First tablets with Intel’s Oak Trail processor ship
The first tablets based on Intel's processor code-named Oak Trail started shipping late last week, with the initial models targeted at businesses.
Fujitsu's Q550 and Motion Computing's CL900 tablets have Intel's Z670 processor and Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system. The tablets have 10.1-inch screens and provide eight hours of battery life.
Working prototypes of Oak Trail tablets made an appearance in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and the chip was officially announced in April. Companies including Acer and Toshiba showed tablets with the chip at the Computex trade show in Taipei last week. Read more...
Extreme automation: FedEx Ground hubs speed deliveries
To someone standing outside the FedEx Ground distribution hub in Hagerstown, Md., the package delivery business appears deceptively simple.
On one side of the building, workers unload trucks full of boxes and parcels that have been picked up from businesses and various regional drop-off points. On the opposite side of the building, they load the same packages -- now sorted by ZIP code -- onto more trucks. The outbound vehicles then head for points north, south, east and west to deliver their time-sensitive loads of small packages on a specified date -- FedEx Ground's specialty -- to destinations anywhere in the continental United States and Canada. Read more...
LulzSec claims it hacked FBI linked organization
Hacking group Lulz Security claimed it had hacked and defaced the web site of the Atlanta chapter of InfraGard, an organization affiliated to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, and leaked its user base.
The group said that they had hacked the InfraGard site after NATO and U.S. President Barack Obama had raised the stakes with regard to hacking, by treating it as an act of war. Read more...
Shock: Windows 8 optimized for desktop tablets
Microsoft demonstrated the next version of Windows this week, and the operating system has an interface almost nobody expected or predicted.
The default interface for Windows 8 will look almost nothing like Windows 7, but will look and feel a heck of a lot like Microsoft's cell-phone operating system, Windows Phone 7.
What's going on here?
Way back in February 2007, I told you about the coming era of touch-screen desktop computing -- "an iPhone the size of a big-screen TV." I asked: "Will the desktop version of this third-generation UI come from Apple, or Microsoft?" Read more...
Phone 7 Developers Limited To 20 Apps Per Day
Microsoft is restricting the certification of new mobile apps for Windows Phone Marketplace to no more than 20 a day per developer. The move is the latest sign that Microsoft's mobile-app strategy continues to be about positioning the marketplace as a source of high-quality mobile software.
Microsoft's aim is to maintain a balance between choice and customer experience by enabling customers to see a broader and more representative assortment of new Windows Phone 7 apps, noted Windows Phone blogger Todd Brix on Thursday. Read more...
Apple poised to introduce iCloud
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is taking a break from medical leave on Monday to preside over the opening of the company's annual conference for software developers.
And in a break from Apple's usual practice of shrouding its events in an air of mystery, the California gadget-maker this time revealed ahead of time what it plans to announce at the event in San Francisco. Read more...
Oracle Hands Off OpenOffice.org to Apache Software Foundation
Oracle has released a proposal that would transfer open source office suite OpenOffice.org to the Apache Software Foundation. Should this happen, OpenOffice.org will become a part of the Apache Incubator and operate under a permissive license, which means that there will be more flexibility in implementing source code changes, and there will no longer be a need to mandate the publication of such changes. Read more...
Get Net Nanny Free for a Year
Net Nanny is one of the more comprehensive parental control tools available. It offers all of the expected parental control features as well as some useful and unusual ones. And during the month of June you can get a full-year Net Nanny subscription for free. All you have to do is visit the Net Nanny Facebook page and click "Like."
If you're interested, don't waste any time. The giveaway nominally runs through the last minute of June 30, 2011, but Net Nanny is giving away a maximum of 2,000 copies. Read more...
Fresh Android Apps for June 3: Magic Hour – Camera, Thrutu update, Nano Panda
Isn’t it nice when you can make your gadgets more powerful through software? Improve your phone with today’s fresh Android apps. Magic Hour gives your phone’s camera a turbo charge of filters and editing and Thrutu boosts your regular old voice calls with sleek new features like MeetMe.
But you can’t always be so goal-focused. When it’s time for fun, try Nano Panda – a smart-science re-imagining of Cut the Rope, ah, with bears. Read more...
Rosetta Stone Launches iPad HD App
Rosetta Stone, maker of the popular software for learning a language, has released an interactive app for the Apple iPad and iPad 2 called TOTALe Companion HD. Rosetta Stone users with an active Rosetta Stone TOTALe (from $179 for level 1, 4 stars) account can access all their language learning course content on the app, which is free to download but requires authentication (TOTALe username and password). Rosetta Stone has had an iPhone app for several months, but this new iPad version rounds out some features that had been missing on the smaller device. Read more...
Lady Gaga, Eric Schmidt and others will invest ~$1M in Backplane internet starup.
What do Lady Gaga and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt have in common?
Schmidt’s Tomorrow Ventures and Gaga have partnered up to finance Cartier’s still in stealth startup, with Gaga being a 20% shareholder. Tomorrow Ventures is leading the angel round, which is currently at over $1 million. It is not clear yet as to whether the round has closed. Read more...