The Next Web |  |
- Windows 7 Passes 150 Million Licenses Sold With 7 Copies Selling Every Second
- Thousands Queue as iPhone 4 Launches in the UK
- Video Shows Off IE9 Speed With Hardware Acceleration
- 18 online map providers approved by China authorities, Baidu, Google, others not among them yet
- Does the iPhone’s antenna cause reception problems? (UPDATED)
- This one is big: Twitter just let you auto-follow your Facebook friends.
- Does the iPhone’s antenna cause reception problems? (UPDATED)
- Are The iPhone 4 Screens Suffering From Yellow Discoloration?
- Flickr Rolls Out Spanking New Photo Page Design
- YouTube Beats Viacom In Massive Copyright Infringement Case
- If true, this leaked report may leave Apple & AT&T with a LOT of explaining to do [Updated]
- No White iPhone 4s Until Late July
- Android 2.2 is in the AOSP. New FroYo releases soon to follow!
- The Russian President Now Officially on Twitter
- The Russians Are Coming! To Twitter, That Is…
- Twitter’s way of managing the failwhale? API reduction to 150/hour.
- Google Apps introduces multi-domain support. Collaboration just got easier.
- Report: Apple has earned only $189M in profits from 3rd-party apps
- It’s Wednesday. Time for Apple to sue HTC again.
- BBC iPlayer now available on Android 2.2 devices
| Windows 7 Passes 150 Million Licenses Sold With 7 Copies Selling Every Second Posted: 24 Jun 2010 01:49 AM PDT
Microsoft has sold 150 million copies in just under 9 months, selling 7 copies of Windows 7 every second (talk about fantastic PR material). This is down in part to its widespread adoption by enterprises; with Tami Reller – Corporate Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Microsoft – noting that approximately 75% of companies are looking to evaluate or deploy Windows 7 for their organization at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S. Technology Conference earlier in the month. According to the Windows Team Blog, Microsoft will today be releasing the beta versions of the new Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker and Sync, applications that are aimed at connecting people and helping them share media with each other, whether it be directly or utilizing the cloud. A great milestone for Microsoft, anyone glad the Windows Vista days are finally over? Original title and link for this post: Windows 7 Passes 150 Million Licenses Sold With 7 Copies Selling Every Second |
| Thousands Queue as iPhone 4 Launches in the UK Posted: 24 Jun 2010 12:46 AM PDT
There’s no better way to visibly judge demand for a new Apple device than to check the queues on launch day. Looking at the numbers lined up around the UK today, the iPhone 4 is no exception. In Manchester, we took a quick run around the city centre ten minutes before many shops were due to open to find out what demand was like. O2 Stores saw huge demand, with around 120 people outside each of the branches we checked. O2 staff were handing out newspapers to those in line. Only a handful of people were waiting outside Carphone Warehouse stores (around 10 per branch). We saw no-one at all waiting outside any of the other networks’ stores. Whether this was down to them having resvered stock only, we’re not sure. It was unsurprisingly the Apple store that saw the highest demand. Around 60 people were queuing in the line for preorders, while the line for people chancing their arm at picking up an unreserved handset numbered… well, we lost count. Take a look at our shaky-cam video below to work it out for yourselves. Where the line starts facing the camera is where the preorders start. Elsewhere in the UK, demand is reported to be high. The BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones, for example, reports 100 queuing outside an O2 store in Cardiff and 40 outside a store in Farnborough. UPDATE: @susiweaser reports that the Carphone Warehouse store she visited had just six handsets in stock. This is likely to be repeated elsewhere; in previous years first day stocks at Carphone Warehouse stores were low. UPDATE 2: Here’s our editor in chief, Zee’s view as he queues in central London.
Original title and link for this post: Thousands Queue as iPhone 4 Launches in the UK |
| Video Shows Off IE9 Speed With Hardware Acceleration Posted: 24 Jun 2010 12:09 AM PDT
As we reported, Microsoft released their third IE9 developer preview earlier today that includes some very interesting speed, HTML5 and graphics demos for developers to test drive. Download Squad put together this video comparing IE9’s “hardware-accelerated canvas rendering” to Chrome 6. Of course, Firefox 3.7 is also scheduled to have hardware acceleration as does Safari 5, and Chrome 6 should most likely have it by the time it officially releases, so this isn’t exactly a perfectly fair side-by-side test, but still, it’s cool to see where this is all going. Download Squad also says that Chrome 6 still beats out IE9 in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark, however, by 30%. Take a look at the video below and go test drive IE9 for a look yourself at the latest preview.
Original title and link for this post: Video Shows Off IE9 Speed With Hardware Acceleration |
| 18 online map providers approved by China authorities, Baidu, Google, others not among them yet Posted: 23 Jun 2010 09:06 PM PDT
The State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (SBSM) approved the licenses, which apparently all went to smaller providers, as even China’s leading search engine (and one of it’s leading map services) Baidu has yet to receive approval (no info on whether DDMap, another large provider has received approval yet either). Also, no multinational online mapping providers have yet to be approved, including Nokia and Google, who have both reportedly submitted applications (Nokia told this to the China Daily and Google to The Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago). The article says that Microsoft would not comment on whether they have submitted an application for Bing Maps yet. The new regulations stipulate that online mapping services must be run from servers inside of Mainland China and “must have no record of information leakage in any form in the past three years”. As Google has reportedly already submitted an application, they must be willing to run their maps from inside the country (if for some reason you haven’t heard, Mainland users now receive searches from Google’s servers in Hong Kong). Nokia, who’s phones are very popular in China, also obviously has strong incentive to stay in the mapping market on the mainland, especially if Google for any reason is not allowed in, and therefore wouldn’t be available on Android or any other handsets. Another dimension to this whole story is in crowdsourced maps such as OpenStreetMap and others, which some observers see as the real victim in these regulations (along with Chinese Internet users of course) as these crowdsourced “unofficial” maps are unlikely to receive government approval. h/t Danwei Original title and link for this post: 18 online map providers approved by China authorities, Baidu, Google, others not among them yet |
| Does the iPhone’s antenna cause reception problems? (UPDATED) Posted: 23 Jun 2010 04:44 PM PDT
Earlier today, we told you about users reporting yellow lines or dots on the iPhone 4’s much-vaunted retina display. Now, it looks like another problem has been discovered. If the phone is held in a certain way, it loses signal. A user on MacRumors’ forum has posted a video (after the jump) showing the issue. When he holds the phone by its glass case back, it receives normal service. However, when he holds it by the stainless-steel bezel slash antenna, the signal suddenly drops off sharply. As you can clearly see, when the phone is held by the bezel, the signal appears to disappear completely. Whether this is because of the way his hand is oriented on the phone, whether he’s holding it so tightly that it’s shorting or whether this is because his hand is creating interference by bridging the antennae remains to be seen. It’s also been suggested that holding the phone by the bezel doesn’t interfere with the signal, but the animation indicating signal strength. While one would hope that the problem is not widespread, this seems to be a common issue. Walt Mossberg’s review for the Wall Street Journal mentioned that this was an issue. He also asserted that Apple told him a fix was in the works. If the signal is actually dropping out, that assertion seems dubious at best. Without a fundamental redesign of the phone (or the use of a case), the antennae will likely still run into this problem. It will be interesting to see what Apple can come up with to fix the issue, or if we’ll just be saddled with another iPhone that can’t make clear calls. UPDATE: Gizmodo is reporting that the problem is more likely to be a hardware issue than a software issue. Citing user reports of severely reduced data and voice throughput when the user holds the phone by the bezel, they come to the same conclusion we did: that it’s not something Apple’s going to easily be able to fix. Put bluntly, things are starting to look really bad for Apple. UPDATE 2: It now appears that the problem occurs only when touching both the left side antenna and the bottom antenna at the same time (as the video below shows). One antenna handles the WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth (the left) and the other handles GSM and UMTS (the right and bottom). As such, holding the phone like this probably induces interference because of the electro-conducive nature of skin. What this means, in short, is that since skin can conduct electricity, the two antennae have their signals scrambled a little because they’re physically bridged by the skin. Here’s a video that demonstrates this.
Original title and link for this post: Does the iPhone’s antenna cause reception problems? (UPDATED) |
| This one is big: Twitter just let you auto-follow your Facebook friends. Posted: 23 Jun 2010 03:02 PM PDT
You’ll be able to access the new Facebook application from this link, and then integrate your Twitter feed directly into Facebook. The idea is huge, and could be the next major growth spurt for Twitter. From the Twitter Blog:
Could this be the a nail in the coffin to services such as TweetDeck? Only time will tell, but it certainly will be releasing a lot of work from people who use both services primarily for status updates. You’ll need to check your Facebook settings, as early reports are showing a number of people (myself included) that cannot get the Twitter application to be allowed on Facebook. The common message is that Facebook has blocked the feature. We’re keeping an eye on this, and will let you know what we find. Original title and link for this post: This one is big: Twitter just let you auto-follow your Facebook friends. |
| Does the iPhone’s antenna cause reception problems? (UPDATED) Posted: 23 Jun 2010 02:59 PM PDT
Earlier today, we told you about users reporting yellow lines or dots on the iPhone 4’s much-vaunted retina display. Now, it looks like another problem has been discovered. If the phone is held in a certain way, it loses signal. A user on MacRumors’ forum has posted a video (after the jump) showing the issue. When he holds the phone by its glass case back, it receives normal service. However, when he holds it by the stainless-steel bezel slash antenna, the signal suddenly drops off sharply. As you can clearly see, when the phone is held by the bezel, the signal appears to disappear completely. Whether this is because of the way his hand is oriented on the phone, whether he’s holding it so tightly that it’s shorting or whether this is because his hand is creating interference by bridging the antennae remains to be seen. It’s also been suggested that holding the phone by the bezel doesn’t interfere with the signal, but the animation indicating signal strength. While one would hope that the problem is not widespread, this seems to be a common issue. Walt Mossberg’s review for the Wall Street Journal mentioned that this was an issue. He also asserted that Apple told him a fix was in the works. If the signal is actually dropping out, that assertion seems dubious at best. Without a fundamental redesign of the phone (or the use of a case), the antennae will likely still run into this problem. It will be interesting to see what Apple can come up with to fix the issue, or if we’ll just be saddled with another iPhone that can’t make clear calls. UPDATE: Gizmodo is reporting that the problem is more likely to be a hardware issue than a software issue. Citing user reports of severely reduced data and voice throughput when the user holds the phone by the bezel, they come to the same conclusion we did: that it’s not something Apple’s going to easily be able to fix. Put bluntly, things are starting to look really bad for Apple. UPDATE 2: It now appears that the problem occurs only when touching both the left side antenna and the bottom antenna at the same time (as the video below shows). One antenna handles the WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth (the left) and the other handles GSM and UMTS (the right and bottom). As such, holding the phone like this probably induces interference because of the electro-conducive nature of skin. What this means, in short, is that since skin can conduct electricity, the two antennae have their signals scrambled a little because they’re physically bridged by the skin. Here’s a video that demonstrates this.
Original title and link for this post: Does the iPhone’s antenna cause reception problems? (UPDATED) |
| Are The iPhone 4 Screens Suffering From Yellow Discoloration? Posted: 23 Jun 2010 02:32 PM PDT
The 27″ iMacs suffered from not just cracked screens, but a yellow tint that made their displays ugly and difficult to use. The potential problems brought up the by the analogy are troubling. The 27″ iMac was, as is the iPhone 4, touted for its high quality, forward looking screen. The iPhone 4 now also has a yellow tint problem. How widespread this is remains to be seen. We have included the relevant images below. If your iPhone 4 came with a discloroation problem like those shown below, would you be angered? Would you return it, or tough it out?
Original title and link for this post: Are The iPhone 4 Screens Suffering From Yellow Discoloration? |
| Flickr Rolls Out Spanking New Photo Page Design Posted: 23 Jun 2010 01:36 PM PDT
Flickr is rolling out a brand new design for its photo page, details of the new release are below. If you want to opt-in or out here’s how.
Original title and link for this post: Flickr Rolls Out Spanking New Photo Page Design |
| YouTube Beats Viacom In Massive Copyright Infringement Case Posted: 23 Jun 2010 01:23 PM PDT
In a landmark case between the giants YouTube and Vicaom, Google’s YouTube has come out ahead. According to a company statement today the court in their case has granted YouTube’s ’summary judgment’ in the lawsuit. In short, YouTube has been handed the victory that they wanted, and has found legal protection and has set precedent that they, and others like them, are protected under the safe harbor section of the DMCA.
If you have missed the entire legal tangling, we previously prepared a breakdown of the lawsuit and its implications. In summary, to paraphrase the synthesis: Viacom:
YouTube:
And now the conclusion, YouTube has won. Original title and link for this post: YouTube Beats Viacom In Massive Copyright Infringement Case |
| If true, this leaked report may leave Apple & AT&T with a LOT of explaining to do [Updated] Posted: 23 Jun 2010 12:35 PM PDT
Editor’s Note: The following is based on one (detailed though not necessarily factual) report that relies on one reportedly inside (yet anonymous) source at Apple. We felt that it is detailed enough to relay to our readers, and if true, raises very troubling questions that Apple and AT&T need to address to their customers. AddictiveTips is reporting in detail that a trusted source inside of Apple Inc. has told them that Apple is not only checking for jailbroken iPhones in conjunction with AT&T through OTA (over-the-air) updates every 7-14 days – and then relocking them and putting users on a blacklist – but is also storing Facetime location data, and that the un-encrypted WiFi chats can be snooped on. Beyond all of this, the source claims that Apple/AT&T shipped some iPhone 4’s early in order to test the OTA updates. The source is reportedly an Apple employee – AddictiveTips says it will not reveal the name of the source, calling him/her only ‘Alpha’ – says that, "I will tell you this right now the things I am saying if you where to go to [Steve] Jobs himself he would deny." Alpha claims that there is a line of code in iOS 4 that does the OTA updates and that some Apple employees themselves are not installing iOS 4 onto their iPhones. Here is how Alpha says it works:
Here is a screenshot from the article of the OTA updates taken from a phone in Canada, where apparently some users are already receiving them:
Update: More than a few commentators on AddictiveTips have noted the discrepancy between AT&T supposedly sending OTA updates to a jail-broken iPhone that isn’t running on their network any more – say for instance running on T-Mobile, and that that alone means that this story is false. However, that argument alone doesn’t necessarily mean that this leak is false – it is certainly possible to run a jail-broken iPhone on AT&T’s network and – if this leak is accurate – then we’re guessing that AT&T could theoretically detect that the phone is jail-broken, and then blacklist that customer (..and possibly send a lock code? Anyone know?). Again, theoretically. Update: AddictiveTips says that the iOS 4 software itself will ping Apple/AT&T servers regularly (we are guessing that they mean through any available connection, i.e. WiFi, AT&T, T-Mobile, whatever) and that is how Apple/AT&T knows that an iPhone has been taken off of their network (we’re guessing – though this isn’t clear at all from AddictiveTips or their source – that by “iPhone” here they mean one bought in-contract with AT&T at a discounted price). Software can certainly be set to ping servers, so technically that part of it could be possible, but whether Apple/AT&T could then do anything punitive, as the leak suggests, i.e. bricking the phone or putting it on a blacklist – well, they might be able to associate the phone with a previous AT&T user and then deny them service, but brick a phone on another carrier…Why would they bother going to such extremes (if they could technically do it) for that matter, especially if you’re already out of your contract – does it really matter that much to AT&T that an out-of-contract fully-paid-for AT&T sold iPhone is now on another network? Regarding Facetime, Alpha says that beyond the fact that the service isn’t encrypted and if someone wanted to, it isn’t hard to snoop in on the WiFi connection:
Updated: As was correctly pointed out in the comments below (which we agree with), this collection of usage data isn’t in itself a big deal – many software companies routinely track usage of their products and Apple has multiple ways to track and monitor the usage of iPhone – but we thought we’d relay it as it was positioned as a major part of the AddictiveTips story. Again, all of this is from one unnamed source, although as you can see, this is very detailed (though not confirmed or tested) info. We have sent an email to Apple PR asking for a comment. Update: We have also sent an email to AT&T asking for comment. We have not received any response so far from either Apple or AT&T, and we are going to hold off with any other updates until we either hear back from either with an official response and/or AddictiveTips offers any incontrovertible proof (see below) Update: In comments on their own post, AddictiveTips is sticking to their guns and says “You should wait 24 hours because something interesting will be coming up“. We’ll have to wait and see if this “something” includes incontrovertible proof or not. Original title and link for this post: If true, this leaked report may leave Apple & AT&T with a LOT of explaining to do [Updated] |
| No White iPhone 4s Until Late July Posted: 23 Jun 2010 11:23 AM PDT
Original title and link for this post: No White iPhone 4s Until Late July |
| Android 2.2 is in the AOSP. New FroYo releases soon to follow! Posted: 23 Jun 2010 10:54 AM PDT
So what’s that mean to you? In a nutshell, it means that individual developers can now build and release FroYo ROM’s for any device. So, if you’ve been carrying around your Motorola Droid, HTC Desire or any other device slaved to 2.1 or before, you should be getting some amazing 2.2 love very soon. What’s the big deal with 2.2? Quite a bit has changed, but here’s the highlights:
I can tell you, first hand, that the performance upgrades from 2.1 to 2.2 are amazing. While I’ve not noticed any discernable difference in my battery life, the overall user experience of 2.2 is vastly superior to 2.1 and below. Personally, I welcome our new yogurt-eating-robot overlords. Info source: Koush [Update: Google has given the official release announcement of 2.2 in the Google Blog] Original title and link for this post: Android 2.2 is in the AOSP. New FroYo releases soon to follow! |
| The Russian President Now Officially on Twitter Posted: 23 Jun 2010 10:49 AM PDT
Russian President Medvedev stopped by the twitter offices today and set up his account in front of twitter’s 200 staff. More to follow but you can follow him here, so far it’s all in English! Original title and link for this post: The Russian President Now Officially on Twitter |
| The Russians Are Coming! To Twitter, That Is… Posted: 23 Jun 2010 10:29 AM PDT
The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at Twitter HQ this morning just published his very first tweet. While it is in Russian, we feel that this event is of large enough magnitude to share his message:
That translates to (roughly): “Hello! I’m on Twitter and this is my first message!” While we cannot award President any points for style, at least he was on topic. He has now racked up a total of three tweets, none of which we can read without racing to Google Translate for help. Is Twitter mainstream? To get the head of Russia to not only join the service and begin to tweet, but to stop at Twitter headquarters to speak demonstrates strong momentum in the company apart from the tech sector. Twitter may now be unequivocally middle of the road. We will leave that to your judgement. If you want to follow the Russian premier you can do that here. He only has 265 followers, let’s change that. Original title and link for this post: The Russians Are Coming! To Twitter, That Is… |
| Twitter’s way of managing the failwhale? API reduction to 150/hour. Posted: 23 Jun 2010 10:18 AM PDT
Twitter has been sending out notices for a few days now (almost directly coinciding to the start of the World Cup) about increased levels of errors. We have written about the issues extensively, and urged Twitter to take action. Apparently, the blue bird of happiness has just acted:
We’ve contacted Twitter for a comment, and will update when we hear anything. Original title and link for this post: Twitter’s way of managing the failwhale? API reduction to 150/hour. |
| Google Apps introduces multi-domain support. Collaboration just got easier. Posted: 23 Jun 2010 10:01 AM PDT
Google Apps has just released a great feature that I’m sure will be welcomed by many. Until now, if you or your company had several domains, you had to have a separate Google Apps account for each of them. As of today, that hassle is no longer your reality. According to the Google Enterprise Blog, Google Apps can now be shared among multiple domains with a single account. You’ll find the option in your admin control of your Google Apps dashboard. While users from different domains will keep their individual email address, they’ll be able to see different users in the organization in their address book, as well as easier sharing of Google Docs, Sites and everything else in the Google Apps war chest. There’s a live webinar about the new feature coming up on July 13th, and you can find full details in the blog. The multi-domain feature is available now, for free, to Premier and Education edition accounts. Original title and link for this post: Google Apps introduces multi-domain support. Collaboration just got easier. |
| Report: Apple has earned only $189M in profits from 3rd-party apps Posted: 23 Jun 2010 09:29 AM PDT
By using the 5 billion apps downloaded to go along with the US$1 billion that has gone to developers, Piper Jaffrey calculated that the App Store has brought in $1.4 billion, and after Apple’s 30% cut (with 70% going to developers) they’ve brought in $429 million in revenue since the App Store launched, or 12% of what iTunes has brought in in that same time period. One thing that the report didn’t seem to address (at least from the Fortune article) is how much Apple has made from its homegrown apps so far, especially from iPad apps such as Keynote and Pages. Although its hard to argue that app are really there so that Apple can sell more devices, Apple is also increasingly moving into more ways to get higher margins, not only with their own apps but also now with advertising with iAds. Of course, Apple isn’t only a hardware manufacturer, so flushing out their homegrown margins in their iOS platform was bound to happen from the day they launched the iPhone. Original title and link for this post: Report: Apple has earned only $189M in profits from 3rd-party apps |
| It’s Wednesday. Time for Apple to sue HTC again. Posted: 23 Jun 2010 08:11 AM PDT
Though the suit is being filed in the same court as the last, it would appear that the suits are not going to be combined, and rather tried separately. Court documents show that the case is apparently over hot-plugging capability, which Apple says that HTC is infringing upon. It’s worthy to note that HTC has also sued Apple, recently, and this fight doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon, by either party. As the day moves on, we’re sure to hear more about this, and we’ll update you as we do. Original title and link for this post: It’s Wednesday. Time for Apple to sue HTC again. |
| BBC iPlayer now available on Android 2.2 devices Posted: 23 Jun 2010 07:44 AM PDT
For those of us who love the BBC The latest version of the iPlayer site kicks things into mobile high gear with the release of a streaming client for Android devices running Android 2.2 (FroYo). The only problem? You have do download the Flash Player client, and nobody can seem to do so. More on that in a bit. The new iPlayer mobile function, according to the BBC, was done in Flash amid much complaining. Many questioned the BBC’s choice of Flash, but the company explains its choice in the blog:
Now, for the problem. It appears to me, at the moment, that Flash Player 10.1 for Android is not available via the Andoid Market or through Adobe’s site. The Adobe site gives me a “Not Found” error, while the Android Market simply doesn’t return any results for the Flash Player. Once we’re able to download the player again, you’ll find a wealth of functionality in the new BBC iPlayer for Android. Favourites lists will subscribe you to new episodes of programmes, and the entire site has been given a facelift to better support mobile browsing. I’m looking forward to providing a full review of the iPlayer experience, once I can manage to get my hands onto Flash. [Update: According to some digging around, and a few comments both here and on Twitter, the issue with not finding Flash has to do with what version of FroYo that you're presently running. For those who have a native FroYo device, or an official OTA version, you should see Flash in the Market.] Original title and link for this post: BBC iPlayer now available on Android 2.2 devices |
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