Intel releases ‘Beacon Mountain’ Android-on-Atom dev tool
Indroid Inside Intel has released “Beacon Mountain” a development environment for Android apps on both its own Atom silicon and ARM chippery.
Beacon Mountain emerged over the weekend, promising “productivity-oriented design, coding, and debugging tools for apps targeting … smartphones and tablets.”
The software's in version 0.5 and runs on Windows 7 or 8. A Mac version is promised and doesn't look far off: one of the demos in the Intel video about the software below runs on a Mac (and doesn't look like it is in a virtual machine). Read more...
Google’s new weapon in the Android upgrade battle
We may not be exploring a new version of Android this week, but don't think for a minute that we left Google's I/O developers' conference empty-handed.
While Google didn't give us the headline-making full platform release we were expecting, it gave us something that's arguably more valuable in the long run: a revamped approach to the way the company handles the Android software experience.
In a nutshell, Google's picking up the pace on its move to unbundle core elements of the operating system -- pulling the pieces out of the OS and offering them as standalone applications any user can install. Read more...
Senate report: Apple claims subsidiaries with no taxing jurisdiction
Apple has set up three foreign subsidiaries that the company claims are not resident in any nation for taxing purposes, in an effort to avoid paying tens of billions of dollars in taxes to the U.S. and other countries, according to a new report from a U.S. Senate subcommittee.
Apple has set up a "complex web" of offshore entities to avoid paying taxes, with some subsidiaries set up in low-tax Ireland, according to a report released Monday by the investigations subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
One of the subsidiaries set up by Apple has paid no corporate income tax to any nation for the past five years, although it reported US$30 billion in net income from 2009 to 2012, the report said. Another subsidiary has paid a tax rate to Ireland of one-tenth of 1 percent or less in 2009, 2010 and 2011, far below the normal Irish corporate income tax rate of 12 percent, according to the subcommittee report. Read more...
Progress at Foxconn factories, but working hours still exceed Chinese laws
Employees at the Chinese factories of Apple supplier Foxconn continue to work beyond the country's legal limit of 49 hours a month, according to a report from the Fair Labor Association (FLA). But the Taiwanese manufacturer is making overall steady progress in improving the working conditions at a select group of factories in China, it said.
The report released Thursday is the latest audit from the FLA, which has been tasked by Apple to monitor the working conditions at three Foxconn factories in the Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Chengdu that produce iPad and iPhone products. Since the initial audits were carried out in February of last year, the factories have instituted new changes, including enforcing breaks for workers and stopping student interns from logging overtime hours. Read more...
The future of personal computing: What replaces tablets?
BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins' prediction this week that tablets would decline in popularity flies in the face of widespread industry forecasting for an explosion of tablet shipments through 2017. But his comments also provoked debate on what will happen over the next five to 10 years to smartphones, tablets and laptops -- even wearable computers -- and what devices users might favor.
Some analysts said Heins could be setting the scene for eliminating the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which launched in 2011 but hasn't gained market traction. Others said Heins is likely envisioning a world where the smartphone acts as a hub to other displays in rooms or on what users wear to provide processing power and wireless access to data in the cloud. Read more...
Qualcomm defends Windows RT tablets despite lackluster sales, biting criticism
A Qualcomm executive Friday defended Windows RT tablets despite poor initial sales, saying the mobile device chip maker is "very optimistic with the future of Win RT."
Qualcomm currently supplies ARM-based Snapdragon processors for Windows RT tablets launched in October by Dell and Samsung. The company also has plans to provide faster Qualcomm processors for next-generation Win RT devices from other tablet makers, said Luis Pineda, senior vice president of product management at Qualcomm. Pineda oversees Windows RT chips at Qualcomm.
"We're very excited about Microsoft's strategy around Windows RT," Pineda said in an interview with Computerworld.
Despite criticism from analysts about the Windows RT OS and Win RT-based tablets, Pineda said that "We're very optimistic with the future of Win RT and we see continued success." Read more...
Acer’s new Aspire R7 laptop: Innovation for its own sake?
Innovation is a good thing -- unless it is innovation for its own sake. Acer's new Aspire R7 touchscreen laptop may fall into that latter category.
When he introduced Acer's new line of systems today, the company's chairman and CEO J.T. Wang started by talking about duality -- the use of both touch and type in a single device. I can't disagree with him -- when I spent some time with Microsoft's Surface with Windows RT a little while back, I found myself using the touch screen a lot more often than I thought I would. Read more...
Time to say goodbye to Windows RT tablets?
Windows RT tablets grabbed just 0.4% of the tablet market in the first quarter, a dismal result that led some tech experts to urge Microsoft to scrap the platform that's in its six-month infancy.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they do streamline and do drop [Windows RT]," said Brian Proffitt, an adjunct instructor of management at Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business , in an interview. "Microsoft is going to remain heavily invested in its Surface tablet strategy, but that doesn't preclude them from making changes and cutting. Cutting Windows RT would be a smart move, unless the number of shipments suddenly improves." Read more...
Rare working Apple-1 computer to hit auction block this month
A German auctioneer will put a working Apple-1 computer on the block later this month, and expects the handmade computer to fetch between $261,000 and $392,000 at Thursday's exchange rate.
The record price for an Apple-1 was $640,000, paid last year in an auction also run by Breker, of Cologne, Germany.
Samsung Galaxy S4 vs. HTC One and Nexus 4: Which should you get?
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
No question about it: We're entering one of the busiest times of the year for new Android arrivals. And with options like Samsung's Galaxy S4, HTC's One, and Google's LG-made Nexus 4 now competing for your attention, it can get a little tricky to figure out which device is the right one for you.
So where to begin? This step-by-step guide should help you figure it out. Think carefully about the following prompts, then put your answers together and see what you get.
(You can also check out a side-by-side view of the devices' key specs by clicking the chart below; that's good information to have, but remember that numbers only tell half the story.) Read more...
D-Link firmware flaws could allow IP video stream spying
If you run a bank and use an IP video camera from D-Link, you may want to pay attention to this.
A number of IP-based surveillance video cameras made by D-Link have firmware vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to intercept the video stream, according to security researchers.
Core Security, a company based in Boston that specializes in vulnerability detection and research, published on Monday details of five vulnerabilities in D-Link's firmware, which is wrapped into at least 14 of its products. Read more...
Apple tops Consumer Reports survey on PC tech support
If you're looking to keep that computer running smoothly, Apple is the one to turn to, says Consumer Reports. On Monday, the consumer advocacy publication announced that the company from Cupertino had once again topped a reader survey of the best computer tech support, even going so far as to beat its own scores from the previous year.
To the surprise of nobody who's actually paid attention to the PC market in the last several years, Apple beat out competitors Lenovo, Asus, Dell, Toshiba, Hewlett Packard/Compaq, and Acer/Gateway/eMachines by a healthy margin, scoring an 86 out of 100, which the publication describes as "very satisfied." The next closest brand was Lenovo, which scored only a 63, or "fairly well satisfied." Read more...
Sencha CEO: Treat HTML5 apps as a programming platform, not a Web page
Sencha provides tools for buildings Web applications to run on a variety of devices, including tablets, mobile phones, and laptops with touchscreens. Focused on HTML5, Sencha's products include its Sencha Touch mobile application development framework. InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill recently met with Sencha CEO Michael Mullany to discuss the mobile application landscape, sizing up native versus Web development, and emerging platforms, including Tizen and Firefox OS. Read more...
Bellevue College looks to online software to help autistic students collaborate
Bellevue College in Washington has deployed online learning software to help students with autism improve their small-group collaboration skills.
Fifty Bellevue students in an Autism Spectrum Navigators program have been taking advantage of a discussion board feature inside Canvas, a learning management system from start-up Instructure.
The Navigators program, now nearing the end of its second full year, has deployed the Canvas software for the past year, giving Bellevue students and teachers access to assignments, grades and other materials as well as collaboration through text, audio and video from desktops, tablets and even smartphones and tablets.
"We've had Canvas this entire year and we've seen a lot more confidence and interaction with students," Sara Gardner, manager of the Navigator program, said in an interview. "We use a social justice model instead of a medical one [for dealing with autism], so we aren't aren't trying to fix our students and rather are trying to use the technology to put students together to communicate better and...support them with skills." Read more...