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Apple May Soon Let You Talk to the Hand

Apple's supply chain has clearly sprung a leak since Steve Jobs' passing: Every few months, it seems, a rumor or report from unnamed sources at this or that supplier makes the rounds. The current rumor is that Apple is hard at work at its next innovation -- and it's not a television set or a smart remote control. Instead, it is a watch.

The crux of the report is this: Intel has teamed up with Apple to build a Bluetooth-enabled iOS watch that sports a 1.5-inch screen from which users can make calls. The news was first reported in the Asian tech press. U.S. publications including Mobilegeek and TheNextWeb translated the reports and unearthed the details.

Apple did not respond to our request to comment for this story.

The Pebble Example

Certainly the demand for smartwatches is there, said Rob Walch, host of Today in iOS, pointing to Pebble's success on Kickstarter earlier this year.
Indeed, Walch expected Apple to announce a smartwatch in September, he told MacNewsWorld. Instead the company rolled out its upgraded iPod nano with a 2.5-inch multitouch screen.
Eventually, Apple will make a play with a smartwatch, he maintained, although the timing is less than clear.
"I guess it is like those people who keep predicting Apple will launch a smart TV. Sooner or later it will -- and if you keep on saying it, you will be eventually right," Walch said.

Something Is in the Works

Apple is clearly at work on something along these lines, Daniel M. Ladik, an associate professor of marketing at Seton Hall University, told MacNewsWorld. Whether it is a smartwatch or an Apple TV -- or possibly both -- remains to be seen, of course.
However, it's likely that the world will know sooner rather than later what Apple has up its sleeve, he said.
"Think about the state of Apple at the moment," continued Ladik. "Eighty-five percent of their sales in the latest quarter are from products they released in the last 12 months. When you think of the total revenue of a company the size of Apple, that has to be a record of some sort."
Also, Apple has changed its normal innovation cycle, he pointed out. The latest iPad arrived with the iPhone 5 in October -- with only six months between update cycles -- and the iPad mini came in November.
"Something new has to be happening in 2013," Ladik said. "There is no other reason to push a new iPad out that fast, as well as release the new mini iPad all within the same four-to-six-week window of iPhone 5."
It could be an Apple TV, but a smartwatch is not out of the question, he added. "Wearable computing is a hot trend, and Apple cannot let Google have all the fun with Google glasses, right?"

Ruminations on Functionality

Perhaps the most interesting question is what kind of functionality this alleged smartwatch would offer. The gadget could be little more than a Bluetooth accessory, displaying essential bits of data such as email or incoming phone calls for the user's quick reference, Walch suggested.
Or it could be a more elaborate play on Apple's part, offered Ladik. Users could speak to a Siri-powered smartwatch to access such content as music, stock information, a calculator and so on. Down the road, Apple could develop a whole new market for mini apps for a watch.
"I'm not sure what the price point will be for an Apple watch," he said, "but it has to be cheaper than what Google is suggesting its glasses might price at."

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NASA Shares Earth's Nighttime Glamour Shots.

NASA released a composite photo of the entire planet Earth, cloudless, at night, which it's calling the "Black Marble." Aside from a source of pretty images, the data set collected will give researchers lots of fodder to study humanity. "It's a breakthrough for us," Erle C. Ellis, associate professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. "The nighttime products we have are pretty poor quality compared to this."

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In 1972, we marveled at the beauty of our planet in a photo taken by the crew of Apollo 17 on its way to the moon. Dubbed the "Blue Marble," the iconic image depicted a blue-and-white globe floating in the blackness of space. On Thursday, we were treated to a different view of Island Earth, one with the undeniable stamp of humanity on it.

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) unveiled what's being called the "Black Marble" -- high-resolution photos taken of the dark side of the earth. That planet differs from the one captured by the camera of the astronauts because it shows how the human race transforms the earth by illuminating it at night. The NASA-NOAA photo was also more difficult to create than the one snapped by the astronauts. The photo and an accompanying animation are composites from data gathered by a satellite operated by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership over nine days in April and 13 days in October.
The photos are available for viewing and download at NASA's Earth at Night 2012 page.
To get a clear shot of every parcel of land on the planet's surface, the satellite had to circle the earth 312 times and collect 2.5TB of data.

Clouds Get In The Way

Composite photography is used to create a cloud-free view of the Earth, explained Chris Elvidge, a physical scientist at the NOAA who has been studying day-night band data for more than 20 years.
"There are always clouds in any image that you collect over the earth. There are very few areas that are cloud-free," he told TechNewsWorld. "We have a cloud detection algorithm, and we combined that with low-light imaging so over time we can accumulate enough cloud-free images to make a seamless mosaic that is a cloud-free view of the Earth at night," he observed.
Elvidge's group has been working on producing night photos of the Earth since 1994, but the tools used to create this latest batch of night images have allowed the scientists to hugely improve on past efforts with better spatial resolution and dynamic range.
The new instrumentation is so sensitive that it will detect terrain features on nights where there is no moonlight present, Elvidge explained. Because the new tools are an order of magnitude stronger than the old ones, they're detecting terrain illuminated by "sky glow."

Humanity's Footprint

Sky glow is created by a chemical reaction in the upper atmosphere that's faintly visible at night. "Sky glow is much, much dimmer than moonlight," Elvidge said. "How to filter out features lit by sky glow will be one of our biggest challenges as we go forward to improve our products."
The military has been taking photos of the Earth at night for some time now, but this is the first time this quality of data has been available to civilians, according to Steve Miller, a senior research scientist and deputy director at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University.
Nighttime photos offer a wealth of information unavailable in photos taken during daylight hours.
"What we're seeing here is the human footprint on the nighttime side," he told TechNewsWorld. "We're seeing centers of population. We're seeing how these areas correlate to economic activity, fossil fuel emissions, light pollution and emerging demographics."
In daylilght, "there are only a few things in terms of man-made items that you can bring out," he said. "We can see quite a bit more in terms of human activity at night."

Research Avenues Opened

When NASA releases the data behind the Black Marble photos, it will be a boon for researchers, according to Erle C. Ellis, associate professor for geography and environmental systems at the 00000University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

The United States at night

(click image to enlarge)

"It's a breakthrough for us," he told TechNewsWorld. "The nighttime products we have are pretty poor quality compared to this new one. There's no real way to observe human activity from space. You can only see secondary effects. For example, if a forest disappears, you don't know if someone cut it down or it burned down."
Because the data behind these photos is of a higher quality than has been available in the past, it will be easier to unravel the sources of light in the photos, he added. That will create a mine of riches for researchers.
"You can bet they'll be a lot of research projects built on this," he said.

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All Things Appy: Top 5 Android Shopping Tools.

By Patrick Nelson
TechNewsWorld
12/01/12 5:00 AM PT

Scan barcodes from your groceries and pantry items. Fivefly's Shopping List app then provides a master list with check boxes, and you simply check a box when you've replenished supplies. Simple. TechNewsWorld thinks this checkmark system is superior to apps that make you scan or enter the product label text each time.

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Welcome to All Things Appy -- TechNewsWorld's analysis of the best apps proliferating on our devices today.

Indicative of the superiority of portable geo-friendly apps over Web search and Web browsing is the Shopping genre.
Here are TechNewsWorld's suggestions for the top five store-agnostic free killer tools on the Android platform.
About the Platform
Google's Android OS is a mobile environment geared toward multitouch. Apps can be downloaded from the Google Play store.
From the device's app drawer, click on the Play icon. Then perform a search for the desired app.
No. 1: Barcode Scanner

The Zxing Team's Barcode Scanner boasts 50,000,000 to 100,000,000 installs, according to Google Play. It has an average rating of 4.2 out of a possible five from 305,129 reviewers.

Keep things simple with Barcode Scanner.
Scan the product barcode wandering the aisles and read up on the product via a Google Web search or Google's shopping Web pages.
That's it.
It's super useful when showrooming, in-store browsing, price-matching, or looking for independent reviews and specifications.
Barcode Scanner is No. 1 on our list because it's the fastest way to gather product intelligence, and it provides something previously unattainable.
No. 2: Shopping List

Shopping List from Fivefly is a shopping list manager with 500,000 to 1,000,000 installs, according to the Google Play store. It has a 4.3 average rating out of a possible five from 7,448 reviewers.

Scan barcodes from your groceries and pantry items. Fivefly's Shopping List app then provides a master list with check boxes, and you simply check a box when you've replenished supplies. Simple.
TechNewsWorld thinks this checkmark system is superior to shopping list apps that make you scan or enter the product label text each time.
Shopping List also features sharing and syncing, so family members don't duplicate purchases.
It's No. 2 on our list because it provides syncing and paperless efficiency.
No. 3: Coupons & Shopping -- GeoQponsShopping List

Coupons & Shopping -- GeoQpons is a coupon aggregator from publisher Most Useful Shopping App with 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 installs, according to the Google Play store. It has an average 4.4 rating out of a possible five from 6,655 reviewers.

GeoQpons is a highly comprehensive selection of retail and restaurant coupon links, as well as weekend newspaper-style specials ads. Don't go pounding the sidewalk locally without checking this app.
It contains many of the classic ads and coupons that clutter up our snail mail boxes and newspapers -- but with the advantage of app-driven favorite store alerts, search and geo-functions.
It's No. 3 on our list because this app saves you cash. However, be aware that some of the ads may need printing out.
No. 4: ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner
ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner from publisher ShopSavvy boasts 10,000,000 to 50,000,000 installs according to Google Play. It has an average rating of 4.2 out of a possible five from 89,590 reviewers.

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5 Cool Things You Can Do With PostgreSQL

By Karen Tegan Padir
LinuxInsider
Part of the ECT News Network
10/30/12 5:00 AM PT

One could write thousands of pages about all the features PostgreSQL offers. Instead, let's take a look at five features that are particularly interesting and find out where PostgreSQL sits in relation to other open source and proprietary database systems. PostgreSQL has a lot more to offer than might be immediately obvious.

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PostgreSQL is one of the most versatile, powerful and reliable object-relational database systems available. The enterprise-class open source database is in use by some of the largest companies in the world, handling exceptionally large workloads. But you knew all of that already, so let's talk about a few features in PostgreSQL you probably didn't know about already.
The fact is that PostgreSQL is a sophisticated creature. You have to dive beneath the surface to really understand just what PostgreSQL is actually capable of. We could write a War and Peace-sized compendium of all of PostgreSQL's features, but the comprehensive documentation for PostgreSQL takes care of that to a large extent. Instead, we want to call out five features today that are particularly interesting and show where PostgreSQL sits in relation to other open source and proprietary database systems.

Customize Your Data Types

With many database systems, you're more or less stuck with the data types that the creators of the database envisioned when the database system was created. Not so with PostgreSQL, which features Generalized Search Tree (GiST) indexing. One of the features of GiST is that PostgreSQL users can create custom data types that allow them to decide what to store and how to store it.
This has enabled some substantial projects based on PostgreSQL, such as the OpenFTS full-text search engine and PostGIS. PostGIS provides data types that are used by geographic information systems (GIS).
If your organization needs support for data types that aren't offered "out of the box," then PostgreSQL may provide the solution.

Easy Error Recovery

Mistakes happen, hardware fails, and Murphy's Law sometimes prevails. You want to be able to recover from transactions that were made by mistake or for any other reason. PostgreSQL has the ability to do this through what's called "transactional DDL" (Data Definition Language). DDL is the language that defines, essentially, how you can define and work with your database -- such as creating and dropping tables, altering objects, and so on.
With one exception (adding and dropping databases), all operations are transactional. Using the logs, you can easily recover from even very large changes. You might think that this is true for all databases, but it really isn't.

Querying XML Data

Many organizations are working with a lot of XML data these days. If you are in this position, you should take a look at PostgreSQL's XML features, which allow users to query XML data.
Using PostgreSQL, you can directly query XML data stored in the database and extract elements from the data stored in your database. For example, it's possible to store an XML file created in another application in PostgreSQL, and query just one element from the file rather than pulling the entire file and having to query it outside the database.

Baked-In Streaming Replication

Another compelling feature in PostgreSQL is streaming replication. You might not know this, but PostgreSQL 9.0 and later can continually update standby servers so that they're ready at a moment's notice.
Note that this isn't an extra feature; it's baked into the database as part of PostgreSQL's standard feature set.

12 Authentication Systems Supported

One of the challenges that teams face when deploying any service is making sure that the service supports the type of authentication that's in use. While PostgreSQL may not support every type of authentication imaginable, it certainly comes close. Current PostgreSQL releases support 12 authentication systems.
Whether you're using an all-UNIX environment and LDAP, or putting PostgreSQL in an environment that's primarily Windows with Active Directory, PostgreSQL comes prepared. In addition to LDAP and Kerberos, PostgreSQL also supports GSSAPI, password-based authentication, RADIUS, or even "trust-based" authentication for situations when anyone that can connect to the server is assumed to be allowed to connect (we don't recommend that last one for most usage, though).
As you can see, PostgreSQL has a lot more to offer than might be immediately obvious. Already familiar with these features? Tell us -- what features do you find most interesting in PostgreSQL?

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iPad Mini: The Difference Is in the Details

Feature for feature, the iPad mini mainly bests its rivals in the 7-inch tablet market, but it does so at a price that's 65 percent higher than those competitors.

The mini has a larger display than Amazon's Kindle Fire HD and Google's Nexus 7. Its screen measures 7.9 inches diagonally, while the Fire and Nexus have 7-inch displays.

Apple's tablet is longer than both its competitors and wider than Google's slate, but in the important category of thinness, the mini is a svelte 0.28 inches, compared with 0.41 inches for the Nexus and 0.40 inches for the Fire.

Not only is the mini slimmer than its opposition, but it's lighter, too. It weighs 11.01 ounces, while the Nexus weighs 13.40 ounces and the Fire, 13.93 ounces.

Bigger Display, Lower Resolution

However, both the Fire and Nexus have higher-resolution displays than the mini. The Amazon and Google tablets have screens with resolutions of 1280x800 pixels, while Apple's slate has 1024x768 pixels.
Moreover, the Nexus display has a density of 216 pixels per inch, compared with the mini's 163 ppi. The Fire's also has a polarizing filter and anti-glare technology, which neither of its rivals have.
Both the Fire and the Nexus edge out the mini in the processor speed department. The A5 processor in the mini runs at an estimated 1GHz, while the Nexus has a Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core chip running at 1.3GHz and the Fire has a TI OMAP4 4460 running at 1.2GHz.
Apple offers a wider variety of storage options with its tablet -- 16, 32 and 64 GB -- compared with 16 and 32 GB for the Fire and 8 and 16 GB for the Nexus.

Dueling Cameras

All the 7-inch tablets have long-lasting batteries. The mini will run for 10 hours on a charge; the Nexus, nine hours; and the Fire, 11 hours.
The mini has twice the camera power of its competitors, with a 1.2-megapixel front-facing and 5-megapixel rear-facing camera. The Nexus only has a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera and the Fire an HD front-facing camera.
The Fire, however, beats both its competitors in the sound department. It has dual-driver stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus, while the Apple and Google slates have only have mono sound.
A full array of wireless options are available in by the iPad mini -- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, cellular and 4G LTE -- while its competitors only support WiFi.

Charging Too Much

One of the biggest differences between the mini and its rivals is its price tag. Its base price is US$329, compared with $199 for basic units of the Fire and Nexus 7.
"It is arguably the best 7-inch product in market," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at theEnderle Group.
"I think it could command as much as a 25 percent premium over other tablets like the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7. The problem is, it is priced 60 percent higher," he told MacNewsWorld.
"I can't justify this premium," he added. "I think this will be a very difficult product to move particularly in a market where cash remains very tight and at a time when folks are buying gifts for others," he added.

Premium Justified

Consumers will be the ultimate judge as to whether Apple is charging too much for the product, maintained Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps.
"In my view, Apple would be leaving money on the table if it met the competitors' price points because consumers have shown that they're willing to pay more for Apple products and the hardware is a higher quality than its competitors'," she told MacNewsWorld.
Apple has shown that the way its products are designed and built attracts customers to it, asserted Ben Bajarin, principal at Creative Strategies. "There is something to the build quality of a product that will be valued by big chunks of the market," he told MacNewsWorld.
In addition, the hundreds of thousands of apps made for the iPad make it a premium product, he argued. "Consumers will be asking themselves, 'Do I want to spend this much less on a device that really isn't the best experience in terms of software volume or am I willing to spend up and get what is arguably the best software experience on a tablet?'" he observed.
Nevertheless, there are those who feel that Apple missed a chance to drive a stake to the heart of its competition when it priced the iPad mini at $329. "For people who haven't bought into Apple, they've left plenty of opportunities for Amazon and the other guys," IDC analyst Bob O'Donnell told MacNewsWorld. "They could have delivered a crushing blow, but they didn't."

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Bogus Apps Litter Android With Malware

Android is one of the most popular mobile operating systems in the world. As a result, it's also one of the most popular mobile operating systems to be targeted by malware writers.

Malware aimed at Google's Android platform increased sixfold during the quarter that ended in September, according to a report released Monday by Trend Micro.

"What had been around 30,000 malicious and potentially dangerous or high-risk Android apps in June increased to almost 175,000 between July and September," Trend Micro reported in its third-quarter Security Roundup.

By far, the most prevalent way to deliver malware to Android handsets is through fake versions of legitimate apps. "What's happening is the bad guys are downloading good applications, like Angry Birds, and republishing them under similar names with trojans and malware in them," Trend Micro CTO Raimund Genes told TechNewsWorld.

Adware Rising

Researchers also found an increase in aggressive Android adware that pushes the boundaries of advertising.
"Most mobile adware are simply a business  model used to pay for an app offered for free or at low costs to users. But we also identified several adware that pose serious privacy-related threats," according to the report
"Apps that access your call history without informing you via an end-user license agreement (EULA) or their user interface (UI) constitute malicious behavior from a security perspective," the report adds.
The report also identifies the top spam-sending countries in the world. Saudi Arabia (21 percent) is at the top of the list, followed by India (18 percent), Turkey and the United States (7 percent), Peru (4 percent) and Brazil (3 percent).
In the future, Africa will become a leading source of spam, Genes predicted. "In certain parts of Africa, you now have reliable bandwidth and high throughput without any laws against spam," he explained.

Door Opened for Breach Lawsuits

Victims of data breaches may find it easier to pursue lawsuits against companies holding their data under a recent decision handed down by a federal court of appeals in Florida.
In the case, Resnick v. AvMed, the court made it harder to summarily dismiss lawsuits seeking damages for consumers victimized by data breaches by lowering the bar for showing a causal link between a data breach and identity theft.
"That's very important because if a data breach class-action lawsuit survives the dismissal stage, it generally means the defendant has to defend the case through at least the class certification stage," Bradley Arant Boult Cummings attorney Michael Pennington told TechNewsWorld.
That increases the pressure on a defendant to settle the case, he maintained. "A class certification hearing in federal court is a very risky proposition for a defendant," he said. "The publicity that attends these types of class actions is not very desirable."
In the Resnick case, two laptops containing confidential information were stolen from AvMed. Fourteen months later, two victims of the theft discovered their identities had been stolen. In the past, courts wouldn't have considered the connection between theft of the laptops and the theft of the identities strong enough to warrant a lawsuit, according to Pennington.
"Simply because AvMed had a data breach really proves nothing about whether the identity thieves got the data they used from AvMed," he argued. "That type of information is available from any number of sources."
However, in its decision, the court found that Resnick had "pled sufficient facts to allow for a plausible inference that AvMed's failures in securing their data resulted in their identities being stolen."
"They have shown a sufficient nexus between the data breach and the identity theft beyond allegations of time and sequence," it added.

Survey Roundup

Some 84 percent of Americans say they obey the rules for creating strong passwords, according to a survey released last week by Eset.
The study also showed that a greater percentage (89 percent) of adults over 55 years old said they used a combination of numbers, letters and symbols when they created their passwords than younger adults (77 percent), those in the 18- to 34-year-old group.
The fact that young adults aren't as security conscious as their older peers is important, according to Eset Security Evangelist Stephen Cobb. "It's significant because these are people in the workforce using computers at work at home exposing themselves unnecessarily to risk," he told TechNewsWorld.
He maintained that one reason workers create poor passwords is they lack security training. A recent Eset survey showed that only 10 percent of the respondents had received such training. "If you've got a workforce where only one out of 10 people is getting any up-to-date security training, then that should raise a red flag," he said.
In other surveys news, eleven, a German e-mail security firm, found that in September alone e-mails containing malware increased 119 percent. It also reported that email containing links to drive-by malware websites increased by a factor of 80 in September and that 9.5 percent of all spam contains such links. Overall, spam volumes dropped in the September quarter, 72 percent to 82.9 percent.
A survey of British consumers released last week by security firm Sophos revealed that 42 percent of devices lost or left in non-secure places had no active security measures on them to protect them. It also found that 20 percent of lost devices contained work mail that could potentially expose confidential corporate information.

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Google's New Chromebook Caters to Cloud Crowd

                                
Google's newest Chromebook is less hefty, both in weight and in price, which may induce people who are on the fence to embrace the joy of cloud computing. The WiFi version can be had for $250, and a 3G model is on the way for $80 more. It comes with up to 100 MB of data per month, courtesy of Verizon.

Google unveiled a new Samsung Chromebook on Thursday, available for pre-order at US$249. The new model is more streamlined and far cheaper than its predecessors.

Samsung Chromebook

It costs $200 less than the Samsung Chrome 550, which was released earlier this year, and $100 less than the Series 5 model, which debuted last year.

The sleek new form factor is compelling, said Craig Stice, senior principal analyst for compute platforms at IHS iSuppli.

"To have a successful product in mobile, it has to be very thin, very light," he told TechNewsWorld. "That is enough to draw attention from other products that are out there."

Cloud Computer

This new machine does appear to be aimed at those wanting a sleek profile as it is just 0.8-inches thick, and weighs in at just 2.5 pounds. It features an 11.6-inch screen that supports a 1366x768 display. While not the highest-resolution screen out there, it reportedly does the job. It includes a webcam and microphone, enabling online video chatting.
It's light on connections with just one USB 3.0 port and one USB 2.0 port, plus an HDMI output and SIM card slot. However, it is primarily a cloud computing device, with Internet access via WiFi. A 3G model is available for preorder from Amazon for $330.
The Chromebook provides 16 GB of local SSD storage, as well as100 GB of cloud-based Google Drive storage, free for two years. The machine is thus clearly designed for life in the cloud.
"It is kind of in its own niche sort of thing," said Stice. "It is really just a Web device. It is an interesting type of product, a light computing device in a nice form factor."
Google did not respond to our request for further details.

Breaking Windows 8

The timing of the announcement is certainly interesting, and it isn't clear if the intent was to steal some thunder from Microsoft in advance of next week's long-anticipated release of Windows 8.
However, "Samsung and Google aren't stealing much thunder here," said Roger Kay, principal analyst of Endpoint Technologies Associates. "The purely Web device is still a thing of the future, and it hasn't made much headway in the marketplace so far. Its day will come when there's something approaching full connectivity."
The new device's reduced price could make that future closer.
"The Chromebooks have tended to lag far behind tablets in consumer interest and uptake [but] that may have been due, at least in part, to the $500-plus pricing of the original Chromebooks," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.
"The lack of touch-enablement is another likely factor. The new Chromebook's $249 entry price -- plus two years/100GB of Google Drive storage -- should shatter the first barrier," he pointed out.
"More importantly, along with the recent addition of the Nexus 7, Google is the only vendor that has two distinct devices capable of leveraging its notable array of Web-centric applications and services," King told TechNewsWorld. "With the Surface, Microsoft seems to be aiming at delivering a best of both worlds -- touch- and keyboard-enabled -- solution that is clearly aimed at Apple's iPad."
The announcement's timing may mean nothing more than the onset of the annual shopping frenzy.
"We're entering the holiday season," said Stice. "So there are a host of platforms and products that are going to be launched. The fact that this was announced in advance of Windows may have been strategic on Google's part, but there are so many weeks in the fall."

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Should Linux Take a Lesson From Apple?

The Secure Boot saga may seem like it's been dragging on forever here in the Linux blogosphere, but the truth is that it's a mere babe in Redmond arms compared with the never-ending Apple v. Samsung drama.

It seems safe to say that most FOSS fans are sick to death of hearing about both of them, of course, but recently the always-insightful team over at TuxRadar posed yet another interesting question. Specifically, "What can Linux really steal from Apple?" was the title of thelatest Open Ballot poll posted on the thought-provoking site, and there's no doubt it's provoked a lot of thinking.

"Is it the design aesthetic, or its uncompromising attention to detail?" the TuxRadar team asked. "Or how about its dictatorial approach to development? Or the narrowness of its hardware provision? Or would you like to transplant some of that famous Cupertino idolatry into the free software ecosystem, or simply shroud each Ubuntu release within Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field."

More than two dozen comments appeared in short order on the TuxRadar site; unanimity, however, was harder to find.

'Hang On, That's Ubuntu'

To wit: "A respect for design would be nice," suggested Spanwiches.

Alternatively: "Steve Wozniak -- the only innovative thing Apple really had," offered eages.

Then again: "Nothing!" chimed in Willhem Tell. "Linux for me is freedom of choice. It's about diversity. I can switch between distros and desktop managers. For free.

"Appl€ is the exact opposite: it's mind numbing 'eat or die,' no choice and costs money," Willhem Tell added.

And again: "1. App[le] store. 2. Disappearing scrollbars. 3. Pretending that your desktop is actually a tablet," quipped Steve Occupations. "Oh hang on, that's Ubuntu."

When Linux Girl broached the subject down at the blogosphere's Walled Garden Cafe, she immediately got an earful.

'Its Public Relations Department'

"Technologically speaking, there's really nothing that Linux can steal from Apple," opined Google+ blogger Linux Rants, for example. "Usually, it's going the other way. While Apple is held up as a bastion of innovation, it's hard to find a feature that they have that wasn't present in Linux long before they incorporated it.

"Apple doesn't innovate," he added. "They take other people's innovations and add a little spit and polish and call it new."

If there were one thing that Linux could stand to steal from Apple, however, "it would be its Public Relations department," Linux Rants suggested.

"Linux has gotten the reputation as a hobbyists' OS that's hard to install and even harder to use," he explained. "This reputation doesn't sync with reality, but it's hard for Linux users and corporations to sell that to the public. Apple PR could really help in that regard, as they'd actually be able to sell something that was real, instead of claimed innovation that's really just dusted-off, 10-year-old ideas."

'Their Graphic Designers'

Chris Travers, a blogger who works on the LedgerSMB project, saw it differently.

"The one thing Apple shows which many Linux developers have known for some time, is that design matters and that engineering is best directed by small groups," Travers offered. "But we really can't steal that since we've known it for some time.

"So, I guess that means the next best thing: steal some of their graphical designers," he concluded. "But leave their technical designers: design-wise, OS X is more or less very unlike Unix."

'There Isn't a Lot to Take'

Alternatively, "Linux needs to take the hint and make sure common tasks work well rather than just worrying about new features," opined consultant and Slashdot blogger Gerhard Mack. "If the common tasks are easy to do then the whole platform looks better."

Then again, "Apple is primarily a hardware company, and Linux is software," Google+ blogger Kevin O'Brien pointed out. "So there isn't a lot to take, I would think.

"And just in terms of software, Apple is the most freedom-limiting company out there, so I certainly would not want Linux to take that from them," O'Brien added.

Indeed, "from Apple? Nothing," agreed Robin Lim, a lawyer and blogger on Mobile Raptor. "From its grandchild... many versions, with many app stores all hosting compatible apps."

'The World Should Shun Apple'

"Stealing from Apple? No way," exclaimed blogger Robert Pogson. "We are already dependent on them for CUPS, Safari and WebKit, and they show themselves to be patent trolls.

"I remember using Apple's software in schools a decade ago," Pogson added. "They shipped stuff that crashed hourly and had a viscous networking stack. They 'stole' a Unix core, and now they accuse anyone who has rounded corners on anything."

In short, "the world should shun Apple until they show a little bit of humility at least," he concluded.

'Take the Android Approach'

"If you wanna take something from Apple, take making actual money from desktops, laptops, and tablets," Slashdot blogger hairyfeet advised. "Give companies a way to survive while selling Linux so you can build critical mass."

On the other hand, "GNU/Linux is more like a cultural phenomena than a commercial initiative," Google+ blogger Alessandro Ebersol pointed out.

Still, "companies can use it and make it a commercially viable option," he asserted. "How? Take the Google/Android approach: a great OS, with the lowest price possible (free, in many cases) and customize it to the manufacturer's hardware."

It's Android, in fact, that offers the best example for Linux as a whole, Ebersol concluded.

Follow that example and "GNU/Linux will be a killer OS," Ebersol predicted. "The companies can tinker with the OS to make it awesome and then take advantage of the GNU/Linux ecosystem. Then, GNU/Linux can not only compete with Apple, but gain market share from both Apple and Microsoft." 

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Twitter Grapples With Wiggly Censorship Line in Germany

Twitter on Thursday blocked tweets from the accounts of a neo-Nazi group that is in violation of German law. The ban is effective only within Germany. This is the first time Twitter has acted on its "country withheld content" policy, which it first announced in January.

Twitter enacted the policy in an effort to balance freedom of expression with compliance with local laws. This is far from the first time that a company has confronted that problem. In 2000, a French court ordered Yahoo to block access in France to auctions that sold Nazi memorabilia.

Since the end of World War II, many nations have adopted laws against the display of Nazi images, including flags, and Germany has banned certain groups. It was last month that the state of Lower Saxony declared the group Besseres Hannover (Better Hannover) illegal, and German authorities requested that the group's Twitter account be shut down.

Instead, Twitter blocked the account's tweets, but only in Germany.

Twitter did not respond to our request for further details.

Has the Censorship Sailed?

The issue here could be a tricky one. On one hand, this could be seen as enforcing efforts to stop hate speech and silence banned organizations -- something that might seem reasonable in this case. However, it could also be viewed as censorship that could, in turn, silence banned groups clamoring for freedom from oppressive regimes.

"Are they crossing the line? According to the laws in Germany, no," Alan Webber, industry analyst and managing partner at the Altimeter Group, told TechNewsWorld. "According to the laws in Germany, this is within the law."

But what does this mean for other countries -- notably those with laws in place designed to silence calls for freedom?

"Twitter has entered a very challenging arena and slippery slope," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Research. "Countries around the world have widely varying laws on speech and censorship. Most are not as liberal as the U.S. -- see China, India, the Middle East."

Local Laws, Local Problems

The old environmentalist line of "think global, act local" could also come into play with Internet freedom. In the meantime, though, it seems that corporations such as Yahoo and eBay will likely continue to bow to local laws, and the social networks appear to be doing the same.

Is this something that can be managed and controlled, expecially when blocking whole groups or organizations?

"Twitter could simply take the position that it's going to comply with local laws but then it gets into the thorny area of evaluating the legality or legitimacy of speech in any given context, which is what it has done in Germany," Sterling told TechNewsWorld. "But the volume of messages and the global scale of Twitter's business  and reach make that a nightmare from a compliance perspective."

The other part of this particular equation is that social networking has enabled greater communication, making enforcement challenging, but also making understanding of the law all the more difficult and convoluted.

"Twitter can't really take the position that it's going to ignore domestic law and impose U.S. law on other countries," Sterling added. "This issue arises because you've got people publishing content in one country and consuming it in another. That's never really been the case with any other medium to the same degree."

What Is the Line Online?

The final piece is what this does suggest about concerns that governments could merely call for censorship. What's the likelihood that Twitter will now comply with calls from Syria, Iran, China, Thailand, and other nations that have imposed harsh restrictions on what people can say or post online?

Part of the problem may be the difficulty of applying physical borders in the virtual world -- if that can even be done at all.

"We still have these very physical borders, and we're not sure how this works in the virtual world," said Altimeter Group's Webber.

"Our laws and policies are not set up to deal with that, and a lot of people realize there is no line anymore," he pointed out.

"The simplest answer is that there is no line -- we don't know how this will play out," Webber said. "This is going to be the big question for the next 10 years."

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Google to Developers: You Have the Con

The new console will help developers navigate the Android app ecosystem with a bit more clarity, said Al Hilwa, program director, applications development software at IDC. "The Android platform is known for being chaotic and not intimately supported by Google," he said. "Clearly Google's a believer in self-service for developers, and they're improving workflows, expanding language and enhancing the analytics."

Google on Monday made its new Android developer console available to devs everywhere on Google Play.

The console was announced at Google I/O in July, and devs were invited to test out a beta version.

"The developer tools and portal are key areas of enablement for any application platform," Al Hilwa, program director, applications development software at IDC, told LinuxInsider. "With the coming launch of Windows Phone 8, which ups the ante in this area, it is not surprising that Google has been investing here."

"Both Android and iOS have been very lacking in providing developers with a proper back channel to know how users are seeing, choosing and ultimately using their apps," Sam Abadir, chief technology officer at appMobi, said. The new console provides Android devs with "some insight" into reviews over time.

The Console's Features

Google has overhauled the interface so users will easily find their way around using navigation and search, and so that it loads quickly even if users have a lot of apps.

The console lets devs track the success of their app over time. It provides a graph showing changes over time for both the all-time average user rating and new user ratings that come in on a certain day.

Devs will be able to break down the data by device, country, language, carrier, Android version and app version.

Google has also revamped and streamlined the app publishing process. Devs can either begin with an Android application package file (APK) or an app name, and can save their work before they have all the information. Devs can also now see the differences between the new and old versions of an app. This lets them catch unintentional changes before publishing a new version of an app.

Once a dev has saved changes to an app in the console, users will be able to see it in any of 49 languages on the Web. Translation is automatic. Google plans to offer this multilanguage capability on mobile devices.

The console does not yet support advanced features such as multiple APK support, APK expansion files, and announcements. Devs will have to switch back to the old version to use these.

Order From Chaos

"The Android platform is known for being chaotic and not intimately supported by Google," IDC's Hilwa said. "Clearly Google's a believer in self-service for developers, and they're improving workflows, expanding language and enhancing the analytics, [which] are all essential for the continued success of the platform in the face of a well-capitalized and serious Microsoft that is hoping to gain more market share in mobile device with Windows Phone 8."

The overall processes for "navigating the tension between freedom and chaos" tops Hilwa's list of the benefits of the new console.

"Since Android supports so many concurrent OS versions running on so many devices, it would be very useful for developers to see what OS versions and devices their apps are being installed and used on," appMobi's Abadir told LinuxInsider. However, he did not see that functionality in the description of the console.

Further, the additional insight into reviews provided by the new console "is really a small step," Abadir continued. "The data developers really need to intelligently improve their apps in the field [include] analytics that track usage patterns, and clickstreams." These features are included in appMobi's HTML 5 mobile app cloud services.

Taking On iOS

The new Android dev console "is an iterative enhancement of the Android developer experience," Abadir stated. "It's not a crucial advance."

Still, "it's well known that Apple's developer dashboards and analytics are extremely lacking, so Google could have seen this area as a place to quietly show developers a better experience," Abadir suggested.

Quieting Restless Devs

Last year, a spate of complaints from Android devs about their not getting fully paid erupted on the Android Market forum.

Several devs pointed out that Google was dogged by payment processing problems. At least three said they weren't getting paid for about half the orders, and another, "davemorrisseyLevel 5," said he wasn't getting paid for Web-based orders.

That led Google to close the Android Market forum to devsand require them to contact it directly with problems.

"Separating forums allows different groups and workflows, and different service level agreements to be applied to the different groups," IDC's Hilwa remarked.

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Microsoft Dances Closer to the Set-Top With Xbox Music

Microsoft's new Xbox Music service represents one component of the company's effort to fortify its ecosystem. Cable and satellite TV providers -- not just online music service services -- should worry about Xbox Music's debut, noted tech analyst Rob Enderle. Like Apple TV, the Xbox could one day replace traditional cable boxes with alternatives tied to a parent technology.

Microsoft is taking another stab at the digital music industry with the Tuesday launch of Xbox Music, a streaming music service that will be an update to the Xbox. It will also be released as a built-in feature on Windows 8 PCs and tablets later this month.

Xbox Music lets users listen to music in whatever way -- and on whatever device -- they choose.

Users will be able to stream the service's 30 million tracks for free in an ad-supported version or purchase it at the now ubiquitous price point of 99 US cents per song.

There's also an option to pay $9.99 per month for unlimited cloud-based streaming of music purchases and playlists to any device.

A Microsoft spokesperson was not immediately available to provide further details.

The Post-Zune Era

This, of course, is not Microsoft's first stab at entering the digital music market. There was the Zune brand, now retired after failing to gain much traction.
There are some similarities between Xbox Music and Zune -- both are multichannel services that incorporate the use of other Microsoft products.
Zune included a line of portable media players, digital media player software for Windows, a music subscription service, music and video streaming services for the Xbox 360 game console and the media software for Windows Phone, among other features. It was all discontinued a year ago.

Xbox as Set-Top Box

Xbox Music is clearly different from Zune in some important respects -- and it can be expected to change the Xbox dynamic, Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group told TechNewsWorld.
The Xbox is being positioned as more of a set-top box going forward, he said. Microsoft carved out its identity at first with games and then movies -- and now it is incorporating music into the mix.
In fact, cable providers should be just as worried as other online music providers about Xbox Music. Like Apple TV, it is trying to replace traditional cable boxes with alternatives tied to a parent technology.
"Music has proven relatively easy, and Microsoft leads with games; it is video that remains the bridge too far and both firms are struggling here," said Enderle.

Digital Music Nation

Microsoft has another factor in its favor now with Xbox Music. Digital music has become mainstream, and consumers expect easy access and a smooth experience, said Patrick Reynolds, EVP of marketing for Triton Digital.
"There has never been more interest in or listening to online music," he told TechNewsWorld. The market has become a very big pool, and "there's room for more than one player."
The growing reliance on smartphones for everything is also changing how music is consumed, Enderle noted. "We may find that media services and access will define battles ranging from set-top boxes to smartphones over the next decade."

Table Stakes

In fact, a good music service has become table stakes for both Apple and Microsoft, Enderle said. It will be a critical issue for Google as well, if it is not already.
Google still relies mostly on third parties, he noted. However, "their music service, while not as well known, is actually rather good, being a bit more consumer-focused and a bit less record-label friendly."
In this rapidly shifting environment, can Microsoft make a dent? How the user experience syncs up with the broader environment could be crucial.
"It depends on how baked-in it is to the other aspects of the Xbox environment," said Reynolds. "If the experience is great and seamless and additive to the overall consumer experience, it will work."

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Acer's Windows 8 Tablet Edges Into iPad Turf

Ramping up for the holiday season, Acer this week announced the Iconia W510 Windows 8 hybrid tablet, just five days after it unveiled the W700 Win 8 tablet PC.

The W510 is offered in four versions -- as a standalone tablet PC with 32 or 64 GB of RAM, with a keyboard dock, or as a full-fledged business  device running Windows 8 Pro.

The Acer Iconia W510 hybrid tablet

(click image to enlarge)

Prices range from US$499 to $799 and the W510 will be available on Nov. 9.

"Acer has designed its new Windows 8 tablet PC to serve customers who want to maximize productivity and have a first-rate tablet experience," Acer spokesperson Kelly Odle told TechNewsWorld. "The new Iconia W510 provides a versatile environment for customers to stay productive and be entertained."

What It Offers

All four versions of the Iconia W510 run on an Intel Atom Z2760, have a 10.1-inch Gorilla Glass 2 touchscreen with 1366 x 768 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio, and have two cameras.

The front camera is a 2 MP device and the rear one an 8 MP device. Both offer 1080 HD audio and video recording. The rear camera has autofocus and LED flash support.

All four have HD audio support, Dolby Home Theater v4 , two built-in speakers and digital microphone, and support 802.11 a/b/g/n, WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0.

The four models all have a Micro-HDMI port, a micro SD card reader port, and a micro USB 2.0 port.

Battery life is up to nine hours for the 32- and 64- GB basic tablets, and up to 18 hours. The other two versions both include the keyboard dock, which has a second battery that provides another roughly 9 hours of life.

The corporate version, running Win 8 Pro, will support enterprise legacy programs and provide security and authentication through theTrusted Platform Module, which is optional, Acer said. It will come with a two-year warranty.

The Iconia W510 weighs 1.27 pounds on its own, and 2.63 pounds with the keyboard dock.

Hitting the Price Point

The basic $500 model will compete directly with the iPad, but "it will be difficult for [Acer] to gain traction at that price point," Julien Blin, a directing analyst at Infonetics, told TechNewsWorld.

"The best way to gain traction is to undercut Apple [by offering the tablet at] $200 to $300, but then Acer would have to compete with Amazon, Google's Nexus 7 and the Nook Color," Blin continued.

Although the top-of-the-line model "will appeal to some business users as Windows 8 is a good fit for the enterprise, I don't think that Windows 8 tablets will drive significant sell-through like the iPad based on the premium price," Blin said. Microsoft "will try to convert" many of their 1.3 billion Windows users to its Win 8 tablets and, while they may not generate significant sell-through at the beginning, "over time it might be different."

It would be best to compare the Iconia 510 to Android tablets rather than the iPad, Jeff Orr, a senior practice director at ABI Research, suggested. "There's Apple and there's the rest of the market, and going against the rest of the market depends on providing a coherent story on why your product is a better choice."

The hybrid form factor is fine because "there's a market for [them]," Infonetics' Blin remarked. "Business users want to use a tablet that's highly portable and lets them be productive on the go with robust B2B features such as virtual private networks, mobile device management and FIPS."

FIPS is the Federal Information Processing Standard, a United States government computer security standard. 

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Thinning Out Your Gadget Hoard

New iPhone? Now, what to do with the old one, and the one before that?

Wondering what to do with the old, redundant gear spilling out of drawers, relegating your automobile to the driveway or street?

Step 1: Gather It Up

Collect all of the household electronics that are no longer being used and place the smaller items, with chargers and any peripherals, into a clear zip-style kitchen bag.

Look for phones and games in particular. They can be the mother lode.

Then place the bag in a dedicated obsolete gadget box. A purchased plastic box from a superstore works better than cardboard. It gives the project a semblance of seriousness -- it's a revenue-producing project rather than just another box full of junk.

Step 2: Make a List

Inventory and identify what you've got.

You can consider certain obsolete technologies redundant e-waste -- valueless, unsaleable and never to be used again. They include anything where technology has been superseded rather than just improved.

For example, e-waste includes the heat-creating, eco-unfriendly bulk of a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) computer monitor.

In-demand, valued electronics genres:

• anything gaming-related, including consoles, software and accessories;
• DVD and Blu-ray discs and players;
• computing tech, including anything with an edge -- for example, a wireless mouse but not a wired mouse;
• phones and accessories;
• general small electronics, including anything photography-related, memory cards, GPS devices;
• big stuff like monitors, projectors and televisions a long as they're current; and
• music.

Tip: Items that are being replaced by electronic versions have some value, including some books and CDs.

Step 3: Establish Priorities

Decide how much time you want to spend on this project. There's a correlation between time and income.

Start with small electronics -- the least time consuming and most profitable. They are easy to get rid of and will pay for your time.

For example, I sold an unlocked, used Palm Treo smartphone to online electronics exchange and buyer CeX for US$23 earlier this year. I paid for the postage, so netted around $20.

Examples of high-value items CeX has a market for, according to its website last Friday, are the black Apple iPhone 4S with 16 GB of memory on the Sprint network. They will pay you $230 or exchange for $276.

They'll pay you $492 for a used Canon EOS 7D 18 Megapixel camera body only or give you $591 in exchange credit.

Larger electronics and white goods appliances taking up space can be sold via local community moderated, free online classifieds like Craigslist.

Alternative electronics markets include auction websites like eBay. Along with the CeX iPhone listing, I saw a similarly specified, used black Apple iPhone 4S with 16 GB of memory on eBay with case, selling for $285, and the buyer paid shipping.

Auction websites are more time-consuming than online buyers like CeX, but in the case of the auction websites you can make more money.

Tip: Look for store credit, or buyback schemes at the device manufacturer or mobile network's website.

Step 4: Take Out the Trash

This is not a time to get sentimental, particularly if your residential square footage is low and your rent or mortgage is high.

Ask yourself if you intend to launch the Museum of Obsolete Computer Displays sometime in the next 20 years.

No? Then one of the good places to offload gear you haven't been able to sell is retailer Best Buy, which accepts nearly everything small and electronic. It will remove larger items for free, under certain circumstances, with a delivery.

There are in-store drop bins at Staples and Radio Shack stores among others.

Curbside waste haulers can often pickup major appliances if you call them, but they may charge.

Your local municipality may hold free e-waste collection events, but those events may not accept major appliances.

Looking toward the future -- this is becoming a major industry. Look for ATMs and kiosks that pay cash for gadgets in malls sometime soon.

Want to Ask a Tech Question?

Is there a piece of tech you'd like to know how to operate properly? Is there a gadget that's got you confounded? Please send your tech questions to me, and I'll try to answer as many as possible in this column.

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