Amazon competition to highlight cloud usage among startups
Amazon Web Services has opened the fifth annual AWS Start-Up Challenge, a contest that aims to recognize innovative uses of its cloud computing platform, the company said on Monday.
Cloud services are a good fit for startups. They have leveled the playing field as smaller companies gain the resources to compete in ways that were very expensive and often cost-prohibitive in the past, according to Amazon.
This year the competition has expanded its footprint and is open to entries from the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The first prize is $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in service credits, premium support services for and technical mentorship from Amazon Web Services for one year, as well as a possible investment offer from Amazon, the company said in a statement. Read more...
Google to help developers adapt their Android apps for tablets
Google is organizing a series of Android Developer Labs (ADLs) that aim to help developers convert their existing smartphone applications to run on Honeycomb-based tablets, it said in a blog post on Monday.
The first lab is today in Bangalore. The rest will take place in the U.S., starting with two in Seattle on Aug. 15 and 16, and then in New York on Aug. 23 and 24. The last lab will be in Los Angeles on Sept. 2, according to the blog post.
The labs are specifically aimed at optimizing Android applications for tablets, according to Google. The company will, for example, detail how to redesign a smartphone user interface to take advantage of the tablet's larger screen size. The goal is for a developer to bring an application into the lab and "leave equipped to make it into one that makes Android tablet users smile," Google writes. Read more...
Twitter snags ‘significant’ funding, looks to expand reach
Twitter confirmed today that it has raised a "significant round of funding" that executives hope to use to expand the site's reach.
The company noted in a blog post this morning that the funding was led by the venture firm DST Global, with several previous Twitter investors participating as well. While Twitter did not specify how much funding was brought in, the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital reported recently that Twitter was working to sew up an $800 million funding deal.
The Journal also reported that $400 million of that funding will be used to cash out current investors and employees.
Twitter declined to comment on the funding amount or what exactly it will be used for. Read more...
Is the bell tolling for Windows XP?
Microsoft's Windows XP has slipped under the 50 percent share mark for the first time since Web measurement co
mpany Net Applications began tracking operating system usage.
The decade-old XP closed July with 49.8 percent, a 1.3-percentage point drop from June, Net Applications said today. Although XP still powers a majority of Windows machines, July's decline means it has lost its majority status among all operating systems.
Other metrics firms marked an earlier fall for XP. The Irish company StatCounter, for instance, said that the OS slipped under 50 percent last January. But unlike that rival, Net Applications' methodology weights its data by country to more accurately reflect use in countries like China, which produces relatively little data for Western measurements but has a huge pool of PC users. Read more...
Michael Dell: We’re a ‘solutions’ company
Few CEOs have witnessed more change from the same seat as Michael Dell. When he founded Dell in the 1980s, his Austin company was among the first to sell PCs by mail, often at a lower price and with better tech support than established competitors offered. The '90s saw Dell extend that lean and mean approach to become a pioneer in user-customized systems and just-in-time manufacturing. And in the 2000s, with the rise of Linux, Dell established itself as a leading supplier of hardware to the data center -- both x86 servers and enterprise storage systems. Read more...
HP sics Spaniards on Larry Ellison
Hewlett-Packard's legal fight with Oracle over Intel's Itanium processor has now landed in Spain.
On Friday, La Comisión Nacional de la Competencia (CNC), the Spanish antitrust authority, released a statement saying that it had launched for formal investigation into Oracle's decision to cease development of its database, middleware, and application software on the Itanium processor.
The Itanium chip is the heart of HP's Integrity line of midrange and big iron servers. HP is the main peddler of Itanium iron, and it is directly affected by Oracle's decision to stop development of future releases of its code on the chip. The Spanish investigation into Oracle is the result of a complaint that HP filed with the CNC on July 6. Read more...
Will OS X Lion roar in the enterprise?
Since its release on July 20, Apple's newest version of OS X, known as Lion, has been bought, downloaded and installed by more than a million users. As an operating system, it represents a new paradigm: Apple's desktop platform is becoming more iOS-like. To date, most of the focus has been on new features like gestures, Mission Control, the new download-based install process, and user interface tweaks that are the biggest since the OS X public beta was introduced in 2000.
But what about Lion in the workplace? Certainly, it should appeal to small firms. But a growing number of companies have a large-scale installed base of Macs.
Here's a look at how Lion will affect the existing processes at those organizations and what companies considering a big Mac investment should keep in mind. Read more...
Shortages stifle MacBook Air
Spot shortages of the MacBook Air show that demand for Apple's recently-revamped notebook is off to a strong start, a Wall Street analyst said today.
"Certain models at some Apple stores are at times in short supply," said Brian White of Ticonderoga Securities. "In some cases, it's the high-end 11-inch [that's out of stock], while in others it's the low-end 13-inch. I don't think [the shortages] are broad-based, but demand is very, very strong."
White based his conclusion on spot checks of Apple retail stores.
Apple's online store, however, has indicated no shortages of MacBook Airs: Since the line's refresh on July 20, all models have shown a ship time within 24 hours of ordering. Read more...
Adobe Edge: 4 things you need to know
While you shouldn't expect Adobe's Edge to replace its Flash standard anytime soon, it will act as a gateway for the company to start using HTML5.
To help guide you through what Adobe Edge will and won't do, we've put together a quick compilation of key facts about Adobe's newest HTML-based Web animation technology.
First: Adobe Edge will not replace Adobe Flash. Unlike Flash, which is the standard of choice for YouTube videos and Facebook games, Edge is designed to enable "simple animations" only, Read more...
iTwin shares files without a cloud in sight
iTwin is quite simple to operate: It's made up of two small devices that look like two standard USB keys, with one modification. While each has a standard USB connector at one end, at the other end the two keys connect together -- making it the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of tech devices. When you join them together, you basically get a single unit with a USB connector on either end.
You start by plugging the joined iTwin into the first computer. You are then prompted to install the iTwin software (which is resident on the device and only takes a few seconds). When that's done, the software asks if you want to be sent a unique number via email that can be used to disable either key if you need to (in case one goes missing). At that point, a virtual folder appears on your desktop onto which you can drag and drop any files you want to share. It's a fairly simple process -- anyone who has used applications such as Dropbox or Zumodrive will be familiar with it. Read more...