Ask Jeeves launches its ‘Question of the Day’ iOS app for UK trivia fans
With Google pretty much owning the search market space around the world, it’s easy to forget there are other search engines out there. And I’m not talking about Bing or Yahoo.
Ask Jeeves launched as a question-and-answer based search engine in 1996 and, well, it’s still ambling along. Today, it’s officially announcing the launch of its new mobile app, bringing its ‘Question of the Day’ direct to iOS users in the UK.
The Question of the Day app allows users to access stimulating questions and answers, such as ‘what bird barks like a dog?’, ‘how many hairs does a person lose a day?’ and ‘are the eyes the window of the soul?’. Read more...
Finally: A truly magical iPad
Everybody's excited about the new Apple iPad's high-resolution screen. But ultimately, the Retina display is just a pretty face. It can't do anything that the screens on previous models couldn't do.
In fact, just about all of the features that are considered "new" in the new iPad are really just bigger helpings of the old capabilities: More pixels on the screen. More graphics performance. More megapixels in the camera. More megabits per second with the mobile broadband connection. There's more of everything. But what's fundamentally different?
One of the least appreciated new features is one that truly brings entirely new capabilities to the iPad. That feature is Bluetooth 4.0 support. Read more...
PayPal unveils mobile payment system for small businesses
PayPal is targeting small businesses, service providers, and casual sellers on the move with its new PayPal Here service which allows vendors to process a variety of payments including checks and cards using their mobile phones.
The new service unveiled Thursday includes a free app and encrypted thumb-sized card reader, which allows merchants with an iPhone, and later Android smartphones, to process payments.
Merchants can accept payments by swiping cards in the card reader, scanning cards and checks using their phone cameras, or by entering card information manually into the app, the eBay unit said. They can also send an invoice and set payment terms, and accept PayPal payments from the app. The check facility is however only available in the U.S. Read more...
Microsoft signs up Aus eco geeks
Australian cloud computing eco-warrior Carbon Systems has scored its most significant deal to date with a global Microsoft agreement.
Carbon Systems’ Australian developed cloud app, Enterprise Sustainability Platform (ESP), will be implemented across Microsoft’s 600 global facilities across 110 countries.
Microsoft has selected CarbonSystems as its vendor of choice ahead of more than 30 software vendors following an extensive, rigorous tender process.
The energy management solution provider secured the international contract due to its ability to use cloud computing to simplify and streamline Microsoft’s global greenhouse gas management in addition to providing a stakeholder reporting solution. Read more...
Extended software support “immoral and indefensible”
Are extended software support fees immoral and indefensible? That’s a question that one Gartner analyst has just, in a roundabout way, answered in the affirmative.
The analyst in question is Rob Addy, a research director in Gartner's Technology & Service Provider Research division whose bio says he specialises in software and hardware support services, plus the provision of desktop support services in an outsourcing context.
Addy recently blogged about the question and didn’t hold back labelling the fees “a hefty fee to ‘encourage’ users to migrate forward onto a ‘supported’ version” and advancing an argument that “… extended support fees are a cynical ploy by the ISVs to extract more cash from their customers.” Read more...
Defiant LightSquared says FCC action would violate its rights
The FCC's proposal to kill LightSquared's planned LTE network would violate the fledgling carrier's property rights by taking away its spectrum and destroying its multibillion-dollar investment in mobile broadband, LightSquared will argue on Friday in a formal comment to the agency.
Shutting down its project would also violate the public interest by eliminating a potential mobile competitor that would sell network capacity to any carrier, LightSquared said. But the prospects of LightSquared ever launching its network look dim after the FCC's action and the loss of its main partner, Sprint Nextel, which terminated a 15-year network-sharing deal with LightSquared on Friday. Read more...
Intel ready to take on tablet chips
Intel is ready to start cranking out chips for tablets, but is the chip maker moving fast enough to boost its presence in the mobile market?
Intel COO Brian Krzanich told Reuters this week that the company has quickly reworked its fabrication facilities to prep for building tablet chips.
"We will start to see more and more of our capacity and our output go to things that are mobile, like phones and tablets and other devices," Krzanich told Reuters.
While industry analysts say it's a good move for Intel to move into the tablet market, it's going to be more important for the chip maker to gain ground in the burgeoning smartphone market. Read more...
The “Twitter Mafia” Poised to be Silicon Valley’s Next Great Network
In middle school, my teacher assigned a book by Mario Puzo called “The Godfather.” Yes, it was pretty epic. From that work of art, mass audiences were introduced to Don Corleone and eventually its derivatives; Goodfellas, Bugsy, Capone, Casino, Heat, The Departed, and scores of other pieces that romanticized the notion of organized crime across the globe, a world of big bosses, willing soldiers, and internal codes of helping out each other, from family to family. Read more...
Microsoft blames security info-sharing program for attack code leak
Microsoft on Friday confirmed that sample attack code created by the company had likely leaked to hackers from a program it runs with antivirus vendors.
"Details of the proof-of-concept code appear to match the vulnerability information shared with Microsoft Active Protection Program (MAPP) partners," Yunsun Wee, a director with Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing group, said in a statement posted on the company's site.
"Microsoft is actively investigating the disclosure of these details and will take the necessary actions to protect customers and ensure that confidential information we share is protected pursuant to our contracts and program requirements," Wee added. Read more...
Acquire, reward or revolutionize: thoughts on what Apple will do with its $100B in cash tomorrow
What Apple will do with its cash has long been a topic for discussion, with analysts and investment specialists going crazy predicting what it will do. Now, the company has announced that it will be talking about its decisions on spending its accumulated cash in a conference call tomorrow morning.
The most likely announcement is a dividend to shareholders, or stock buyback. Following that, the acquisition or large investment in technology of some sort. Perhaps Apple will acquire Twitter, the social network that it has so tightly integrated into its iOS and OS X operating systems.
Back in June of last year I speculated that Twitter had scored itself an immortality clause due to its integration deal with Apple. Read more...