Mozilla moves forward with plan for enterprise version of Firefox
Mozilla is advancing its plans to release a version of Firefox tailored for organizations whose IT departments manage it for their employees from a central console.
This version of Firefox, to be called ESR (Extended Support Release), will be updated at a much slower pace than the regular version of the browser, in order to give IT departments enough time to appropriately test, certify and adopt the new releases.
The proposal to develop Firefox ESR has now been escalated from a "proposal" to what Mozilla calls "a plan of action," Mozilla official Jay Sullivan said in a blog post on Tuesday. Read more...
Polaroid to launch Android-powered Smart Camera with phone
Polaroid finds the whole concept of a "camera-phone" a bit insulting. So it is launching a phone-camera, an Android-driven Smart Camera that is mainly for taking pictures, but can also make the occasional phone call.
The SC1630 Smart Camera looks like a miniature Polaroid camera from the front, with the traditional black exterior and a 3x optical lens that extends out beneath a standard camera flash to take 16-megapixel photos. On its flip side is the ubiquitous Android home screen, with lines of apps and home buttons across the bottom.
"We start off with a camera frame and then we're trying to make this device smarter," said executive vice president Emanuel Vorona. Read more...
Google’s Schmidt says devices, apps need to be friends
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told an audience at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that the future of technology will be getting all the electronics in our lives to friend each other.
Schmidt, speaking before a standing-room-only crowd at the show in Las Vegas Tuesday afternoon, said devices aren't living up to their full potential unless they're connected. That ecosystem includes devices, operating systems, applications and content.
"Computing devices without a network are lonely," he said. "You really want to be able to walk into your house and, through your Android device, have all the devices in your house adjust because you've walked in. The TV should know that you've come in and turn on to your favorite show."
And the growth of that digital ecosystem is the future that Schmidt envisions.
"Think of these as peer-to-peer devices that talk to each other," he added. "It should become seamless." Read more...
Intel bets big on Android and the smartphone ecosystem could benefit
There’s a funny thing that happens at almost any tech conference – the Internet sucks. It would be ironic, but it only seems to make sense that thousands of geeks in a single area can kill an Internet connection. But the up shot to that is that I have had time to digest the Intel keynote today, because I couldn’t blog it while it was happening.
I have to admit, first off, that I was exceptionally close to skipping the speech. Matthew Panzarino and I figured that it would be a rehash of ultrabooks and Intel hyping the forthcoming Ivy Bridge chipset. To us, and to readers at TNW, these aren’t exciting topics. But due diligence won out and we headed in to get a front-row seat.
Wow.
That’s a true sentiment. Not some ironic thing. I was blown away by what Intel is doing, but mainly because of the impact that it will have on an entire ecosystem instead of just a single company. The company made a load of announcements, but one stuck out as being simply huge -
The Medfield Atom processor is now inside Android phones and tablets. That’s a 1.6 gHz processor, combined with a 400 mHz graphics chip. Read more...
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s compensation jumped 6-fold in 2011
Apple CEO Tim Cook's total compensation package jumped six-fold last year after he took the reins of the Cupertino, Calif. company, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday.
For 2011, Cook's compensation totaled nearly $378 million, or more than six times the $59 million awarded the year before, Apple's proxy statement noted (download PDF).
The bulk of Cook's package -- $376.2 million -- consisted of stock grants given by the board of directors last August, when they promoted Cook to the CEO spot on the same day former CEO Steve Jobs stepped down.
Half of the 1 million "restricted stock units," or RSUs, will be awarded to Cook in August 2016 if he is still with Apple, while the second half will be given to him in August 2021, again only if he is still employed by the company. Read more...
Video game maker linked to US prisoner in Iran
Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, the American sentenced to death by the Iranian government, is linked to a small New York company specializing in video games that recreate real-life conflicts in the Middle East and beyond.
The company, Kuma Games, makes a series of "Kuma(backslash)War" games that come in short, 10- to 15-minute episodes. The scenarios are usually nabbed from the news, and like documentary films, they seek to be as accurate as possible in chronicling real-life situations. Players can simulate events such as the killing of Osama Bin Laden, Afghan air strikes or the death of Moammar Gadhafi. There's also "Assault on Iran," about the country's nuclear ambitions.
"They are best known across academia, war hounds, people interested in war. Maybe soldiers or ex-soldiers," said Lindsay Grace, a professor who studies video games at Miami University in Ohio. Read more...
Animate your photos instantly with Animoto Video Slideshows
Tired of sharing your photos one by one? The new Animoto Video Slideshows app for iPhone and iPod Touch makes it easy to turn those static shots into moving pictures to share with your friends and family.
Animoto Video Slideshows lets users turn their camera roll photos — or live images — into instant video slideshows backed with style effects, custom text and even music. Animoto has a library of more than 500 songs available for pairing. You can preview each song before you add, and although most of the bands are obscure, there are 13 genres to choose from, so you should be able to find something suitable for your video. Ideally, users would be able to select music from their existing iTunes library, but I’d guess licensing issues prevent this. Read more...
PayPal tries out mobile wallet at Home Depot stores
It might not be long before you can head into a store and choose to pay in cash, with a credit card, or using your PayPal account with the help of your iPhone.
That’s according to a new story from Fierce Mobile Content, which confirms that eBay-owned PayPal is trying out a mobile payment service that allows users to pay for goods and services at Home Depot stores either with mobile apps on Apple’s iOS platform or Google’s Android operating system, or with a special PayPal card. The app functionality lets you use your app to access your PayPal account to make your payment, not unlike you might if you were making your purchase online. Read more...
Sony’s new Walkman uses Android and apps
Sony’s Walkman line has come a long way since it first debuted way back in 1979 in Japan, and the latest iteration isn’t just taking aim at other MP3 players, it’s setting its sights on the iPod Touch.
The Walkman turned from CD player to MP3 player a few years ago, but it’s only now that Sony is adding apps to the equation. Dubbed the Walkman Z1000, the Japanese electronics maker’s latest model runs Google’s Android mobile operating system and can handle Android apps, just as Apple’s iPod Touch can run apps from the iTunes App Store. Read more...
Anti-Mafia Unit Raids Large Torrent Sites, Arrests 17-Year-Old Admin
Two of Bulgaria’s largest torrent sites have been raided by the country’s organized crime unit. The sites, which served in excess of three quarters of a million members, had been established for several years. Three locations were raided and two site admins, one just 17-years-old, were arrested.
As part of a ongoing campaign to crack down on Internet-based piracy, Bulgaria’s organized crime unit targeted two of the country’s largest BitTorrent trackers at the weekend.
Officers from the National Directorate for Combating Organized Crime said they raided a total of three locations in the western city of Pernik, the central northern city of Gabrovo and the capital Sofia. The aim: stop the illegal distribution of music and movies.
Although not directly named in yesterday’s Interior Ministry announcement, the action was targeted at P2PBG and Elit-BG, sites with combined userbases of at least 750,000 members. Read more...