Early reviews for Microsoft’s Windows 8 are trickling in, and Business Insider notes they are so far “extremely negative.” Will Windows 8 become the next Vista?
“In my time with Windows 8, I’ve felt almost totally at sea — confused, paralyzed, angry, and ultimately resigned to the pain of having to alter the way I do most of my work,” writes Farhad Manjoo for Slate.
“Windows 8 looks to me to be an unmitigated disaster that could decidedly hurt the company and its future… The real problem is that it is both unusable and annoying,” notes John Dvorak for Marketwatch.
“I still think it’s needlessly confusing and hard to use… I’ve spoken to other people who have been testing Windows 8 for months,” adds analyst Matt Rosoff. “A lot of them found it puzzling like I did, and it’s getting worse, not better, with each beta update.”
If consumers agree with these evaluations, they may just put off upgrading their systems or switch to a Mac or iPad. The article notes that this could be disastrous for Microsoft and possibly mark the beginning of the end for Windows dominance.
“It’s dangerous to predict the decline of Windows. People have been doing it for years and it’s amounted to nothing. Microsoft is a powerful, resilient company,” comments Business Insider. “However, if ever there was a time when it was ready to fall, that time is now. Apple is at the top of its game. And, if the critics are even half-right, Microsoft is at the bottom of its game.”
Netflix upgraded its iOS app last week by improving upon some existing functionality and adding new features.
The streaming video service has updated the iPhone and iPad software by enlarging the scrub bar to make it easier to navigate through videos, enlarging the volume controls, and adding icons for switching between language choices.
Additionally, a “do not share” option is now available in the player for Facebook users who want to keep their video choices private.
CNET highlights the scrub bar update: “The bar itself is bigger and better, letting you more easily navigate to any section of your video. Thumbnails now appear above your finger on the scrub bar so you can travel to a specific scene of your favorite TV show or movie. You can also rewind 10 seconds at a time.”
According to the Netflix blog, the same features will soon be available for Android users.
Sony has announced its new home cinema projector that offers super high-definition at 4096 x 2160 image resolution.
“The VPL-WV1000ES is the first 4K resolution projector designed for home theaters,” reports Electronista. “The new projector displays not only the ultra-high definition 4K format, but also upscales SD and HD content to 4K resolution.”
The $26,000 projector touts brightness of 2,000 ANSI-lumens and 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio with a 330W bulb promising 2,000-2,500 hours of life.
It features a 2.1x motorized zoom and can display images from 60 to 300 diagonal inches.
“The projector also supports 3D content, although it relies upon active-shutter 3D glasses, requiring USB-chargeable 3D glasses,” notes the article. “It comes with two HDMI ports, component input, a mini D-sub port, and an Ethernet port.”
Developers are building on top of Pinterest in an effort to feed consumer and brand needs and monetize the site’s growing popularity.
The interest has sparked competitors such as Fancy (iOS app with “buy now” functionality that recently reached one million users) and third party applications including ShopMyPins (simple bookmarklet that enables users to shop online when they see something they like on Pinterest).
Related services include PinShoppr, Pinerly and Curalate (the latter two offer analytics for brands).
“The whole conversation revolving around Pinterest and Pinterest-types and their ability to turn this new, visual, viral thing people have taken to at an astounding rate into a viable e-commerce model doesn’t end at proprietary applications though,” notes Digital Trends. “Third party developers are well aware that there’s an opportunity for them to be a part of this Web evolution as well.”
Should Pinterest be creating its own new features? “I think Pinterest is kind of going through a similar thing that Twitter went through when they were growing explosively and I really think they are focusing on the right thing,” responds Apu Gupta, Curalate CEO and co-founder. “You have to make sure the wheels stay on the bus before you do other things.”
Reports indicate that users can expect to see Facebook integrated into the upcoming iOS 6 — an announcement likely to be officially made by Apple during the upcoming WWDC, slated for June 11-15 in San Francisco.
It was only a matter of time, according to The Verge, which notes that “both iOS 4 and Apple’s much-maligned Ping music/social network service both were hinted to have Facebook integration in early versions, only to have the final product released without it.”
“Twitter will still very much be a part of the new iOS (presumably named ‘iOS 6’ and codenamed ‘Sundance’), and that company will be holding sessions at WWDC to chat more about the continued partnership (including the integration into the forthcoming OS X Mountain Lion),” reports TechCrunch.
“Facebook integration will be very important for iOS — tons of apps use Facebook for sign-ups and authentication (many use Facebook as the only way to do this, to the dismay of some),” adds TechCrunch. “Apple was undoubtedly watching this activity and realized that it was time to formally bring Facebook on board.”
Mobile devices using iOS can wirelessly share photos with Web-connected devices through the new Photobeamer app from Scalado.
The 99-cent app can transmit to game consoles, smart TVs, PCs and tablets (as long as the browser is pointed to the Photobeamer home page).
“Having given it a quick test, we’d say it’s definitely up to regular domestic challenges where you just want to display a few photos rather than perhaps videos or presentation slides, and where there’s no need to print or store shared images,” notes Engadget.
“You can swipe left and right between different pictures in your gallery, and also choose whether you want those images to be fitted to the recipient display or resized to fill it,” adds the post.
Some 1,700 software developers are turning to NeuroSky’s MindWave Mobile headset as a controlling interface for video games and other applications.
The $129 headset claims to be sensitive to brain waves and can wirelessly beam digital information derived from the brain to computers and other devices.
“So far the headsets are confined to mostly digital interfaces — videogames and movies whose plots can be altered with the mind — although in some cases real-world objects have been used, like a pair of catlike ears that move depending on a person’s mood,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
“All of the companies vying to emerge in the brain-wave market are using electroencephalograph, or EEG, technology, which measures the brain’s electrical impulses in the forehead and has long been used to diagnose epilepsy and other brain disorders,” notes the article. “The headsets contain a sensor that detects various mental states, and a chip converts the signals from analog format to digital so they can travel wirelessly to a computer.”
“There is going to be a whole ecosystem of new players, and NeuroSky is very well-positioned to be like the Intel of this new industry,” suggests Alvaro Fernandez, chief executive of consultancy SharpBrains.
The company faces competition from San Francisco-based Emotiv Systems and its $300 multi-sensor headset.
Cineastes are turning to a relatively new business model for their collections: DVDs and Blu-ray discs via MOD (“manufactured-on-demand”).
“MOD discs can be purchased only online — from Amazon and more specialized websites — and they are not available for rent through services like Netflix,” notes the Wall Street Journal.
“The leader in MOD in every respect is Warner Brothers, which has led the charge since this technology’s commercial debut three years ago,” explains the article. “Warner not only oversees the biggest catalog — more than 1,000 titles to date sold under the Warner Archive label — but also runs a robust retail operation via its website (www.wbshop.com).”
MOD titles are also currently available from Sony, MGM and Universal.
The article cites an array of hard-to-find and lesser known films: “Viewers may find other titles that interest them more, but that’s the sport of it. MOD allows us to discover new adventures in cinema two ways — by building on what we already cherish and by taking chances with the utterly unfamiliar. And now a vast trove of both lies before us.”
Samsung launched new computers this week based on Google’s Chrome operating system, including a lightweight laptop and versatile new desktop machine.
Additionally, Google has announced “enhancements to Chrome OS and Google Apps, including tight integration with Google Drive and the ability to edit Google Docs documents offline,” reports PCWorld.
The $449-549 Chromebook Series 5 550 laptop has an Intel Celeron 867 dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM and 12.1-inch display (1280×800). The Samsung Chromebox Series 3 desktop features an Intel Celeron B840 dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM and built-in Wi-Fi.
“Coming later will be a tight integration with the Google Drive cloud storage service, as well as the ability to edit Google Docs documents when the machine is offline,” notes the article. “When available, this Google Docs offline editing feature will be available to all Google Docs users, not just people who buy these new Samsung machines.”
The computers feature an apps-centric user interface with simplified app launcher, a more sophisticated media player, native photo editor and enhanced video streaming options for services such as Netflix and YouTube.
The new version of Google’s Chrome operating system features improved support for online video and word processing services, intended to drive sales of Chromebook computers.
The new release comes a few months ahead of Microsoft’s Windows 8 touch-based OS.
“The system is impressive, and designed to work seamlessly with Google products like Android phones and the (still-underwhelming) Google Plus social network,” reports The New York Times. “It is also clearly pointed at Microsoft, just as Microsoft is preparing to introduce Windows 8, one of the biggest changes to its operating system ever.”
“People participate in ecosystems,” says Sundar Pichai, head of the Chrome project at Google. “If you are a Chrome browser user, an Android user and a Gmail user, a Chromebook is a more natural experience than a Windows 8.”
Chromebooks require an Internet connection for access to most applications. “By default you will be able to get the last 100 documents you were working on,” adds Pichai. “When you go back online, it will resynch with your files and update everything.”
Samsung is introducing Chrome-based laptops and desktop computers this week.
Executives from major broadband and media companies such as Disney, Netflix and AT&T were given seats this week on the FCC’s new Open Internet Advisory Committee.
The newly-formed advisory panel is tasked with helping the FCC administer its Net neutrality plan.
The controversial order (adopted in 2010 and facing a court challenge by Verizon), requires service providers to offer equal access speeds to rival services and prohibit them from favoring their own content.
“While the committee does not include some of the most vocal opponents of Net neutrality, some of the companies represented are publicly ambivalent about the FCC’s order, including AT&T,” notes Hillicon Valley.
Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain will chair the committee and MIT research specialist David Clark will serve as co-chair.
Additional companies and organizations with a panel presence include Comcast, Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, the Writers Guild of America and the National Urban League.
According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Facebook will acquire Face.com for $100 million.
TechCrunch suggests this is a logical acquisition for Facebook: “Photos are core to Facebook’s lock-in strategy and facial recognition allows tags to better reflect the social graph, which then feeds into making its advertising platform more efficient.”
“Face.com’s popular Facebook application Photo Tagger allows people to scan their (or their friends’) photo albums for known faces,” details the post. “It also has the iOS facial recognition app KLIK and a public API that could benefit Facebook.”
In a related article, Digital Trends agrees that the deal makes sense: “…add to the equation that Facebook is trying to do a better job with mobile (as partially evidenced by its Camera App), and the added incentive a mobile-only feature like this gives it seems perfectly logical.”
“One of the most convincing elements of the Camera App is that you can tag friends from it, and the ability to simply take, filter, and upload a picture without having to manually find the corresponding name would make it a fundamentally better user experience,” notes Digital Trends. “It’s also a fun novelty to hold up your phone and have an app simultaneously identify your friends.”
Apple has released scheduling details for its Worldwide Developers Conference to take place June 11-15 in San Francisco. It’s likely that Apple CEO Tim Cook will be leading the event’s festivities.
“The big question mark, however, revolves around the possibility of Cook unveiling the new iPhone. Over the last several months, the rumor mill hasn’t come to a consensus on whether the iPhone will be announced at WWDC or sometime later this year,” reports CNET.
“We have some incredible things coming out,” Cook hinted at last night’s D10 Conference, providing few details but noting that Apple TV remains “an area of intense interest for us.”
He added that Apple would be more forthcoming regarding its position on labor rights in China and promised to manufacture more components in the U.S. Cook also addressed Apple’s relationship with Facebook. “I think we can do more with them,” he said.
AllThingsD reports that during D10, Cook hinted at new plans for Siri: “…there’s more that it can do, and we have a lot of people working on this. And I think you will be really pleased with some of the things you’re going to see over the coming months. We have some cool ideas about what Siri can do… Sure, it can be broader, and so forth, but we see unbelievable potential here. We’re doubling down on it.”
Apple has launched a WWDC 2012 app intended to help attendees keep track of events and updates.
According to a new Viacom study, live viewing is driving social TV as a growing number of consumers are leveraging new forms of interaction.
“The study found that viewers engage in an average of seven different types of social TV activities — online or offline — on at least a weekly basis,” notes Broadcasting & Cable. “The most common activities were watching TV with others, searching for extra content and viewing clips from shows on social networks.”
“Overall, when it comes to chatting, 56 percent of those involved in the study preferred communicating through a social TV app, 53 percent through Facebook, and 50 percent use individual or group texts,” explains the article.
Viewers want more content than what is available with an online search. The study suggests that full episodes and behind-the-scenes extras top the list.
The study also notes that fans are looking for rewards such as merchandise and prizes from games and trivia. Fans look for comments from people they know and especially from cast and crew members.
“Viacom also found that live viewing is a key to social TV activity,” adds B&C. “Communication, content and comments were twice more likely to be used during live viewing than delayed viewing. Social TV enthusiasts feel left out of the conversation if they missed an episode of a favorite show live, Viacom found.”
Isreal-based TV services provider NDS, which Cisco purchased for $5 billion in March, recently came to San Francisco to share its vision of television five years in the future, reports GigaOM.
According to a related Wired article: “NDS, a company that develops DRM security and DVR technology for pay-TV providers like Cox and DirecTV, has developed a proof-of-concept called Surfaces that shows how television could become the center of a much more compelling, immersive living room experience.”
“The prototype jettisons the single, static screen that’s been a hardware mainstay since the golden age of television. In its place is a slick, highly customized room-sized desktop that hosts not only a traditional widescreen TV image, but also windows for a plethora of digital accoutrements,” explains Wired. “It could be exactly what the TV industry needs to stay relevant.”
Rather than one large screen, NDS envisions a modular approach using smaller 6- to 8-inch squares that can be configured into a matrix to fit any size you desire. These squares would be designed to work together and could support multiple inputs simultaneously.
Besides video content, for example, the display might also be used to display art, calendars, clocks, a Twitter feed, home automation, and more. Using e-ink would allow you to use the display for long periods without consuming large amounts of power.
“NDS showed how Surfaces could be used to get the most from 4K video displays — displays with horizontal resolutions in excess of 4,000 pixels,” notes Wired. “Currently, 4K seems a bit ludicrous, even on a 90-inch display. But when you’re displaying full-screen video on an entire wall, those extra pixels definitely prove useful.”
Early reviews for Microsoft’s Windows 8 are trickling in, and Business Insider notes they are so far “extremely negative.” Will Windows 8 become the next Vista?
