Amazon sweetens its deal for cloud music service
Those incentives include unlimited space for music for Cloud Drive storage subscribers who pay at least $20 a year, free storage for all MP3 purchases made through Amazon and access to stored music on an iPad, according to a Wednesday statement from the company.
The retail giant’s service allows users to store their music library into an Amazon Cloud Drive (which can store other types of files and data too) and play back their music using Amazon’s Cloud Player, which is available on the Web and in the form of an app for Google Android phones and tablets.
Why HP TouchPad will fail against Apple iPad 2, Galaxy Tab and other tablets
the TouchPad is capable enough to take on iPad 2 does not arise. What is of interest is how big a dent it will create in the sales of iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1, the duo that rule the roost in the tablet market now.
Take a list of specifications offered by the TouchPad and compare it to Apple iPad 2′s spec sheet, the balance apparently tilts in favor of the TouchPad. But the devil is in the details. On a lot of crucial points, the TouchPad comes a cropper against its more established rival.
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HP says the TouchPad has got a big brain that gives you blazing speed, helps you go into the next level of multitasking and offers superior graphics performance.
The tablet is powered by the 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core APQ8060 processor. It sports front-facing 1.3MP camera and digital microphone for live video calling as well as dual-band Wi-Fi.
HP TouchPad 64GB and 4G model due in August, 7-inch this fall
One of the common knocks against it is the fact the tablet’s performance felt a bit sluggish at times, which is a bit of a surprise considering that there’s a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor under the hood.
Help could be on the way, however, if a leaked presentation slide is an accurate indication of what HP has up its sleeve. As soon as August, there could be two additional TouchPad models to choose from. Apart from a 4G enabled version that will ride on AT&T’s cellular network (which features 32GB of internal storage), there’s also a beefed-up 64GB model coming.
The 64GB TouchPad features a pair of additional tweaks apart from that increased storage capacity. A second leaked slide indicates that the model will sport a glossy white back as opposed to the original black one — which is notoriously bad for attracting fingerprints.
But it’s not what’s outside that really counts. Inside, the new white, 64GB TouchPad will pack a 1.5GHz processor. That’s a pretty substantial bump from the original 1.2GHz and one that should make a world of difference in terms of the device’s overall performance.
Apple’s iPad commands 1% of all web traffic after just one year
Recent statistics from analytics firm Net Applications’ NetMarketShare report show the iPad has continued to grow worldwide since its launch in early 2010. The tablet recently broke the 1 percent mark in worldwide browsing and accounts for 2 percent of browsing in the U.S.
The report showed the iPad to have “53 times the usage share of its nearest competitor,” the Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tab throughout May. Apple’s tablet also dwarfed the third-placed Motorola Xoom tablet’s share of global web browsing with a share 76 times greater. In addition when compared to the Research in Motion’s Blackberry PlayBook, the iPad has roughly 306 times the usage.
In the U.S. mobile browser market, the iPad takes a solid 25.5 percent, only trailing Android (31.6 percent) and the iPhone (35.2 percent). However, when iPhone and iPad data are combined, they take over 60.7 percent of U.S. mobile browsing, a figure almost double that of Android. Blackberry came in at 6.9 percent, while Symbian, Windows Mobile and webOS are left far behind, accounting for less than 0.5 percent.
Does Google+ Have What It Takes to Beat Facebook?
Many people are wondering: Will Google+ dethrone Facebook just like Facebook dethroned MySpace?
Here are some reasons why Google+ may have what it takes to overthrow Facebook:
1) +Circles: More Privacy Control
Instead of Friends’ list on Facebook, Google+ groups a user’s friends through +Circles. Google+ users have more control about which groups of friends see a photo or status update, which could give Google+ an edge in privacy control.
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“This is really important to us. On Google+, you should be in control of who sees your posts,” says Kelly Ellis, a Google engineer, on her Google+ page.
Google+ users can drag their friends into social “circles” they create. They are designed to ensure that the information shared within the group remains private. For example, users can designate circles by “Acquaintances,” “Co-workers,” and “Family.”
Analyst: Apple will drop iPhone 3GS to free with launch of iPhone 5
Last week, Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank said he believed Apple would release a “mid-range” iPhone 4S (with pre-paid calling and data option) alongside its new iPhone 5.
Keith Bachman of BMO Capital says there will be no iPhone 5, just an iPhone 4S, which will be Apple’s updated new smartphone.
Toni Sacconaghi of Sanford Bernstein notes that Apple needs to offer a cheaper a iPhone, in general, and could possibly do so this year.
Finally, Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital added to the fun this morning saying he expects Apple will drop the price of the iPhone 3GS to $0 with contract and the iPhone 4 to $99 with contract, when it rolls out the iPhone 5, whenever that is.
Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 2 shows strong progress
Microsoft has shied away from implementation specifications that are still in flux or undergoing extensive modification, sticking instead to those that are reasonably stable and thoroughly debugged. The company’s intent has been to ensure that those features it implements won’t be a maintenance liability for developers—that the features can be used and deployed onto real sites, without requiring extensive busy-work to track specification changes.
Internet Explorer 9′s previews did diverge from the goal slightly, with the introduction of performance tracking mechanisms that Microsoft implemented not long after their specification was first proposed. With Internet Explorer 10, the company is doing a similar thing on a slightly larger scale, with a feature named Positioned Floats. Developed in conjunction with Adobe, Positioned Floats enable powerful page layouts not readily attainable with current CSS. The new design capabilities afforded by Positioned Floats should excite developers, but they can’t become standardized unless other browsers also implement them. Hopefully, others will follow Microsoft’s lead.
Preview 2 also includes support for the new Web File API, which gives browsers controlled, restricted access to the local file system. The company has been experimenting with this since early May, when it shipped a prototype implementation as part of its HTML5 Labs project. This is the first time that a technology has gone from HTML5 Labs into Internet Explorer proper. Though the prototypes are much less widely-used than the platform previews (which typically weigh in at about a million downloads), Microsoft says that the experience it gained developing the prototypes gave valuable insight into the way the API should work.
Rumor: Apple to launch iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 by September?
Katy Huberty from Morgan Stanley just returned to the U.S. after undisclosed meetings in Taiwan (possibly with Apple suppliers), when she informed investors that production for the next iPhone will “begin ramping up aggressively” from August to the end of 2011, according to Fortune. Based on her information, she believes these devices will be available to consumers by the end of September, and that Apple will be offering both the next-gen iPhone as well as a lower priced iPhone concurrently, according to AppleInsider.
Her colleague at Deutsche Bank, Chris Whitmore, made even bolder claims today by telling clients to “expect” both a pre-paid, unlocked iPhone 4S and a newly designed iPhone 5. He believes $349 would be the magic number to enable Apple to capture new customers, particularly in parts of the world where carriers do not subsidize the cost of handsets with a contract — that’s “1.5 billion potential customers in 98 countries, two thirds of whom prefer pre-paid plans” according to Fortune. As Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Fortune noted, “Whitmore does not cite any sources or claim any inside knowledge for his two-iPhone theory.”
Microsoft Sets Rival to Google Apps
If the Redmond, Wash., software maker succeeds with its online applications among those customers, it could tap into a new wave of growth for the venerable Office franchise, which is already used by more than one billion people world-wide, according to Microsoft.
The company also faces competitive issues: Google Inc. has won more converts to a rival set of online applications called Google Apps among small and mid-sized businesses than among large companies, according to analysts.
Office 365 includes the latest versions of Microsoft’s familiar suite of productivity applications—Word, Outlook, Excel and others—combined with online versions of related software for server systems that most people never see. That includes Exchange for messaging, SharePoint for collaboration and Lync for conferencing and communication.
For roughly $6 per user a month, Office 365 customers will get the traditional Office applications, either accessing them through a Web browser or by installing them on their PCs. Microsoft will run all of the servers that manage the Office applications in its own data centers.
Even if they run the Office productivity applications, the targeted customers—which usually have 500 or fewer employees—have been especially reluctant to install and run Microsoft’s Office server programs, in large part because of the costs associated with maintaining technology support staff and purchasing hardware.
California, New York Start Probe of Google
Officials in Texas and at the European Commission have started investigations into Google’s dominance of the Internet search industry. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said in March his office was “evaluating the facts” to determine whether it wanted to conduct a probe.
Google, operator of the world’s largest search engine, is coming under increasing scrutiny by regulators in the U.S. and Europe for some of its business practices. The Federal Trade Commission is preparing a broad antitrust investigation of the company, two people familiar with the matter said in April, while the antitrust division of the U.S. Justice Department is reviewing the company’s $400 million purchase of Internet advertising company Admeld Inc., two people familiar with the matter said last week.
Mistique Cano, a spokeswoman for Mountain View, California- based Google, declined to comment.
Lynda Gledhill, a spokeswoman for California Attorney General Kamala Harris, declined to comment. James Freedland, a spokesman for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, didn’t immediately return phone and e-mail messages seeking comment after regular business hours.