Samsung’s iOS rival gets multitasking and HTML5
Samsung has launched the next version of its own mobile platform Bada, bringing multitasking, HTML5 and a new advertising engine to Bada developers.
Bada developers can now download the SDK and start getting used to the new, scalable UI elements, push notifications, and the aforementioned multitasking and in-app adverts, but they'll have to wait for handsets before they'll be able to sell any of their enhanced v2 apps.
Samsung's Bada has been a simmering success for the company – Canalys reckons Samsung has shipped 4.5 million Bada handsets since launch, while Samsung claims to have seen more than 100 million downloads of the 40,000 applications in its application store (though Samsung's store also contains apps for its Android handsets). Read more...
Eucalyptus 3: Your own private Amazon cloud
Eucalytpus announced Version 3 of its open source IaaS (infrastructure as a service) software, which equips organizations with a way to build their own elastic, highly available AWS (Amazon Web Services)-compliant clouds. With new features like fault tolerance beneath the virtual machine layer, improved RAC (resource access control), and greater support for various cloud storage platforms, Eucalytpus 3 could well prove itself a go-to solution for companies seeking to reap the benefits of cloud computing.
Similar to OpenStack, Eucalyptus is open source, but it adheres to the AWS APIs, meaning organizations can leverage their AWS skills in-house, as well as third-party tools that integrate with AWS. For instance, a company might develop a large-scale application on AWS but decide to run the production version in-house for reasons of security, reliability, or cost. Eucalyptus eases that transition, while maintaining the ability to pool CPU and storage resources and dynamically allocate them to the application as the workload requires. Read more...
Ignore the doomsayers; Apple will be just fine after Jobs
They've already started: Apple will be fine for two years, then drift into failure. Apple and Steve Jobs are one and the same, and now that he's resigned the company is leaderless.
Don't believe it. Yes, Jobs has had an incredible effect on Apple since returning as CEO more than a decade ago, reversing its late-1999s death spiral. But over the last dozen years, he has pulled together a crack, tightly knit team to keep the Apple innovation going for some time. Could Apple at some point drift into complacency or lose its edge? Sure -- look at Palm, Research in Motion, Nokia, Sun, and Hewlett-Packard. But you can also look at IBM and Oracle, the former a company that had strong leaders yet has didn't become a cult of personality dependent on that strongman. Read more...
Microsoft buries two surprises in Windows 8 hype
Last week I wrote about Microsoft's new Building Windows 8 blog. The first installment, from Windows head honcho Steve Sinofsky, ran 1,247 words and told us, basically, absolutely nothing about Windows 8. The two posts that followed didn't offer much more.
The second post expounds on Windows 8 and USB 3.0. The third post, out Tuesday, reveals Windows 8's reengineered approach to copying files as it relates to dialog boxes.
Oy! Microsoft's trying to save a company whose stock has gone exactly nowhere for the past decade, revolutionize an aging product, halt Windows' slipping market share, spur corporate clients to immediate worldwide adoption, and bring an exciting new vision of Windows to the desktop, to the tablet, and to the phone -- and we're talking about dialog boxes? Clearly, Sinofsky's biding time, waiting to drop the big bombs at the Build conference on Sept. 12. In the interim, we're getting pablum. Read more...
‘Operations guy’ Tim Cook gets chance to shine at Apple
With the resignation of Steve Jobs as Apple's CEO on Wednesday, Tim Cook, long seen as "the operations guy" at Apple, must prove he is capable of taking full charge of the company.
Cook was viewed by some as a natural successor to Jobs. In his role as chief operating officer, he managed Apple's worldwide sales and operations, including management of its supply chain, services and support.
Perhaps more important, Cook has already had experience running Apple's day-to-day operations during Jobs' leaves of absence since January. But there are questions about his ability to continue the spirit of innovation embodied by Jobs, whose headstrong management style inspired workers, and whose vision kept the company ahead of market trends. Read more...
iPad will reign supreme through 2013
Apple's iPad will retain its dominance of the tablet market through at least 2013, research firm IHS iSuppli said today.
El Segundo, Calif.-based iSuppli upped its iPad sales forecast for 2011 from an earlier estimate of 43.7 million to 44.2 million, citing Apple's ability to solve its supply issues and the blunders by rivals, including Hewlett-Packard.
"Apple has resolved the iPad supply issues," said Rhoda Alexander, senior manager of tablet and monitor research in an interview today. "It was never a demand problem." Read more...
RIM starts trial of music service, launching later this year
Research In Motion is testing a cloud-based music service around its BlackBerry Messenger, that it plans to offer commercially later this year.
A "closed beta trial" of the BBM Music service is starting Thursday in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. The service is expected to be available later this year for a monthly subscription of about US$5 in 18 countries in Europe, Asia, and North America, RIM said on Thursday.
The service will not be available on RIM's PlayBook tablet at this point, as it does not have the BBM application, a company spokesman said. Read more...
Google+, Facebook duel is big boon for users
Industry analysts have suspected that adding Google+ to the social networking mix would force Facebook to up its game. And it looks like that prediction is coming true.
Facebook announced Tuesday that it tweaked its privacy settings, making them more intuitive and more clearly informing users of who will be able to see the posts and links that they put on the site. It's a move that is making Facebook's privacy settings more like those found on new rival Google+.
And the changes aren't one-sided in this battle of one-upsmanship. Read more...
Steve Jobs’ resignation ‘end of an era’
Steve Jobs' resignation Wednesday as the CEO of Apple will not disrupt the company's product plans in the short-term, but could dull its ability to dazzle consumers down the road, according to one analyst.
"Apple is fine, and will be," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research. "Apple knows what it's doing for the next big thing, maybe the next two next big things. They lose the showmanship of Jobs, but [the company's executives] have their marching orders."
Shortly after Jobs submitted his resignation, the Apple board of directors took his advice and named Tim Cook, formerly the chief operating officer, as the new CEO. Also on Wednesday, Jobs was named chairman of the board. Read more...