Events

Google TV Software Update Coming

Gadgets
Tech

Jim McCarthy

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Oct 28, 2011

Google announced an impending software update today. Read on for details.

Google TV’s blog announced some software updates today, first for the Sony equipment and shortly afterwards for the Logitech ones. Here is what they had to say:

An Update on Google TV

In the 1970s, there were just a few networks on TV. Cable changed things by adding hundreds of new channels like HBO, ESPN, and MTV. The Internet marks a new chapter for television. This chapter is not about replacing broadcast or cable TV; it’s not about replicating what’s on TV to the Web. It’s about bringing millions of new channels to your TV from the next generation of creators, application developers, and networks. With over three billion views a day, sites like YouTube are proving the demand for Web entertainment is already big, and this entertainment is coming to the living room. The Google TV platform contributes to this evolution by enabling new content creators to add to the programming you already enjoy on your TV. Given so much choice, we’re committed to delivering the best way to discover and engage with the high-quality entertainment on your television, whether that comes from your cable or satellite provider (DISH, Comcast, DIRECTV, etc.) or from the Web (YouTube, Netflix, and thousands more). The initial version of Google TV wasn’t perfect, but launching it gave us the opportunity to learn. These are still early days, and we’re working hard to move forward with each update.

Today, we’re announcing a software update for Google TV. In this release, we focused on four areas of user feedback:

1. Keep it simple
The interface is now much simpler. The new customizable home screen gets you to your favorite content quickly. And within “all apps” you can see all of your shortcuts, similar to your Android phone or tablet.

2. Make it easy to find something worth watching
We’ve improved search across the board for content from Live TV, Netflix, YouTube, HBO GO, and more. But what if you don’t know what to search for? There’s now an app called “TV & Movies” that let’s you easily browse through 80,000 movies and TV episodes across cable or satellite, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, and many other sites. If you’ve opted in to recommendations, we can better predict what you want to watch next.

3. Make YouTube better on TV
We’re launching a new YouTube experience specifically built for Google TV. It is now fast and easy to get to your favorite HD-quality YouTube entertainment. And we’ve integrated YouTube more closely with Google TV search, so that you can turn virtually any topic – mountain biking, cooking, etc. – into a channel.

4. Bring more apps to TV
We are opening up the TV to the creativity of content creators large and small through Android Market. Android developers can now bring existing mobile apps or entirely new ones to TV. Initially, the number of apps won’t be large – apps requiring a touch screen, GPS, or telephony won’t show up – but 50 developers have seeded the Market with cool and useful apps for the TV. We’re excited to see the number of apps grow.

This software update will be coming to Sony devices starting early next week and Logitech devices soon thereafter. We look forward in the coming months to announcing new software updates as well as new devices on new chipsets from multiple hardware partners.

Google TV has been slow to start, but if you already have a device, an update is on the way shortly. I’ll be interested to see what other devices arrive on the market in the near future.

GoogleTV Blog Post

Nokia Announces Two Windows Phone Devices at Nokia World

Microsoft

Jim McCarthy

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Oct 28, 2011

1

Nokia Announces Two Windows Phone Devices at Nokia World

Nokia held an event in London the other day where they announced two new Windows Phone 7.5 handsets. Read on for details.

Nokia announced two new Mango handsets: the Nokia Lumia 800 and Lumia 710. First up, let’s see how Microsoft described the Lumia 800:

At a glance

With the Nokia Lumia 800 every detail floats to life on the surface of the curved 3.7” ClearBlack display, bringing striking clarity, indoors and out. And with a seamless, deep-dyed body, and cutting-edge 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, you’ve got a revolutionary smartphone in the palm of your hand. Specific colors vary by country. Check with your local retailer for more information.

Highlights

Seamless design with curved glass and one-piece body

ClearBlack floating 3.7” AMOLED display

Carl Zeiss 8MP wide angle lens

Coming first to UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and Netherlands.

Phone specs

Display

800×480 (ClearBlack floating 3.7” AMOLED display)

Processor

1.4 GHz Single Core / Qualcomm

Camera

Yes (8MP, Carl Zeiss lens with LED flash, autofocus, and HD video)

Battery Life

8 hours/16 days

This is a beautiful looking phone. Technical specifications include WCDMA and quad-band GSM, perfect for European customers. I was a little disappointed that there is no front facing camera, and if this handset is to come to the US, it will have to be on AT&T or T-Mobile as it is GSM. Here is a picture that shows the handset:

The phone can be preordered now. Vodaphone is charging £199 on pre-orders.

Nokia also announced a lower-end phone with a plastic back called the Lumia 710. Here is how Microsoft described the Lumia 710:

At a glance

The Nokia Lumia 710 with Windows Phone. A different day, a different look. Xpress covers can be swapped out for an extra splash of color—and even matched up with your Start screen. Not to mention the super-fast Internet Explorer Mobile web browser, which lets you follow the next big story in real time, with easy online sharing to bring friends into the conversation. Specific colors vary by country. Check with your local retailer for more information.

Highlights

Add apps, swap colors, swap covers

Get your social network updates in one place

ClearBlack display lets you see clearly indoors or outdoors

Coming first to UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and Netherlands.

Phone specs

Display

800×480 (ClearBlack 3.7” WVGA)

Processor

1.4 GHz Snapdragon Single Core

Camera

Yes (5MP with LED flash and autofocus)

Battery Life

8 hours/18 days

This is also a quad-band GSM and WCDMA phone, and also lacks a front-facing camera. Here is a picture:

There are currently no pre-order options for the 710.

Microsoft and Nokia are off to a good start with these phones. Neither phone is 4G, and these are single core processors onboard, so they lag behind the latest Android handsets, but I have high hopes for Windows Phone 7 handsets as they continue to roll out new phones.

Xbox Companion Application Demoed At Nokia World

Jim McCarthy

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Oct 28, 2011

1

At Nokia World 2011, Ben Rudolph from Microsoft demoed the Xbox Companion Application for Windows Phone 7. Read on for details.

Ben Rudolph AKA The PC Guy (@BenThePCGuy on Twitter) demonstrated the WP7 Xbox Companion application on the floor of Nokia World 2011 the other day. First off, let’s see how Ben described the application earlier this month:

The app, which will be completely free for Windows Phone users, is an amazing little tool that will let you Find, Learn more about and Control content from Xbox LIVE Marketplace on your Xbox 360.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a beta copy of the app to try out with my Xbox and I have to say that it’s really impressive. Here’s an actual scenario I ran through with the app and my Xbox the other day:

Finding Content: Just like on your Xbox, the Xbox Companion gives you instant access to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace catalog of games, movies, music and TV shows. I used it to search “Featured Content” and pulled up the X-Men: First Class.

Learn more about what you’re watching, listening to, or playing: Once I found the movie and touched the movie tile, the Xbox companion app took me to an info page that has all the related details about. And the content is really rich, too – for example, when I swiped to the “cast” page and touched an actor’s name, like star James McAvoy, I was taken to other movies starring him. From there, I could easily learn more about the other movies, their cast, etc. It’s an infinite road of interactive content.

Control & Play: Once I selected the content and hit play, the Xbox Companion flips into “controller mode” in which I could navigate my Xbox, or control video playback of your video. The best part here is that controls are virtually instantaneous – easily as fast as using my controller or a TV remote.

Now for Ben demoing the application at Nokia World, click on this link:

Xbox and Windows Phone Companion App

Very cool video. This application is expected to be out soon, so if you have a Windows Phone 7 and an Xbox, download it and check it out! And thanks for the demo, Ben!

Ben’s Video Demo

HP To Keep PC Business

News

Jim McCarthy

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Oct 28, 2011

0

HP announced today the completion of their study on spinning out the Personal Systems Group (PSG) and they are retaining that business. Read on for details.

HP announced the retention of PSG today:

HP to Keep PC Division

Continued combination of HP and its Personal Systems Group expected to deliver greater customer and shareholder value

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct 27, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — HP (NYSE:HPQ) today announced that it has completed its evaluation of strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group (PSG) and has decided the unit will remain part of the company.

“HP objectively evaluated the strategic, financial and operational impact of spinning off PSG. It’s clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. “HP is committed to PSG, and together we are stronger.”

The strategic review involved subject matter experts from across the businesses and functions. The data-driven evaluation revealed the depth of the integration that has occurred across key operations such as supply chain, IT and procurement. It also detailed the significant extent to which PSG contributes to HP’s solutions portfolio and overall brand value. Finally, it also showed that the cost to recreate these in a standalone company outweighed any benefits of separation.

The outcome of this exercise reaffirms HP’s model and the value for its customers and shareholders. PSG is a key component of HP’s strategy to deliver higher value, lasting relationships with consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and enterprise customers. The HP board of directors is confident that PSG can drive profitable growth as part of the larger entity and accelerate solutions from other parts of HP’s business.

PSG has a history of innovation and technological leadership as well as an established record of industry-leading profitability. It is the No. 1 manufacturer of personal computers in the world with revenues totaling $40.7 billion for fiscal year 2010.

“As part of HP, PSG will continue to give customers and partners the advantages of product innovation and global scale across the industry’s broadest portfolio of PCs, workstations and more,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. “We intend to make the leading PC business in the world even better.”

More information is available at http://www.hp.com/investor/PSG-Decision.

On the webcast, HP confirmed that spinning off PSG would cost $1.5 billion in one-time separation costs and would result in $1.0 billion of real estate, accounting and other overhead costs that would have to be duplicated if PSG were to be spun off. In addition, since PSG is HP to so many customers world wide, retaining the number one PC business in the world creates value for HP.

As for webOS, HP promised an answer on its fate in the next few months.

So the former CEO’s strategy appears to be pretty much reversed five weeks after Whitman got the job.

HP Press Release

aTV Flash (black) RC 1 Now Available for AppleTV 2

Apple

Andrew Edney

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Oct 27, 2011

0

Today Firecore released RC1 of their aTV Flash (black) software for the AppleTV 2.

Here is what they said:

We are pleased to announce the release aTV Flash (black) Release Candidate 1 (RC1) for the 2nd generation AppleTV. RC1 is a major update for aTV Flash (black) and adds a number of exciting new features include a brand new ‘grid view’ browsing mode, huge subtitle related improvements, and countless other performance and playback related improvements.

Keep reading to learn more about what’s new.

All-New Browsing Options

We’ve added an all-new grid view which allows you to browse through media by simply viewing a grid of posters, instead of a list.

From the grid view you can press the center (select) button to get more details about the movie through the ‘Pre-Playack Screen’ or if you’re in a hurry just press play/pause to start the movie right away.

The list view has also gotten a healthy overhaul as well. Movies and TV Shows are now listed using the prettier ‘fetched’ name instead of the actual filename. Additionally metadata is fetched and cached in bulk, so there’s no more waiting for cover art and metadata to load.

Note: You can switch between the Grid and List views through the Media –> Settings menu.

What’s new in RC1?

Added grid view and pre-playback view options

Added bulk metadata fetching with growl-like status

Added fetched names in list view

Added hardware decoding for .m2ts files

Added support for embedded subtitles (MKV, M4V, etc…)

Added support for ISO (DVD) files

Added TV Show metadata fetching

Added metadata correction for Movies and TV Shows

Added movie title in Top Shelf (instead of filename)

Added DSI ping for better operation with AFP shares

Added folder tagging

Added metadata view indicator

Added support for metadata overriding using xml files

Added DVD menu buffering

Added support for subtitles with invalid timestamps

Added support for AppleTV 4.4 (iOS 5)

Added subtitle ‘Weight’ setting

Added option to show/hide local files

Improved data buffering and playback performance

Improved XSUB subtitle support

Improved network error handling

Improved filename parsing for metadata fetching

Improved NAS drives support and increased connection timeout

Improved video loading process

Improved DVD menu handling

Improved playback position detection

Improved memory footprint

Improved SMB share handling

Resolved DVD subtitle issues

Resolved Voiceover related issues

Resolved audio synchronization issues

Resolved problems when streaming from an AirPort Extreme

Resolved AFP related issue when resuming after a long pause

Resolved issues that caused the first subtitle section to be skipped

Resolved performance and crash related issues for certain DVD files

Resolved audio playback issues when the connection to Last.fm fails

Resolved potential issues in shares handling and filename processing

Resolved AFP related crashes

Resolved .dvdmedia extensions and folder images not hiding

Resolved floating crash during metadata fetching

Resolved various cloud backup issues

Many other miscellaneous fixes

Splendid! Where can I get it?

If you’re already running a version of aTV Flash (black) the new RC1 version can be installed through the Maintenance –> Manage Extras menu. If you need to re-install aTV Flash (black) links for the new version can be found in your account under the Downloads tab.

New users can pre-order aTV Flash (black) here.

Note: Installing RC1 requires AppleTV 4.2 or later.

The Home Server Show Episode 158 Out Now

Windows Home Server

Andrew Edney

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Oct 27, 2011

0

Dave at the guys at the Home Server Show have released episode 158.

Here’s what Dave has to say about this weeks show:

It’s been a while since we have had a marathon podcast so I’ve got 1:45:00 for you this week! Ray Newberry from http://theosquest.com joins John, Jim, and myself to talk about servers, CrashPlan, pfSense, unTangle, drive extender, HP Microservers, and lots more. We also go over some bandwidth issues when restoring files from backups on Windows Home Server 2011 as well as other issues. This was a fun one and the live stream chat was lively! Enjoy.

As usual you can listen to the show from here.

Kingston Launch the new DataTraveler 109 USB Flash Drive

Storage & NAS

Andrew Edney

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Oct 27, 2011

0

Kingston Launch the new DataTraveler 109 USB Flash Drive

Today Kingston launched a new USB flash drive called the DataTraveler 109.

Here is the press release:

New Small and Fashionable Kingston USB Portable Storage

Active Storage in Fun Colours

Preloaded with urDrive software: includes built-in Photo Viewer, Web browser, MP3 player, access to games and online backup

Small, capless design easily attaches to a lanyard or key ring

Stylish design in fun colours

Sunbury-on-Thames – October 27, 2011 — Kingston Digital Europe Ltd, an affiliate of Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the launch of the Kingston DataTraveler® 109. The Kingston® DataTraveler 109 is a slim, stylish USB Flash drive available in seven fun colours, and comes with urDrive, a free preloaded application that helps organise your files, photos, videos music and more.

“Kingston’s DataTraveler 109 is a fashionable USB Flash drive that makes it fun to connect and share photos, music, videos and more with friends and family,” said Krystian Jaroszynski, product marketing manager Flash, Kingston Technology. “Most USB Flash drives offer passive storage, which simply allows users to store and retrieve their data. urDrive offers engaged, active storage that allows users to easily access and organise files, view photos and even play music, all on the USB drive.”

Once the software is launched, the interface is very easy to use and includes many features such as a built-in Photo Viewer, Web browser and MP3 player. urDrive also offers access to games and online backup for even more storage beyond the USB. For complete features of Kingston urDrive go to: http://www.kingston.com/flash/urdrive/

Available in 8GB and 16GB, with each capacity offering seven different colour combinations, Kingston DataTraveler 109 also features a handy key loop that lets users easily attach this stylish, tiny drive to a lanyard or keyring. The Kingston DataTraveler 109 USB Flash drive is backed by legendary Kingston reliability plus a five year warranty and 24/7 technical support.

Microsoft Offers a Glimpse into the Future of Productivity

Andrew Edney

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Oct 27, 2011

0

Microsoft Offers a Glimpse into the Future of Productivity

Today Microsoft posted a really video giving us a glimpse into the future of productivity.

In 5-10 years, how will people get things done at work, at home, and on the go?

The video reminds me of my visit to the Microsoft Home in Seattle ealier in the year.

This is what Microsoft posted on their blog today:

All of the ideas in the video are based on real technology. Some of the capabilities, such as speech recognition, real time collaboration and data visualization already exist today. Others are not yet available in specific products, but represent active research and development happening at Microsoft and other companies.

Watch this video to see how we see technology moving from a passive tool to a more active assistant, helping us get things done, and strengthening our interactions with one another. You’ll see how people can stay productive using a variety of devices from slates and PCs to mobile devices where they can access their information regardless of their location or the device they are using.

Watch the concept video to get a glimpse of the future of productivity, then explore the stories and technology in more detail.

Apple Also Release Thunderbolt Update

Apple

Andrew Edney

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Oct 27, 2011

0

As well as the EFI updates, Apple have also released an update for Thunderbolt that deals with some black screen issues.

This update addresses an issue that causes some users of the Apple Thunderbolt Display to experience intermittent black screens. It also includes stability improvements for Thunderbolt devices.

Apple Release MacBook EFI Updates

Apple

Andrew Edney

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Oct 27, 2011

1

Apple have released a number of updates, including an EFI update for the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air.

This update fixes several issues to improve the stability of MacBook Air (mid 2011) computers and is recommended for all users.

This update includes fixes delivered in MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.1 that enhance the stability of Lion Recovery from an Internet connection, and resolve issues with Apple Thunderbolt Display compatibility and Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode performance on MacBook Air (mid 2011) models.