Archive Posts

The folks over at Kotaku  managed to get their hands on some marketing material for Kinect, the motion-sensing camera/controller for the Xbox 360. There’s a lot of purple going on in these images and a clear lack of a price tag so it won’t offer any more information than we already know.

However, from the looks of the novel boxes, a game may not be included with the camera. It does indicate that a bundle will exist that includes the new Xbox 360 250GB model with the camera, which I would guess at around $399. You can check out another shot after the break.

An unsupported version of Windows will no longer receive software updates from Windows Update. These include security updates that can help protect your PC from harmful viruses, spyware.

And other malicious software, which can steal your personal information. Windows Update also installs the latest software updates to improve the reliability of Windows-new drivers for your hardware and more," writes Microsoft.

To continue support, Windows XP users need to install the Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3). The company adds that customers running the 64-bit version of Windows XP with SP2 are exempt as there is no SP3 for the 64-bit version, and only those users will be eligible for support and receive updated until April 2014. Microsoft also ended support for all Windows Vista versions without any service packs on April 13th this year. To continue support, users were requested to install the Windows Vista SP2.

With Microsoft having recently announced its plans to discontinue its May-launched Kin handsets, there have been widespread discussions about what actually went amiss with the software company’s ambitions of making its presence felt in the handset arena.

Despite the fact that Microsoft is already a big player in the smartphone market with its Windows Mobile OS, the company intending expanding further with its own-branded handset – a move for which it acquired the Sidekick maker, Danger.

Read the complete story

Several big names launched Android apps this week, showing a strong end to June and a big start for July. Amazon released Kindle with Whispersync for Android, while Yahoo! finally got around to making a few apps for the Android Market.

Here are the top new and performing apps of the week.
Managing accounts Yahoo! took a while to launch any Android apps, but they’re finally here.

Mail, Messenger and a homescreen search widget help you navigate your Yahoo! account, with easy toggles amongst the apps themselves. With a cross-app tactic, Yahoo has launched its free and centralizing apps the right way.

Another bank has launched an Android app, adding to your secure finance options on the go. The free Wells Fargo app lets you view account balances and activities, pay bills and transfer money. There’s also an ATM locator, with mapping and navigation tools.

Read the complete story

Microsoft's Kin, the range of social networking handsets targeted at teens which was released  just two months ago in U.S., will be killed by the company, according to CNET.

The Kin range included two handsets, the Kin One and the Kin Two, both of which are currently available on the Verizon network in U.S. The phones were expected to reach receive.

A European launch soon which now seems to have been canceled. Instead, Microsoft will be focusing more on its more important Windows Phone 7 platform, expected to be out later this year.

Read the complete story

Google must be cheering this week, as Apple fumes. The Chrome browser surpassed Safari's share of the U.S. Internet surfing for the first time last week. It's still only third, but this certainly won't help to simmer down the growing Google-Apple rivalry. Here's the data via PCWorld:

A Pakistani court has ordered the authorities to block access to nine websites including Google, Yahoo and YouTube for allegedly offending Muslims with blasphemous material. Judge Mazhar Iqbal ordered Pakistan's Telecommunications Authority to block the websites due to "material against the fundamental principals of Islam and its preaching.

Pakistan shut off Facebook for nearly two weeks last month in a storm of controversy about a competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad and has restricted access to hundreds of online links because of blasphemy. Iqbal announced a short version of the order in the eastern city of Bahawalpur on Tuesday and released a written detailed order on Wednesday, lawyer Latif ur-Rehman.

But while the PTA quickly implemented the earlier ban against Facebook in May, regulators told AFP on Thursday that they had yet to receive the latest order. "We have not yet received any directives from the ministry of information technology. The ministry is the decision-making authority.

The ministry was not immediately reachable for comment. Iqbal called on the PTA and information technology ministry to submit detailed reports to the court next Monday. Retired civil servant Siddique Mohammad had petitioned the court through Rehman for the ban on nine websites -- Google, Yahoo, Amazon, MSN, Hotmail, YouTube, Islam Exposed, In The Name of Allah and Bing.

A spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan warned that the order could strangle Internet access for millions. "If implemented the decision will choke Internet users. It will seriously impact millions of Internet users in Pakistan who use search engines for email, education, business and other productive purposes," said Wahaj-us-Siraj. "Courts are not a competent jurisdiction to handle technical issues. The issue should have been handled by the PTA," he said.

Islam strictly prohibits the depiction of any prophet as blasphemous and the row sparked comparison with protests across the Muslim world at the publication of satirical cartoons of Mohammed in European newspapers in 2006.

When a Facebook user decided to organise an "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day" competition to promote "freedom of expression", it sparked a major backlash among Islamic activists in the South Asian country of 170 million.

Microsoft is throwing cash at iPhone gams developers in a bid to increase the number of applications for its yet-to-launch Windows Phone 7. A report from Pocket Gamer says that Microsoft is contacting successful iPhone developers and offering them "substantial" amounts of money – up front – to port their software to Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft refused to comment directly on the claims. Instead, it offered a round-about statement saying the company provides what it called "limited" financial support – "most commonly in the form of an advance on revenue" among numerous other resources.

Read the complete story

Internet search engines Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing has gained market share in the nation in the month of May, according to the latest report by comScore, an internet marketing research company. As per the report by the research firm, it is the second consecutive month.

That Google, the internet search giant, has witnessed a decline in market share. Yahoo gained 18.3 percent in May compared to 17.7 percent a month earlier. Microsoft's Bing jumped 12.1 percent, from 11.8 in April. While America On line (AOL) fell marginally from 2.4 percent to 2.3.

Google, though still leading, registered a fall from 64.4 percent in April to 63.7 percent in May. Analysts claim that both the rival companies Yahoo and Microsoft seems to be using Gimmick, a quirky feature of a product that make it more attractive without adding any obvious function or value, to distort the number in their favor.

Read the complete story

While it appears that the Internet search argument was won decisively by Google, rivals Yahoo and Microsoft haven't given up yet. The two companies formed an alliance in 2009 that will result in Microsoft's Bing search engine powering Yahoo's portal by the end of 2010.

Google's 10 toughest rivals for 2010 Google handles 71% of all search queries in the United States in May 2010, while Yahoo handles around 15% and Bing around 9%. Despite its dominant position in search, Google continues to innovate.

In May 2010, Google introduced SSL-based searching to give more privacy to users. The encrypted search service, available as beta code, allows users to hide search terms - but not maps or images - from third parties such as ISPs. Google, however, continues to retain information about end user searches for its own usage.

Read the complete story