Apogee rolls out Duet 2 pro audio interface for Macs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Microsoft details Windows Phone 7 by the numbers: 11,500 apps, 36,000 developers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink |Windows Phone Developer Blog | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/31/microsoft-details-windows-phone-7-by-the-numbers-11-500-apps-3/
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Increasingly, it seems that Microsoft is willing to sit this battle out in the near-term. The next version of Windows will support SoC (Ssystem-on-a-chip) architecture, including ARM-based systems. Considering how ARM chip designs currently dominate much of the mobile space, that suggests Microsoft's "Windows 8" will at least partially target the tablet market -- whenever it finally comes out. In the meantime, a handful of manufacturers (Dell and HP in particular) are manufacturing limited-run Windows 7 tablets for the enterprise. Emphasis on the word "limited."
Throughout the latter half of 2010, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer pledged that consumer tablets running Windows 7 were in the works. "You'll see new slates with Windows on them. You'll see them this Christmas," he told an audience Oct. 5 at the London School of Economics. "Certainly we have done work around the tablet as both a productivity device and a consumption device." He offered similar comments during his keynote speech at July's Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, and to The Seattle Times in September.
Then came January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Ballmer used his keynote to ... not mention tablets at all. Instead, he chose to focus on Kinect, Windows 7 on laptops, and Windows Phone 7. Microsoft's CES booth featured a handful of tablets, tucked away among the PCs and Xboxes, and they all seemed aimed at the Asian market--in marked contrast to companies like Samsung, which seemed uniformly determined to turn their respective CES areas into Tablets 'R Us.
Windows has earned Microsoft untold billions of dollars over the past few decades. A product like that exerts its own special type of gravity on a company. But Redmond's seeming determination to port Windows onto tablets, a form-factor seemingly more suited to lighter operating systems like iOS and Android, seems to me a recipe for disaster: trying to graft that user interface--built for larger screens, physical keyboards, and mice--onto a tablet is the tech-world equivalent of trying to make an elephant ride a unicycle. That's not what it's meant for, and nobody ends up happy.
Maybe the next version of Windows will offer something radically different and tablet-centric. In the meantime, I feel it wouldn't be out of the question for Microsoft to consider porting a modified version of Windows Phone 7 onto the tablet form-factor. And why not? Windows Phone 7 is built for touch-screens, and its emphasis on side-scrolling suggests it could adjust to larger screen real estate. Certainly those developers working on Windows Phone apps would appreciate the chance to sell to more than one device type.
But Microsoft won't do that, because of Windows' continued grip on their corporate culture. And so we wait--or not--for the company to make its big consumer tablet play.
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Logitec's new wireless router is crazy-looking, crazy fast originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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That report comes courtesy of Bloomberg, and I've reached out to Microsoft for some confirmation. If true, the news should come as a surprise to exactly nobody, considering how the player failed to make a dent in the Apple iPod's reigning market share.
Bloomberg's report suggests that Microsoft will continue to bake its Zune software into Windows Phone 7. This is essential, because the Zune-branded storefront is Microsoft's hub for music and media purchases. Microsoft apparently plans to keep manufacturing the existing Zune HD, without releasing new-and-improved versions.
The improvement in smartphones' capabilities (and battery life) has seen a corresponding decline in the need for separate, portable media players. Even Apple has seen sales of its traditional iPod fall over the past several quarters, a phenomenon the company attributes to the rise of the iPhone and iPod Touch. That trend is less to blame for the Zune HD's death, however, than an anemic marketing campaign by Microsoft, coupled by a failure to persuade consumers that their device represented a value-add over the iPod.
The Zune HD attracted some strong reviews in the wake of its September 2009 release. Personally, I thought it a solid piece of hardware with a nifty software interface, and something that probably should have gained more market share than it did. If it's truly dead, then R.I.P.
Photo-sharing site Flickr, which has limitless potential in terms of the sheer number of photos stored on the service (over 5 billion at last count),��has made it easier for users to share their photos today with new Twitter and Facebook "Share This" features. A share interface re-vamp comes along with the new features. While previously you�could only share photostreams, groups, and sets from Flickr by sending an email, manually grabbing the link/code or on Blogger, users now have the option to post individual photos and everything else on Facebook and Twitter as well as on Tumblr via "Share This" drop down menu in the upper left.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/IemkgM_Zg-Q/
Photo-sharing site Flickr, which has limitless potential in terms of the sheer number of photos stored on the service (over 5 billion at last count),��has made it easier for users to share their photos today with new Twitter and Facebook "Share This" features. A share interface re-vamp comes along with the new features. While previously you�could only share photostreams, groups, and sets from Flickr by sending an email, manually grabbing the link/code or on Blogger, users now have the option to post individual photos and everything else on Facebook and Twitter as well as on Tumblr via "Share This" drop down menu in the upper left.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/IemkgM_Zg-Q/
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Skype users with any sense of aesthetic justice are pretty much in unanimous agreement that the user interface for Skype 5 for Mac is a disaster. Between the useless coverflow way of scrolling through Contacts, the using of "recently talked to" instead of "online" as a hierarchy for listing Contacts and the irrational hogging of onscreen real estate in the most recent update, I've now began to shudder every time I see the message "There is a new version of Skype available." I am not alone in thinking that the ability to video chat with multiple people isn't worth the rest of Skype 5 for Mac's UI hassles. Software Engineer Lucas Matis just wrote a nearly 2,000 word missive on how the new Skype is too confusing for the casual user, and not complex enough for someone more advanced (And why can you no longer send links while in video chat mode?).
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/CoTbhTVnfHo/
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Continue reading Roku XD player comes directly to Best Buy shelves with no Netgear intervention
Roku XD player comes directly to Best Buy shelves with no Netgear intervention originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Back in February 2010, Google announced its plans to build out a fiber-optic network for a city in the United States, promising connection speeds around 1Gb/s ? 100 times faster than the broadband most people are used to. The announcement led 1,100 cities to apply, and today Google has just announced the winning city: Kansas City, Kansas. For you lucky Kansas City residents, Google has launched an informational page outlining what their plans are (it also provides some background about Google itself). The site's FAQ says that Google hopes to begin building the network by the end of the year and that service should begin in the first quarter of 2012, with plans to roll out to all communities in Kansas City. 
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/k44GJpcdlOc/
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Microsoft job posting teases Windows Phone Mobile Studio, requires thinking cap to grok originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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In the virtual game of mobile moneymaking, Amazon has just made a brilliant move.
Amazon, as you may have heard, announced a new service called Cloud Drive on Tuesday. The service gives you a free 5GB of online storage for your music, then lets you stream your songs on-demand from the Web or any Android device. You can get additional storage for a dollar per year per gig.
The service couldn't be simpler: You use Amazon's PC-based tool to find all the music on your computer and dump it onto Amazon's servers. You install Amazon's Cloud Player app onto your Android phone and, if you have one, your Android tablet, too. Then, wherever you are -- whatever device you're using -- you can pull up your tunes and play 'em as if they were right there with you.
The concept itself, of course, is nothing new: Smaller companies such as mSpot and Rdio have offered similar services for some time. Even so, make no mistake about it: Amazon's entry into the realm of online music streaming has the potential to seriously shake up the Android landscape.
When you look at the scenario surrounding Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player, one thing becomes increasingly clear: Amazon is working to position itself as the de facto content provider for the Android platform. And Cloud Drive and Cloud Player are crucial new steps in that process.
Actually letting you store your music on its Cloud Drive servers isn't where Amazon stands to make its most significant gains, though. Cloud Drive is merely a mechanism to draw you in. Making Amazon a focal part of your mobile experience is where the company's real value lies.
Just look at Amazon's Cloud Player app for Android: If you use Cloud Drive, you'll inevitably use Cloud Player. You might even use it as your primary music playing application, online and off, since the program works with both cloud-stored music and locally stored songs. And what's prominently placed on every single screen within the Cloud Player app? A link to buy more songs from Amazon's MP3 store. The "Store" link itself is visible at the top of the screen throughout the entire Cloud Player application. When you're listening to a song, a second link appears offering to show you more selections from that same artist.
The Amazon shopping integration is seamless, too: Tapping any of the store-aimed links opens a page right within the same app, without so much as stopping the song you're playing. Since you're using Cloud Player, you're already signed into your Amazon account -- and that means you can make a purchase without ever having to enter a credit card number.
And remember: This is all on Android. Amazon isn't launching Cloud Player on iOS. There is no Windows Phone version. The focus is squarely on Android -- and with good reason.
One of Android's strengths as a platform is the fact that it doesn't force you to use any particular program for managing your music. There is no iTunes; instead, you can pick from any number of third-party options, or you can forgo the graphical interface altogether and just drag and drop files at will. The freedom provided by this approach is empowering, but it also means there's no universal one-stop place to shop for multimedia content and have it beamed directly onto your device. There is no de facto store.
Amazon may have just changed that.
Now, Amazon's Cloud Drive is only part of the picture. First of all, keep in mind that Amazon's Android app -- officially called Amazon MP3 -- comes preinstalled on plenty of Android phones. That means those devices are now fully equipped with the new Cloud Drive and Cloud Player services right out of the gate. All the user has to do is sign in once.
Next, factor in Amazon's app store for Android. Launched last week, the store strives to serve as an alternative to the main Google Android Market, using exclusive offerings, daily freebies, and friction-free Amazon checkout to attract customers. While the reach of Amazon's Android app store is still relatively small, it likely won't take long to evolve. Already, we're seeing the launch of the first U.S. smartphone with Amazon's app store preinstalled: the upcoming HTC Merge by Cellular South. Odds are, that's just the start; it only makes sense that Amazon is working hard and fast to score broader distribution deals for the future.
If all of that isn't enough, ongoing buzz suggests Amazon may eventually come out with its own custom-branded Android tablet. But I suspect that's the smaller story compared to these software-oriented offerings and their potentially enormous reach.
Google itself has reportedly been working on a cloud-based music service for ages -- in fact, the "almost ready" rumor surfaced yet again just this afternoon (no coincidence, I'm sure). But in this game, timing is everything. If you upload 50 gigs of music -- or, heck, even 5 gigs of music -- to a remote server, you're probably not going to bother uploading it to some other server six months later. The longer Google waits, the larger advantage Amazon gains. Unless Google comes up with some major incentive to pull people in, users snatched up by Amazon may end up being users lost.
One last point to consider: What's still missing in the Android ecosystem? A simple one-stop place to shop for video content and have it beamed directly onto your device. And what company has the means to provide such a service, complete with its own ready-to-go payment system? You guessed it: Amazon. If Amazon really wants to rule the realm of Android multimedia shopping, we all know what it'll do next.
Finally, here's the best part of all this for us as consumers: You can bet that Amazon's competitors aren't going to let anyone take the throne as Android's content leader without one hell of a fight. And that means we're bound to see tons of cool new multimedia services, features, and pricing models over the next several months -- from third-party companies, for sure, and probably from Google as well. Competition forces everyone to step up their game and fight for our loyalty, and as users, that's exactly what we want to see.
Things are about to get very interesting.
JR Raphael is a PCWorld contributing editor and the author of the Android Power blog. You can find him on both Facebook and Twitter.
Source: http://feeds.pcworld.com/click.phdo?i=3e26f54a376700952b04584f9b204cb2
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As we wrote a few months ago, people search site MyLife may have a ton of traffic from searches, but doesn't really have the social elements that Facebook and LinkedIn offers. Today, the people search site is launching a number of features to help increase engagement on the site. MyLife is a full-fledged search engine which not only finds people?thanks to aggregated search across social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace?but also helps visitors connect with them all on the same site. MyLife pulls information from public records and also allows users to subscribe to the search site to connect with others, track their searches and more. 
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/_tC-GnLv83Y/
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Skype realizes full well its software is used by many school teachers and students from around the globe, and today announced that it has built a dedicated social network to help them connect, collaborate and exchange knowledge and teaching resources over the Web. This morning, the company launched a free international community site dubbed Skype in the Classroom, an online platform designed to help teachers find each other and relevant projects according to search criteria such as the age groups they teach, location and subjects of interest.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vPpK55kIHmI/
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Continue reading JBL intros OnBeat iPad / iPhone / iPod speaker dock, prices it at $150
JBL intros OnBeat iPad / iPhone / iPod speaker dock, prices it at $150 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Startup incubator TechStars has raised $8 million in new funding for its programs in Boston, Boulder, New York, and Seattle. The new funding comes from more than fifty venture funds and over 25 individual angel investors. This brings the incubator's total funding to nearly $11.5 million. TechStars, which launched in 2007, is a ?startup boot camp? for tech entrepreneurs in which selected startup receive up to $18,000 in seed funding (or $6,000 per founder up to three founders in exchange for 5 percent of the company), three months of mentorship from successful entrepreneurs and investors, and the opportunity to pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists at the end of the program. 
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/AGt6V-TStkw/
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Continue reading Samsung Galaxy S II shows off motion-zoom option in TouchWiz 4.0 (video)
Samsung Galaxy S II shows off motion-zoom option in TouchWiz 4.0 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 06:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Continue reading Visualized: awesome, non-functioning 'robot' made from worthless computer parts
Visualized: awesome, non-functioning 'robot' made from worthless computer parts originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink |Total Geekdom | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/29/visualized-awesome-non-functioning-robot-made-from-worthless/
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