Events

Sonos Now Offering Android Tablet Support and New Spotify Features

Andrew Edney

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Nov 30, 2011

Sonos Now Offering Android Tablet Support and New Spotify Features

Sonos have just updated their System Software to version 3.6, bringing with it Android Tablet support and some new Spotify features.

MORE CONTROL:

Sonos Controller for Android™ now works on Android tablets

Find and play any song, in any room, right from your favorite Android device (running 2.2 and higher) — with one free app.
View your zones, music menu, now playing pane and volume controls all at once. Intelligently scales the screen layout to take advantage of larger screen size.
Set alarms or sleep timer to wake up or fall asleep to your favorite music or station.
Send tweets about what you’re listening to on Sonos.
Access advanced Sonos system settings.
Connects to Sonos over your home WiFi network.
Download it for free from Android Market™.
Available worldwide.

Two more languages: Danish and Norwegian

Now you can control Sonos in 11 languages: Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Swedish.

MORE MUSIC:

Sonos Labs

Be the first to test out music services before they’re officially added to the Sonos Music Menu.
Access Sonos Labs within More Music on your Sonos Controller. Click on any or all of the music services listed to enjoy them on Sonos.
Remember these services are still in Beta so expect the unexpected.
Provide feedback as you listen—the good and the bad—on the Sonos Labs Beta Feedback website* to help us improve the service.

*You must create a new account to submit feedback. After you log in, you will see a list of music services to choose from.

Spotify enhancements on Sonos

Access your Inbox on Sonos and play music from Spotify’s new releases and top tracks.

Other improvements

MOAPI enhancements for ratings, richer metadata, and error handling.
Support for AAC+ music formats.

Updating couldn’t be easier

On the Sonos CONTROL and Sonos Controller for Mac or PC:

Sonos will automatically notify you when an update is available
Select Update Now and click OK

On the Sonos Controller for iPhone and iPad:

The App Store will notify you when an update is available. Simply visit the App Store and install your system update

On the Sonos Controller for Android:

Your Android device will notify you when an update is available. Simply click on the alert in the notification menu.

On the Sonos Controller 100:

Tap the Music button on your Controller 100 and click on System Settings
Select Online Updates and click OK

Here is what Sonos said:

Sonos, the leading manufacturer of wireless music systems, today announced Sonos System Software 3.6, an innovative update that adds more control and more music to the Sonos Wireless HiFi experience. This free software is available to all Sonos customers via a one button update to their system.

“Today’s feature update reaffirms our commitment to persistently innovate so that Sonos users continue to have the ultimate music experience in every room of the home,” said John MacFarlane, founder and CEO, Sonos, Inc. “Effortless control, endless music and constant innovation are what will keep us as the gold standard for listening out loud in the home.”

The free Sonos Controller for Android now supports Android tablets as well as smartphones, letting you control Sonos from your Android device of choice. With Sonos, you can stream all the music on earth wirelessly in every room, and now control it wirelessly on a larger screen with any Android tablet running 2.2 or higher including the HTC Flyer, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Sony Tablet S, and many others. Plus, Sonos Controller for Android includes new enhancements such as alarms, music library management and Twitter support for Android smartphones and tablets alike. Download it from Android Market.

With Sonos 3.6 software, Sonos is also introducing Sonos Labs, a new Beta environment where customers will be able to test out music services before they’re officially launched on Sonos. New music services will be added to Sonos Labs on an ongoing basis.

Sonos 3.6 also includes improved Spotify integration on Sonos, giving Spotify fans on Sonos access to their Spotify Inbox and ability to play music from Spotify’s new releases and top tracks.

Other features of Sonos 3.6 include:

AAC+ codec support

More local language support with Danish and Norwegian

Full details of Sonos 3.6 software can be found here: http://www.sonos.com/support/software_updates/

HP launches X5000 G2 with Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 R2

News
Tech

Andrew Edney

-

Nov 30, 2011

1

HP launches X5000 G2 with Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 R2

HP have launched a new server, the X5000 G2 running Windows Storage Server 2008 R2.

The new HP X5000 G2 Network Storage Systems is ideal for midsize companies with Windows-centric environments to help them control and file unstructured data cost efficiently. The solution, a two-node Network Attached Storage (NAS) cluster with shared storage built on HP BladeSystem technology and integrated into a converged 3U chassis, provides high availability and greater storage density in one platform.

The HP X5000 G2 Network Storage Systems uses Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition operating system and is designed to deliver a better file serving experience. Storage technologies such as file deduplication and iSCSI provide unique storage features for these converged file and block I/O network attached storage appliances. HP and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 management software provide simplified deployment and management.

Comprehensive, Highly Available Network Attached Storage Appliance

•	Two-node, active/active mid-range NAS cluster and shared storage in a single system

•	File and block storage capable – CIFS/SMB, NFS, iSCSI, HTTP, FTP, and WebDAV

•	Advanced storage management features – File deduplication, File Classification Infrastructure, Hosted BranchCache, file screening, storage quotas, and storage reporting

•	All inclusive software license

Simple Deployment and Management

•	All standard hardware and software pre-installed in system

•	Power On to file serving in less than an hour

•	100% compatible with Windows IT infrastructure – Active Directory, Distributed File System (namespace and replication), Microsoft System Center and more

•	Can be remotely managed for lights out data center or remote office locations

Scalable and Affordable

•	Capable of supporting 10,000 plus users on a single system – user number variable based on system configuration

•	Up to 32 TB of capacity inside the system, expands to over 100 TB externally with HP D2000 Disk Enclosures

•	File Deduplication feature can recover up to 40% of disk space

•	File Classification Infrastructure feature provides insight into your data to help you manage it more effectively, reduce costs and mitigate risks based on the data’s business value

•	No need to buy additional hardware for anti-virus screening – any Windows Server 2008 R2 compatible anti-virus software runs right on the system

Built on Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services

•	Enables administrators to provide faster access to files while minimizing the effort required to manage distributed data. Users have fast access to information that can be managed more easily by IT pros

•	Provides organizations with better control over their data using familiar management tools and helps centralize the management of data, which reduces administrative overhead while simultaneously providing insightful information on the file infrastructures

Learn more from the HP website

Apple Update Safari to Version 5.1.1

Apple
News

Andrew Edney

-

Nov 30, 2011

0

Yesterday saw Apple release an update to it’s Safari browser, bringing it up to version 5.1.1.

This update contains various improvements, including fixes that:

Improve stability
Address issues that could cause hangs and excessive memory usage
Address issues that could cause webpages to flash white
Allow PDFs to be displayed within web content

ZOTAC Launch GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores Limited Edition Graphics Card

News
Tech

Andrew Edney

-

Nov 30, 2011

0

ZOTAC Launch GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores Limited Edition Graphics Card

ZOTAC have launched the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 cores Limited Edition geared for the latest stunning Microsoft DirectX 11-enabled titles.

Here is what ZOTAC said:

ZOTAC® International, a leading innovator and a channel manufacturer, today unleashes the GeForce® GTX 560 Ti 448 cores Limited Edition graphics card geared for the latest stunning Microsoft® DirectX® 11-enabled titles.

The ZOTAC® GeForce® GTX 560 Ti 448 cores Limited Edition graphics card delivers the performance and visual details gamers crave for an unmatched immersive gaming experience. Equipped with 448 lightning-fast shaders and 1280MB of GDDR5 memory, the ZOTAC® GeForce® GTX 560 Ti 448 cores Limited Edition graphics card packs a performance punch.

“PC gaming is a strong segment that continues to grow and now is the best time to upgrade for the latest DirectX® 11 releases. With the ZOTAC® GeForce® GTX 560 Ti 448 cores Limited Edition, gamers can easily equip their PC to play the latest titles with ultra-quality settings up to 1080p – beyond what a console can deliver,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC® International.

The ZOTAC® GeForce® GTX 560 Ti 448 cores Limited Edition is NVIDIA® SLI™ ready with dual SLI™ connectors. Up to three ZOTAC® GeForce® GTX 560 Ti 448 cores Limited Editions can operate together for up to 2.8-times the performance of a single card or unlock 3D Vision™ Surround technology for triple-display gaming.

It’s time to play with the ZOTAC® GeForce® GTX 560 Ti 448 cores Limited Edition.

New ZOTAC GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 cores Limited Edition graphics card
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores GPU
Engine clock: 765 MHz
448 unified shaders
Shader clock: 1,530 MHz
1280MB GDDR5 memory
Memory clock: 3800 MHz
320-bit memory interface
Dual DVI, HDMI & DisplayPort outputs
DirectX 11 technology & Shader Model 5.0
OpenGL 4.2 compatible
NVIDIA CUDA technology
Full HD video playback
Blu-ray 3D ready
Loss-less audio bitstream capable
ZOTAC Boost Premium software bundle included

Product Name	ZOTAC® GeForce® GTX 560 Ti 448 cores Limited Edition
GPU	NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560 Ti 448 cores
Engine Clock speed	765 MHz
Unified Shaders	448
Shader Clock	1530 MHz
Memory Clock speed	3800 MHz
Memory	1280MB GDDR5
Memory interface	320-bit
Display Outputs	Dual DVI, HDMI & DisplayPort
HDCP	Yes
Cooling	With fan (dual-slot)
DirectX^® version	DirectX^® 11 with Shader Model 5.0
Other hardware features	Hardware accelerated Blu-ray 3D ready
Software Features	Hardware Video Decode Acceleration Technology, NVIDIA^® CUDA^™ technology, OpenGL^® 4.2
Windows 7 capability	Windows® 7 with DirectCompute support

For further information visit www.zotac.com

Want to Experience Windows Phone 7 from Your iPhone or Android Phone?

Andrew Edney

-

Nov 30, 2011

2

Want to Experience Windows Phone 7 from Your iPhone or Android Phone?

Do you have an iPhone or an Android phone? Would you like to try Windows Phone 7 on your phone? Now you can thanks to a demo from Microsoft.

Click here from your phone to try it!

Andreas Miceli Updates Advanced Admin Console for WHS 2011

Windows Home Server

Jim McCarthy

-

Nov 29, 2011

2

Andreas Miceli Updates Advanced Admin Console for WHS 2011

Andreas Miceli announced an update to the popular WHS 2011 add-in called Advanced Administrative Console. Read on for details.

Andreas Miceli announced today that he is updating Advanced Administrative Console, which will stop working on 1 December 2011. Here is what he had to say:

The previous beta version of the Advanced Admin Console 2011 will stop working on December 1, 2011. Download the latest release now!

Since its release in late July 2011 the Advanced Admin Console 2011 Release Candidate has proven that it’s ready for its final release. No bugs have been reported and I’ve got plenty of emails from users telling me that it’s fulfilling their needs and it’s running smoothly on their servers.

In order to test the update check and upgrade installation mechanisms there will be a final test release (version 0.9.6) dubbed the “Release Candidate Refresh”.

Download

Go to the downloads page to download the Advanced Admin Console 2011 Release Candidate. You can share your opinion and discuss the new release over at the HomeServerLand forums.

License

The Advanced Admin Console 2011 Release Candidate Refresh will work until February 1, 2012. Starting that day it will switch to reduced functionality mode for home users and will cease to function for business users. Both groups of users will need to purchase a license (pricing TBA) in order to be able to make use of the Advanced Admin Console 2011 feature set after that date. Please see my previous post for more licensing details.

So it seems that AAC is entering the home stretch! If you are running this useful add-in, make sure that you download the update.

AAC Update On The Way

Seagate Now Shipping 2nd Generation Momentus XT Solid State Hydrid Hard Drive

Andrew Edney

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Nov 29, 2011

0

Seagate Now Shipping 2nd Generation Momentus XT Solid State Hydrid Hard Drive

Today Seagate announced that it was shipping the 2nd generation of it’s Momentus XT solid state hybrid hard drive.

Here is the press release:

Cupertino, Calif. — November 29, 2011 — Seagate (NASDAQ:STX) is now shipping the second generation of Momentus^® XT, its groundbreaking solid state hybrid drive for consumer and commercial laptops and the company’s fastest drive ever for personal computers. With a simple drive upgrade, users can boost boot-up speed and overall performance to turbo-charge their laptop PC. Seven original equipment manufacturers are gearing up to ship laptops powered by Momentus XT. The drive is now available at online retailers Amazon, Canada Computers, CDW, Memory Express, NCIX, Newegg, and TigerDirect.

Powering the Momentus XT drive are Seagate’s Adaptive Memory™ and FAST Factor™technologies. Adaptive Memory technology works by identifying data usage patterns, and then moving the most frequently retrieved information to solid state memory for faster access. Adaptive Memory effectively tailors hard drive performance to each user and the applications they use. FAST Factor technology blends the strengths of SSDs and hard disk drives for faster access to applications, quicker bootup and higher overall system speed.

“Laptop users want faster access to all of their content, from gaming, music and video to spreadsheets and documents, creating strong demand for the highest performance,” said Scott Horn, vice president of Worldwide Marketing at Seagate. “Seagate is excited to answer this need with a second-generation Momentus^® XT drive that delivers solid state drive (SSD) speed, greater storage capacity and easy installation at an affordable price.”

“High-speed storage devices make a difference when it comes to improving overall PC performance,” said John Rydning, research vice president at IDC. “Seagate’s newest Momentus^® XT drive gives notebook PC users an economical option for boosting PC performance while at the same time providing spacious storage capacity all in one device.”

Momentus XT – Meeting the need for speed

The Momentus XT drive is nearly 70 percent faster than the prior Momentus drive version and up to three times faster than a traditional hard disk drive while providing 750GB of storage capacity. The Momentus XT hard drive’s Serial ATA 6Gb/second interface and 8 gigabytes of Single Level Cell NAND flash double the interface and NAND read-write speed of the previous generation. The all-in-one design of Momentus XT drive makes installation and upgrading simple and easy for any laptop or desktop computer and with any operating system.

The Momentus XT drive is now shipping in volume worldwide. Manufacturer’s Suggesting Retail Pricing (MSRP) for Momentus XT 750GB is $245.

SkyDrive gets simple app-centric sharing for Office, powerful file management, HTML5 upload, other updates

Andrew Edney

-

Nov 29, 2011

0

SkyDrive gets simple app-centric sharing for Office, powerful file management, HTML5 upload, other updates

Today, Microsoft announced the release of an upgrade to SkyDrive.com to address key feedback as a part of an on-going set of investments in SkyDrive.

The release includes simple app-centric sharing, particularly for Office documents; Powerful new file management features; HTML5 uploads and CSS transitions in Internet Explorer 10; Photo improvements including geo-tagging support; Support for more file types like PDF and RAW; and performance improvements across the board.

Significant work has been undertaken to improve the way in which sharing works on SkyDrive.com in a number of areas. Single files can now be shared easily rather than entire folders, and sharing options have been embedded directly into the Office Web Apps such as Word and Excel meaning that users don’t need to leave the document they are working on in order to share documents. Sharing with users of other email services is now as simple as sharing with Hotmail users, and files can be shared easily on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Powerful file management improvements have been implemented making it much easier, quicker and more intuitive to work with files on SkyDrive.com. For example, files can be created and renamed inline, moving and copying files is simple with an inline pop-over dialog, right-click functionality allows action to be taken immediately on documents and photos, and bulk-actions such as deleting, moving, or downloading multiple files has been greatly simplified.

Adding to the existing rich upload support provided by Silverlight, It is now possible to use “drag and drop” to upload files and photos to SkyDrive.com for browsers that support the HTML5 File Api such as Internet Explorer 10, Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

Other improvements include the plotting of geo-tagged photos on a map; Support for touch APIs; Improved navigation in the photo gallery; Rich PDF viewing directly on SkyDrive.com; Ability to upload and view RAW files from a number of camera manufacturers; and performance improvements including 50% faster signing in time and faster viewing and editing of Office documents.

Take a look at the video below:

SkyDrive updates

So do you use SkyDrive? What do you think about it and are you excited about these new features and updates?

Join the Windows Phone UK Developer Reward Programme Today

Andrew Edney

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Nov 29, 2011

0

Join the Windows Phone UK Developer Reward Programme Today

Imagine being rewarded with the latest gadgets (digital cameras, LCD TVs & Kinect) and treated to exhilarating experiences (Ferrari thrill & flying lessons) just by publishing your original and unique Windows Phone app on the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Here is what Microsoft posted:

How? Simple! Every successful and original application published in the Windows Phone marketplace gets you one point to exchange for a range of substantial state-of-the-art goodies. There are some criteria you will need to fulfill first. You can choose something right away or wait as the more apps you publish, the bigger and shinier the stuff you get to choose from. And hold on… that’s not all… every application also gets you an entry in that month’s bonus prize draw. So just one little app could win you an awesome prize and that’s on top of whatever goodies you choose to exchange for.

So, register now (for free) and get in there to see what you need to do and how you can be rewarded today! To find out more about the Windows Phone UK Developer Reward Programme visit www.my-rewards.com/wp and register yourself using the same email and publisher name used in the Windows Phone Marketplace (AppHub).

Here is a sample of the selections of rewards you can redeem with successfully publishing one unique and original Windows Phone app in to the Windows Phone Marketplace!

For successfully publishing one unique and original Windows Phone app, you can redeem one of the following rewards:

Pure One Mini Black Compact Radio, or a 12 month magazine subscription, or a Champagne Afternoon Tea for 2.

For successfully publishing four unique and original Windows Phone apps, you can redeem one of the following rewards:

Pocket Cinema Projectr, Xbox 360 Console (250GB HDD), Performance Car Experience.

There is no better time to build and publish your Winodws Phone App! So get started today and register now.

Additionally if you are a student you can connect with the local Microsoft academic team (on Facebook) and they are offering another incentive for students who publish apps – check out the detail here.

So are you a developer and are you going to publish an app? Let us know…

StableBit Scanner 2.0 for Windows Home Server 2011 Beta Updated to 2.0.0.1261

Andrew Edney

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Nov 29, 2011

0

StableBit Scanner 2.0 for Windows Home Server 2011 Beta Updated to 2.0.0.1261

StableBit Scanner 2.0 for Windows Home Server 2011 is now available in beta and has been updated to version 2.0.0.1261.

An advanced hard disk surface scanner, monitor and more.

Monitors all your hard drives and ensures that every bit holding your precious data is readable.

2.0.0.1261 ———-

* Added per-disk settings. These settings are stored in the Scanner’s store and are associated with a particular disk. They are not stored on the disk itself.

* Give your disks a custom name.

* Disable SMART.

* Disable Direct I/O.

* Added option to “ignore” SMART warnings. Ignore is intelligent, where it will re-issue the warning if any of the problem attributes change. There is also the option to permanently ignore all SMART warnings on a per-disk basis. To access this feature, a new button will become available on the SMART dialog when you have SMART warnings issued for a disk.

Download the latest beta version from here