Top Cloud Innovations of 2012

This year the cloud has grown—have you kept up?

Assuming the world doesn’t end at the end of December, this year might just be remembered as the “Year of the Cloud”. Everyone knows about online storage applications, and why they’re a good idea, but what else has rained down to us from up there? Well, this year the Cloud has seen a lot of innovations, broadening its relevance from every day consumers, to multi-billion dollar companies, and it’s doing it by becoming:

1. Social

With companies like CloudApp that are utilizing and promoting open source code and giving out their API to developers to utilize in their own applications, Cloud companies are making it easier for both larger and smaller companies to tailor cloud based applications to their specific needs.  On the more personal end of the spectrum, Waze is an app for your mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows, etc) that allows users to update their cities with traffic information, with the net result that users can see live updated information about their commute, city or highway construction, and even events like street fairs.

2. Mobile

Waze is just one of many companies utilizing the cloud in a mobile environment. DropBox, Box.net, Github, Google, and many more are releasing full featured mobile apps, many for free. It’s now become easier than ever to synchronize your documents, files, and media between all of your devices. So whether you’re syncing your latest iPhone 5 photo, jotting down notes on your ultra light laptop, or rendering and sending out video from your new desktop, it’s never been easier to keep them all connected.

While some applications still have a way to go (I’m looking at you Google Drive) others have really stepped up their game. Box.net for example have consistently been upgrading their app to include features like Customizable synchronization and uploading files to discreet folders. Other companies like Romanian startup SkinScan, are legitimately trying to save people’s lives with mobile apps that can alert them of potentially cancerous moles.

3. User Friendly

The cloud isn’t just a business term any more, and it’s not just some techy phrase with a description as ethereal as its name. Companies like Spotify are changing how we feel about the cloud, and are making it much a part of everyday life. Audiobox.fm is in the same genre, but has allowed users to stream the music they already own, to any device they have.

Operating systems are even becoming more Cloud oriented. Windows 8 for example is heavily cloud integrated, meaning that with a few clicks, you can set up your computer to store everything securely in the cloud, all connected via your Windows Live ID, making it easily and safely accessible from anywhere.

4. Functional

Evernote has made the cloud indispensible for students, as it gathers snippets from websites you’re reading, or applications you’re using, and categorizes them so that information can be synced and searched from multiple devices. Services like Hojoki have taken the concept of linked in and the usefulness of the Salesforce messaging application, and combines them to allow you network with people you know, and the people they know, to collaborate on awesomeness.

5. The Future

Everything is in the cloud now. The phrase has become prevalent in conversation it’s becoming cliché to even say it. Really, it’s just becoming redundant to say “it’s in the cloud” because everyone already knows it is… even if they don’t know it is. Your photos are all online, your documents can be shared easily, you can listen to your music from wherever and whenever, and you never have to leave your daily routine to find everyone and everything you’ll need to accomplish whatever project you’re about to undertake. Everything is in the cloud, or maybe it’s more accurately stated that, the cloud is everything.

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Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

That was fast: Google already launches Android 4.2 update to fix Google Voice bug

Google has already released an update for Android 4.2 that fixes bugs with Google Voice.

Android 4.2 may be Google’s newest mobile operating system update, but new doesn’t always mean perfect. The latest iteration of Jelly Bean has reportedly caused issues with Google Voice, but the search giant has already issued a fix.

Within 24 hours of its release, Google launched an update for the operating system that fixed inaccuracies with Google Voice. The app has experienced problems ever since the fresh, treat-themed upgrade launched alongside Google’s new Nexus 4 handset and Nexus 10 tablet. Some complaints said that the bug would Force Close a text message if you tried to add a new contact at the same time. This text messaging glitch appears to be the most significant issue, but the update is believed to address any and all compatibility problems between Android 4.2 and Google Voice.

Luckily, the majority of Android users have probably never even encountered this inconvenience. Android 4.2 is only currently available for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the LG Nexus 4, which means that the bug has only affected a small number of Android users. The updated operating system will also ship with the Nexus 10 tablet that debuted on Tuesday and almost instantly sold out in the U.S. and UK within minutes (though we don’t know how many sales it took to sell out).

Android 4.2, initially believed to be called Key Lime Pie, represents the next major software upgrade for Android devices. Google introduced the previous edition of Jelly Bean, Android 4.1, at its I/O conference in June along with its Nexus 7 tablet. The search engine giant emphasized the “buttery smooth” interface that users would experience with Jelly Bean, and its new iteration promises the same.

The update boasts new features such as the ability to open multiple windows and apps simultaneously and Android Beam integration. This is Google’s term for its Near-Field Communication (NFC) capability, which lets users share photos, YouTube videos and other content by touching Android devices back-to-back. One of the most noteworthy additions is the new Photo Sphere camera, which takes snapshots in various directions and stitches them together to form one big picture.

While this may seem exciting, it could take a while for the update to completely roll out. Google recently announced that the Nexus S and Motorola Xoom will not be getting Android 4.2, and data collected by the company shows that Android 4.1 is still barely present on most devices.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Apple’s new iMacs are great, but can we get an iTV already?

Apple's new iMacs are mighty impressive, but we're still left wondering why the company doesn't just give us its next big thing: an iTV.

Running his hand along the slender 5-millimeter-thick edge, Apple’s Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, debuted the company’s newest iMac. “It’s hard to believe there’s even a display in there,” Schiller said, highlighting how outlandishly thin it is.  

Though Schiller said the new iMac “epitomizes something Apple does so well, to create an innovative, breakthrough product,” the last time an iMac was a breakthrough product was when it was introduced in 1998. Yes, everything on display at the October 23 launch featured top-of-the-line specs and dazzling improvements, but nothing felt truly new. Where are the disruptive technologies of launches past? The one area that many of us have prayed Apple would dive into is the HDTV market. So where is the iTV?

There’s a market for computers large enough and thin enough to double as televisions, and Apple has all the key ingredients to build one. Creating an Apple-branded flat-screen HDTV that doubles as a powerful computer would surely make an impact on the television market. And though it’s a good start, Apple has only inched into the arena with its current Apple TV set-top box.

Computers are far more versatile than TVs. Not only can people watch televised content through a myriad of sources, including Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, HBO Go, and iTunes, but they can also enjoy full Internet browsing and productive capabilities native to a computer. That being said, today’s Smart TVs are already doing a pretty good job at blurring the lines between computer and TV. Most Smart TVs offer streaming from the above sources, and many of them offer Internet browsers with support for Flash; what they don’t offer is the kind of clean, simple user interface that Apple has leveraged through the years to turn customers into obsessives.  

As TV manufacturers struggle to integrate the increasing functionality of their products, Apple could easily leapfrog ahead of them. But don’t take our word for it. Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs’ authorized biographer, quotes the late Apple founder on the subject in Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography:

“‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’”

Although we know Apple can do it, the company has not yet made large displays with competitive pixel resolution. The new iMacs lack Retina Display, but come packing a 1920-by-1080-pixel resolution on the 21.5-inch model, and a 2560-by-1440-pixel resolution on the 27-inch model. Coupled with the laminated screen and 300-nit brightness, it is almost ready to wrangle with some of the HDTVs already on the market. No, it’s not Plasma or LCD/ LED technology, but it’s very good, and it leaves us with no doubt that Apple’s talented staff could (and perhaps do) already have a prototype capable of making current purveyors like Sony tremble.

Perhaps more important than the hardware, though, is the need for a content ecosystem robust enough to convince the average consumer to cut their cable cords. The Apple TV is a good start, since it marries iTunes, Netflix, Vimeo, and other streaming services, but Apple would have to up its ante to compete with traditional cable companies.

Jobs knew this, as evidenced by his efforts to reach out to content partners in a possible attempt to create a streaming media service. Reported back in March by Engadget, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves disclosed Jobs’ advances towards establishing a partnership. Moonves chose to decline the partnership due to concerns about the impact it would have on existing revenue streams.

One way of working around the challenges of quickly establishing a content system as comprehensive as those of cable companies is to shift the emphasis away from the convenience of browsing channels over to the convenience of having a mounted computer. As more television networks have recognized the importance of streaming content, more shows have become available online. In an ideal world, the TV industry would have the future of computers built into TVs, but we think the future of TV is actually on computers. Because of that, it makes sense that an iTV would do more to blur the lines between computers and TVs than any other product so far. It also makes sense for Apple to stop trying to fit the outmoded concept of network time slots into its usually forward-thinking vision, and champion streaming.

What Jobs claimed to have “cracked” remains out of his company’s reach for the time being. Apple’s recent launch introduced some attractive devices, but none of them shifted paradigms in the same way as the iPod, iPhone, or iPad have done in the past. And though the company isn’t quite there yet, it won’t have another watershed moment until it introduces something as legitimately game-changing as an iTV – or something equally novel.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Vic Gundotra shares photos taken with the Samsung Nexus 10, 2560×1536 pixel display confirmed in a specs leak

After its quick start guide leaked yesterday, the Samsung Nexus 10 is certainly just a few days away from its official announcement now. However this doesn’t mean that leaks will suddenly stop and we’ll just sit and wait quietly. This time it’s Google’s Senior Vice President of Engineering who spilled the beans by sharing a couple of photos taken with the slate.

The photo you see above is reported at a resolution of 2048×1536 (3.1MP) and I have to say it doesn’t look too bad.

Furthermore, we got to learn the Samsung Nexus 10 specs thanks to the GLBenchmark website. Before we get to them, take a look at the second photo Gundotra has taken.

Now about those specs. Happily, the rumors of a high-resolution display are confirmed — the benchmark reports a 10.1-inch display sporting 2560×1536 pixel resolution.

The Nexus 10 is powered by the Exynos 5 chipset, which sports a dual-core Cortex-A15 CPU clocked at 1.7GHz, a Mali-T604 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Internal storage is reported to be 32GB, with a more affordable 16GB model likely to be available, too.

Even though the leaked photos had 3.1MP resolution, the camera has a 5MP sensor. There’s a 2MP front-facing camera as well. More interestingly, the slate is running Android 4.2, which is all but confirmed, considering all the leaks recently.

Overall, if this new info turns out correct (we’ll know for sure on Monday), the Samsung Nexus 10 would be the most exciting Android tablet so far.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Microsoft launches four new Windows 8 video ads, warming up for October 26

Microsoft doesn’t seem to be bothered by Apple’s huge event today and went on releasing four new ads for Windows 8.

The video ads are global and are going to be aired in 42 countries joined by printed ads, outdoor posters as well as their online counterparts to help boost user awareness and quick adoption of Microsoft’s latest computer OS.

The advertising agency responsible for the videos is Crispin, Porter and Bogusky and here’s what the agency’s Chief Creative Director Rob Reilly had to say about the ads.

We selected music from up and coming bands. We didn’t want to use overly popular songs because we wanted to bring the viewer on a journey of discovery, both through the storytelling and the music that accompanies these stories. Sometimes, as in “Express Yourself,” by Labrinth we found a new take on a classic old song, much like the reinvention of Windows.

Enough chit-chat, let’s get on with the videos.

Windows 8: Best Coast

Windows 8: Parkour

Windows 8: You and Me Together

Windows 8: Party

Microsoft will be officially launching what is undoubtedly its most bold Windows release in its history on October 26, so mark your calendars.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

A photo taken with a Samsung Google Nexus 10 tablet shows up on Picasa

A photo uploaded to Picasa confirms the existence of a Google Nexus 10 tablet manufactured by Samsung.

Unfortunately, the photo doesn’t reveal much besides its resolution of 2,560 x 1,920 and the Android build number, which is JVP12C.

Could this be the long rumored high-resolution tablet that analyst Richard Shim was talking about a few weeks ago? We can know for sure, but it’s fairly logical to assume that the tablet gets its beef from the new dual-core Cortex-A15 Exynos chip by Samsung that resides in the just announced Chromebook.

Google’s Android event on October 29 is approaching ever so rapidly, so let’s hope the new tablet gets it announcement then, in addition to the almost certain 32GB Nexus 7.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Astronaut Suni Williams Talks Dessert, Voting and Triathlons From Space

Domino’s doesn’t deliver, there’s no alcohol, and no fresh coffee, but the astronauts aboard the International Space Station are going to have a real treat. They just got a special delivery of chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream, shipped 220 miles from Earth. So this evening, a rare ice cream social for station Commander Sunita (Suni) Williams, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko.

“Homemade ice cream is something special, we’re going to have a little party,” Williams told ABC News in a conversation from the Space Station.

The ice cream, packed in small cups like the ones children eat with wooden ice cream spoons, came up on the SpaceX Dragon capsule, which docked with the ISS yesterday. The capsule carried food, clothes and science experiments, and is the wave of the future for NASA, which wants to rely on private companies to deliver cargo and even astronauts to the space station.

This is Williams’ second six-month stay on the station, and to hear her tell it, the now-completed science lab in the sky is as busy as a truck stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. Since Williams arrived in mid-July, the crew has welcomed a Japanese cargo vehicle, a Russian cargo ship, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and now the Dragon capsule. In two weeks, another Soyuz will dock to bring three additional crew members.

Williams, a Navy Captain, is only the second female commander of the International Space Station, and holds the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman, the number of spacewalks by a woman, and most spacewalk time by a woman. They’re hardly her only claims to fame. In September, Williams completed the first-ever triathlon from space, biking on an exercise bike, running on a treadmill, and using a special weight-lifting resistance machine to simulate a half-mile swim.

From her vantage point high above the earth, Williams is watching the seasons change, from summer green to autumn red in the Northern Hemisphere. She’ll be home in time for Thanksgiving, but not for Election Day. With no polling place in space, Williams said she just managed to get an absentee ballot before her liftoff. She’s legally a Florida voter.  Her ballot has already been filled out, signed and delivered.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Why I’ll be buying a Wii U at launch

Every gamer should buy Nintendo's next console. Here's why.

Nintendo doesn’t have it easy these days. Mobile phones and tablets continue to peck away at its handheld consoles while the Wii, now nearly six years old, struggles to find new buyers among fierce competition from Microsoft and Sony.

As if that weren’t enough, Nintendo is now paying for its negligence towards the gaming industry. The new controller has been met with skepticism, and the claims of better third-party support this time out have been met with shrugs.  We’ve heard this song and dance before.

It’s all seems very doom and gloom. Yet, in spite of this, I’m going to line up to buy a Wii U at launch – and if “gamer” is a label you’re happy to claim, you should too. Here’s why.

Enough Power To Please

The Internet’s popular opinion about the Wii U’s hardware is woefully miss-informed.  I’ve read countless forum posts and website comments that firmly state the Wii U is just a minor upgrade to the Wii and no better than the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. That’s nonsense.

We don’t know exactly what is in the Wii U yet, but we do know it’s a relatively new PowerPC processor paired with 2GB of RAM and a custom AMD Radeon GPU, most likely derived from the company’s Evergreen architecture. For comparison, the Xbox 360 uses a graphics chip similar to AMD’s Fudo architecture – which is five years older. Given the separation in architectures it would not be surprising if the raw power of the Wii U is three or four times that of an Xbox 360.

We don’t need to rely on speculation, however. Nintendo has constantly demonstrated games running at 1080p, something current consoles aren’t capable of (they render games at a lower resolution and up-scale to 1080p).

It’s likely that the new consoles from Microsoft and Sony will be quicker, but that’s okay. What’s important is that Nintendo will finally have hardware that can do justice to the beautiful art found in its first-party titles.

An Excellent Launch Lineup

The Wii U hits store shelves on November 18^th with an impressive selection of games — 23 will be available on launch day, and 51 titles in total are planned for the “launch window” that runs through March.  Several of these are brand-new games that are launching exclusively for the Wii U. I’m personally looking forward to New Super Mario Bros. U, ZombiU and even Epic Mickey 2 (which will be released on all systems, but offer Wii U-specific features on the GamePad). These titles alone put the launch line-ups of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to shame. I’m also looking forward to Rayman Legends, though it now looks like it may not make the November 18 release.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Nintendo is also launching with a generous selection of third-party titles including Assassin’s Creed III, Darksiders II, Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Mass Effect 3. Most of the have been released, or will be released for other platforms, but their inclusion on the Wii U helps to beef up the console’s appeal. And that goes double for me.

I haven’t played several new console games because my Xbox 360 went kaput (for the third time) and was no longer covered under warranty. I couldn’t find any reason why I should waste money replacing it when the Wii U was already announced and capable of playing the same games. My excitement might be less if Microsoft made reliable hardware.

Nintendo Can Take Over My Living Room

Nintendo TVii came out of nowhere. There was little to hint at its existence and then – boom! Nintendo drops the bomb just a few months before release.

TVii put the Wii U over the top for me. Since my Xbox 360 died, I’ve been using a Roku for my streaming needs. It works fine and I’d recommend it to anyone, but it’s terribly simple. Scrolling through Netflix titles can take some time, and there’s not much customization available. It works. And that’s all it does.

The new controller must have given the guys at Logitech a heart-attack. It’s taken them years to squeeze small touchscreens into their line of Harmony remotes. Then here comes Nintendo, tromping in with 6.2 touchscreen display that connects directly with streaming services (via the Wii U, of course), and can even be used to purchase new content.

Television via console is now Nintendo’s game to lose. As long as the processor isn’t too slow, as long as the touchscreen isn’t unresponsive, as long as the software works right – it’ll be great. And inexpensive, too, because there’s no need for an additional subscription to access content you’ve already paid for. That’s a lesson Microsoft should learn.

Backwards Compatibility

Buying a new console is often bitter-sweet. Yay, it’s a new console… but now I have to buy all new peripherals and games. Ah, hell.

The Wii U doesn’t ask so much from buyers. Most Wii accessories are compatible with it, as are most Wii games. Even software and save data downloaded to the Wii will be transferable to the Wii U. In a sense, the new console is more of an upgrade than an entirely new product. It adds new capabilities but also retains the functionality found in the old system.

Nintendo is not abandoning its family-friendly position. And that position is partially based on price. Asking a family to replace an old console with a new one – and three new controllers, plus any peripherals – is always a tall order. I’m happy I’m not going to have to re-purchase controllers when the next Mario Kart game comes out.

Yes, The Price Is Right

Nintendo’s premium Wii U, which is the one you want, retails for $349. There have been the usual complaints, but they’re only valid if you think coin is traded as freely in real life as it was in the last Mario game.

This entirely new console, which is more powerful than any other on the market today and comes with a 6.2” touchscreen controller, costs less at launch than either the Xbox 360 or PS3 did (by a huge margin in the case of the PS3). Even now it’s only $100 more (in premium guise) than the current mid-range Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 bundle. This seems like a damn good deal. I seriously doubt that Nintendo is making any per-unit profit at this price.

And let’s not forget that the Wii U is compatible with old controllers, which means current Wii owners don’t have to pay anything extra for additional peripherals. The new Pro controller, which is tailored towards third-party games, is the only exception — but hopefully it will be sold at a price similar to the current Classic controller, which is $20.

Conclusion

Will the new console reverse Nintendo’s fortunes? That’s impossible to know. Its competitors have yet to reveal themselves, and long-term success depends on far more than a console’s capabilities at launch.

Then again, speculation about profit margins won’t make the Wii U more or less enjoyable. It is a game console. It should play games well, and it should have good games to play. The Wii U promises better gaming than any other console, and Nintendo has thrown in a tasty bonus with TVii. That’s more than enough to get me in line. What about U?

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

HTC Desire V walks in our office, the hands-on video is inside

When thinking dual-SIM Android smartphones, HTC doesn’t usually come to mind. That’s about to change, however, with the Desire V, the company’s first international dual-SIM Android-running handset.

Running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense UI 4.0 on top, the Desire V packs a 4-inch WVGA screen wrapped up in a neat looking plastic body.

The device is powered by a single-core 1GHz Snapdragon processor, Adreno 200 GPU and 512MB of RAM, which puts it right in the entry level smartphone segment. However, don’t let that put you off, as the Desire V is quite responsive and provides a decent smartphone experience. Moreover, Sense UI 4.0 is great for people who are new to the Android ecosystem and want to get to work without too much hustle.

The Desire V’s key selling feature is dual active SIM support. This means you can receive text messages and make calls from both SIM cards without problems. The only limitation is that you can’t use the two SIMs at the same time, so if you are having a call in progress on one of the SIM cards, the other won’t be opeartional.

Measuring 118.5 x 62.3 x 9.3 mm, the dual-SIM smartphone fits perfectly in hand. Removing the back cover unveils a 1650mAh battery, which we will thoroughly test out in the following days. At the top of the device, there’s a power button and the 3.5mm headphone jack. The microUSB port is on the left side, while the volume rocker is on the right.

We also did a quick unboxing and user interface walk-through of the HTC Desire V. Check it out below.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

What happens when you give people an iPhone 4S and tell them it’s an iPhone 5?

After a day of iPhone 5 announcements, it might be difficult to remember that the product doesn't actually ship until September 21.

Seconds ago, my colleague Dana walked into our office and said he tried to talk to the people sharing his elevator up to our floor about the new iPhone 5. To his surprise, neither one of the two people knew what he was talking about, and hadn’t even realized Apple announced a new product.

In our tech-obsessed professions, it can be hard to remember that not everyone (especially not in our industry) keep up with the ever-changing world of consumer technology. Of course, Jimmy Kimmel had a different take on the matter. The late-night talk show host decided to take it to the streets of Hollywood and showed random people the iPhone 4S and told them they were previewing the iPhone 5. This resulted in a ton of people truly believing the phone was new and different, even though some of the previewers owned an iPhone 4/4S themselves.

 

Some of the comments include a change in weight, thinness, and processing speed. One guy was even holding his own iPhone 4 in the other hand and still commented that the weight was different, while another says he owns an iPhone 4S and likes the “new one” better.

We’re not sure what Jimmy Kimmel actually thinks of the iPhone 5, but maybe this is his way of saying what we’ve all mentioned yesterday… been there, done that, nothing remarkably new. But of course, we’ll be the judge of that when we actually get the authentic iPhone 5 in our hands to see if what this lightweight, skinny body, A6 processor really means. If you see anyone in the street telling you to preview an iPhone 5, just remember: the official Apple product ships September 21. Anything before that is a jerk trying to hoax you!

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

What I want to see from Apple on September 12: Absolutely nothing

Apple doesn't need to debut the iPhone 5 on September 12 -- it needs to debut nothing at all.

Less than a week from today, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook will take the stage at the obnoxiously named Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco to drop yet another bomb on the U.S. mobile phone industry: The so-called iPhone 5. 

If the rumors are to be believed — and this year, they are — the only major difference between the iPhone 5 and the two previous models is a slightly bigger 4-inch screen. That’s it — a change of just 0.5 inches. Yes, there will be some hardware upgrades, battery-life improvements, and other nuts-and-bolts tweaks. But as far as a “wow” factor goes, it looks like we’re going to have to settle for a screen size that Android devices have had for years. And you know what? People are going to buy the crap out of it. 

As bored as I am by the new iPhone’s purported growth spurt, I’m not particularly interested in any of the other realistic features Apple might add to some “dream phone” either. NFC? Yawn. Quad-core processor? Psh. Wireless charging? Whatevs. All these features would be great, I suppose — but they have been done before, and will be done again and again and again by the time the iPhone 6 makes its way into the world around this time next year.

No — what I really want to see from Apple is something so mind-blowing, so thunderously outrageous, that it would send shockwaves around the globe and immediately earn a place in the history books.

I want to see Apple announce absolutely nothing. 

You heard me — nothing. I want to watch Tim Cook stand before the entire world and say, “Good morning, folks. You’re probably all expecting us to announce an extraordinary new iPhone packed full of life-changing innovations that will add excitement and energy to lives of millions of people around the globe. But we’re not going to do that — because we don’t have to. Our iPhone business alone is — get this — bigger than all of Microsoft. We have $117 billion in cash just sitting around. That’s enough to put an end to world hunger four times. We could find a cure for cancer with that kind of loot. But that’s just not our style. Instead, we’re going to sit back for a year and laugh at the peons as they try their very best to out-design and out-sell us. So that’s it: The iNothing, or whatever you idiots want to call it. Thanks for coming. Exits are to your rear. There’s punch and pie in the lobby.” 

That’s what I want to see from Apple on September 12 — the will to simply not give a damn. 

I say this not because I dislike Apple and wish for it to commit suicide — an entirely possible outcome of such a move. To the contrary — I am an Apple fan, through and through. I am writing this on a brand new MacBook Air, which is connected to a massive Thunderbolt Display, which sits next to my iPhone 4S. If Apple made pants, I’d probably wear them. 

Rather, I say this out of tough love. As I see it, Apple sits on the brink of losing its greatness. Not because Steve Jobs is gone and Tim Cook is screwing things up (though he very well may be), but because people are simply worn thin by this Apple-dominated world we live in. We’re tired of Apple winning year after year, whether it deserves to or not. We’re tired of its lawsuits and its “most-valuable” status. We’re tired of minor refinements sold as innovation. And we’re tired of Siri not knowing how to properly look up directions to the nearest liquor store.

What I’m saying is, Apple needs some time off because we need some time off from Apple. 

Giving up a year of its product life would give us time to miss Apple, to wonder what it’s up to, like a summer vacation fling. And it would make whatever devices the company releases after its hiatus that much more anticipated and appealing. 

Alas, Apple will keep releasing iPhones, and people will keep buying them. It will keep suing companies to maintain its competitive edge. And its stock price will just keep going up and up and up. It shouldn’t — but it will.

One of these days, however — maybe as soon as next week — Apple is going to release a flop just as a rival comes out with something that genuinely deserves our adoration and hard-earned dollars. Crowds at the famous Apple Stores will begin to thin out. Geniuses will stand around twiddling their thumbs. The torrent of rumors will slow to a trickle. The stock price will fall. And there will be poor Tim Cook, slouched on his white Peruvian alpaca leather couch, sipping a glass of neat brandy, slowly caressing the head of his precious Ashera cat. And he’s going to think, “Shucks, if only I’d listened to that bald bastard Andrew Couts, then maybe we’d still be on top.”

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Sony Xperia Tablet S promo video brings Fruit Ninja to life

Sony is known for its creative, unusual and sometimes downright odd commercials and its ad for the new Sony Xperia Tablet S doesn’t disappoint. If the slate’s 9.4″ screen was a theater stage, this is how things would have looked like.

The company also released another promo video, which is less fun but more informative. Check out both clips right here.

And here’s the second video, from Sony’s Developer World.

Make sure to check out our own hands-on impressions from the Sony Xperia Tablet S.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Some Americans believe stormy weather interferes with cloud computing

While many Americans use cloud computing every single day, that doesn't mean they necessarily understand it.

According to a recent survey conducted by Wakefield Research for Citrix, approximately 51 percent of the respondents believe that a few rain clouds in the sky will directly interfere with Internet-connected electronics when attempting to upload or download data through cloud computing. Of the 1,004 people surveyed, the majority thought the term “the cloud” was related to actual clouds in the sky and 29 percent thought it had to do with weather conditions. Only 16 percent recognized the cloud as the common term when referring to a computer network that stores data for Internet-connected devices like laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Approximately 54 percent of the respondents stated that they didn’t use the cloud when using their Internet-connected devices. However, over 90 percent of that group admitted to several common actions that uses cloud storage for user data.

These actions included online banking and shopping, browsing social networks like Facebook, using file-sharing services, playing online games as well as storing photos, videos and music on various Web services. It’s clear that people are able to take advantage of cloud computing without actually being able to define it.

Also interesting, more than one in five respondents have claimed to understand how the cloud works, but were only pretending to understand. In addition, over 50 percent of the respondents believe that when friends, family and co-workers refer to the cloud in conversation, they really don’t understand it at all. One third of the respondents have pretended to understand references to the cloud at work and fourteen percent claimed to understand cloud computing during a job interview. In addition, seventeen percent pretended to understand “the cloud” while on a first date.

However, nearly 60 percent of respondents believe that the “workplace of the future” will exist entirely in the cloud. When asked about advantages to conducting business over cloud computing, over a third want to use it in order to avoid specific people at work and approximately forty percent would like to use it at home to avoid getting dressing in the morning.

When asked why using cloud computing wasn’t a priority for them, respondents named privacy concerns, security concerns and cost as the main deterrents to cloud computing. However, some respondents do believe that businesses can lower costs with cloud services as well as increase consumer engagement.

While some Americans aren’t quite sure how to define the cloud, this hasn’t stopped many Web startups from taking advantage of cloud computing to scale up services for new users. According to a recent article in the New York Times about Amazon Web Services, CEO Daniel Gross, the founder of the Cue mobile application, claimed that Amazon Web Services saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars and provided a great deal of flexibility as more users started using the application. In regards to Amazon Web Services, Gross stated “I have ten engineers, but without A.W.S. I guarantee I’d need sixty. It just gets cheaper, and cheaper, and cheaper. I don’t even know what the ballpark number for a server is. For me, it would be like knowing what the price of a sword is.”

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Send a Facebook Friend a Real Burger or Cocktail With Treater

You know what your friend doesn’t want for their birthday? Or when they are having a bad day? A virtual cookie, cupcake or glass of wine. You know what they really want? A real cookie, cupcake or glass of wine.

That’s the idea behind Treater.com, a new website that is launching today. It allows people to send and receive small gifts instantly via the web to a smartphone. Yes, Treater lets you send the money — we’re still waiting on the technology to print a cupcake! — but it’s specifically the amount for the item you select. For instance, you can send $4.50 for a latte from Starbucks or a $9.50 bacon cheeseburger from Five Guys.

“We wanted to do something more than letting people like or send a message,” Treater’s CEO, Jeff Ross, told ABC News.

The site allows you to log in with your Facebook account, bringing in your Facebook contacts. It then suggests friends to whom you might want to send gifts, based on whether their Facebook timelines show it’s their birthday, they’ve just gotten engaged, etc. It also suggests gifts based on their activity — it might suggest a cupcake or cookie for a birthday or a sandwich or coffee if it believes that’s what your friend might enjoy.

You can also choose to send a gift for no particular reason. You can select from a list of categories, including Caffeine, Drinks, Sweet Treats, and Good Grub. Within those categories are specific retailers, including Starbucks, Pete’s Coffee, Chipolte, Shake Shack, Potbelly and others.  Listed under each retailer are the prices of specific items.

Select the item or items you want to send to your friend, pay for it, and it will then email or text your friend a link to a one-time Visa or MasterCard payment card with the amount. The site has been optimized for mobile so you can show it on your smartphone at the physical store. Treater is currently working on applications for iOS and Android and ways for retailers to scan a bar code within the app.

Ross said some relationships with retailers have been made (though Treater isn’t announcing them today), but even if there isn’t a formal relationship you can still use Treater at any of the locations since it is really just a credit card. Ross said the company had tested the service at all the locations on its site.

But there’s one last twist.  Whatever you have left over from the transaction goes into what Treater calls your Piggy Bank, where you can collect money and put it toward a gift for another friend.

See, much better than a virtual cupcake.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Audi puts Samsung-made 7.7-inch AMOLED display instead of a rear-view mirror in the new R8 e-tron

Supercars aren’t known with their high usability and the new Audi R8 e-tron is a breathing proof of this. The car doesn’t have a back window and to fix the issue Audi has fitted it with a rear-view camera which works in conjunction with a 7.7-inch AMOLED rear-view mirror.

Naturally, the display will be supplied by Samsung Display and we assume it will be the same unit used in the Galaxy Tab 7.7 slate. Audi says it preferred the AMOLED display for its thinness and power efficiency compared to regular LCDs. The car-maker is also working to enable extra information to be displayed on the mirror-replacing screen in the future.

For now, the unusual 7.7-inch AMOLED rear-view mirror with the special camera will only be featured in the new R8 e-tron, but the company says that as the technology advances and becomes cheaper, it will find its place in the rest of the company’s vehicles.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com