to initiate video chats and voice calling without the need to download any extra software or plug-ins, thanks to Web Real-Time Communication. WebRTC API is still being drafted by the guys over at World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and hence don't jump the gun and uninstall Google Talk or Skype! If you do want to try this out, you need to have the Chrome 25 Beta or a nightly build of Firefox installed on your PC.
Twitter now aims to conquer television:
Twitter and television almost go hand in hand. Just take a look at those trending topics whenever a popular show (or event) is telecast on TV. In an attempt to monetize this space, Twitter has acquired a TV analytics firm Bluefin for a reported $40 million USD. Getting a clear understanding of the TV viewing patterns would be of immense use, wouldn't they?
Get ready for Ubuntu smartphones this October:
Canonical recently demoed its upcoming gesture-based Ubuntu OS for smartphones and if reports from the Wall Street Journal are to be believed, Ubuntu OS phones will arrive as early as this October in two geographically large markets. Despite a eye-catching user interface and a quicker app development, the platform will face uphill battle from BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone 8 which are both vying for the third place in ecosystem wars.
In other news:
- Bacteria in Earth's atmosphere could affect climate and cloud formation, says a new study.
- Scientists give conclusive evidence that an asteroid impact was responsible for extinction of dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago.
- Newly discovered prime number (257,885,161 - 1) is more than 17 million digits long.
- India unveils its fastest supercomputer PARAM Yuva II; will be employed in areas of space and bioinformatics research.
- Indian cellular giant Aircel begins rollout of nationwide free roaming plans.
- Facebook celebrates its 9th birthday.
- Facebook deletes face recognition data for EU users, Irish and German data protection agencies confirm.
- Professional social network LinkedIn's quarterly profits zoom.
- Popular news aggregator app Zite gets a huge update for iOS; adds a History tab for articles and topics among several others (No Android love?).
- Apple iPad 4 128 GB and Microsoft Surface Pro tablets go on sale.
- BlackBerry Z10 to be available in India later this month; company to exit from Japanese market.
- NASDAQ to settle with Securities Exchange Commission for botched Facebook IPO.
- Twitter's Vine videos are 6.5 seconds long; app gets an adult rating (17+).
- Android Jelly Bean (4.1.x) on almost 14% of all devices; Gingerbread's (2.3.x) share goes below 50% for the first time.
- Jelly Bean update rolling out for Sony Xperia phones.
- Apple to lose its iPhone trademark in Brazil, reports Reuters.
- Microsoft mulling Office suite for Linux.
- Microsoft's Bing slips to fifth position in global search engine share.
- First Windows Phone handsets land in Africa with Huawei 4Afrika.
- Yahoo! signs an ad deal with Google.
- HP imposes new rules regarding limiting child labor for its Chinese suppliers.
- Apple iTunes hits sales of 25 billion songs.
- Unified messaging feature possibly hinted in a newly revealed screenshot of Chrome OS.
- Amazon launches virtual currency Amazon Coins for buying digital content from its Appstore.
Tech Roundup is a weekly recurring feature on the latest trends in Technology.
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