Oracle close to phasing out Flash support portal
Oracle may soon fully transition away from the much-maligned, Flash-based version of its support portal over to a new HTML edition next week, according to an official blog post on Thursday.
Next Friday, July 13, the vendor will upgrade the HTML version of My Oracle Support "with additional functionality that will allow those users remaining on the Flash-based user interface to switch over to the HTML version," the post states. "Our goal is to provide a single-online support portal so that all My Oracle Support users can benefit from the same features and functionality." Read more...
Sencha Architect 2′s new GUI makes mobile app development visual
Sencha has introduced Architect 2, a cross-platform development tool for HTML5-based mobile and desktop apps that aims to make it easier to create applications with the help of a new graphical user interface, the company said on Tuesday.
Architect 2 is an upgrade of Sencha's Ext Designer. But early on, the company decided it didn't want to develop just another interface designer, but a complete application builder, where the architecture and the interface of an app could be created and properly structured for development. Read more...
Dropbox implements major redesign
In Dropbox‘s own words, the redesign just implemented for their web interface has been “turned up to 11.” If you visit the site today you will be in for a surprise as a major overhaul of the interface has taken place.
The purpose of the redesign is to simplify the interface and put more focus on the actual content in your Dropbox. This has mainly been achieved with the introduction of a new multi-tool toolbar at the top of the page that auto-adjusts its options based on what you are currently doing. It has been coupled with a new right click menu with common options mirrored from the toolbar. Read more...
HP gives Vertica a fresh face
Hewlett-Packard's Vertica subsidiary has updated its real-time analytics software, giving it a graphical user interface and connectivity to big-data-styled analysis systems.
The Vertica Analytics Platform is a column oriented analytic database, one designed for rapidly ingesting and structuring large amounts of data for quick analysis. "Our use case is focused primarily on real-time analytics," said Scott Howser, Vertica's vice president of product marketing. Internet companies such as Zynga and GroupOn both use Vertica for quick analysis of user behaviors, he said; he expects that an increasing number of organizations will require this type of immediate analysis to better serve their customers.
HP purchased Vertica last year. It has since integrated Vertica with its Autonomy IDOL software, another 2011 HP acquisition, for a single solution, called the HP Next Generation Information Platform, that analyzes both structured and unstructured data. Read more...
Windows 8 on ARM: You can look but you can’t touch
For a touch-based interface, it was awfully hard to get hold of. Microsoft's Windows 8 OS was shown on a handful of prototype ARM-based tablets at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, but almost no one was allowed to try it out.
Nvidia had three Windows 8 tablets in its booth but they were all behind glass. Texas Instruments showed a Windows 8 tablet in a meeting room off the show floor, but a reporter who asked to try it was told that wasn't permitted. Qualcomm, the third vendor of ARM-based chips working with Windows 8, wasn't showing it at all.
Representatives from all three companies said Microsoft has placed tight limits on how they can show Windows on ARM. It's apparently taking no chances that people might have a bad experience with the software before it's ready for release, which could harm its reputation.
"I think they're being a little measured because they want to make sure that when people finally see these things that it's a good experience. They have to get it right," Mike Rayfield, general manager of Nvidia's mobile business unit, said in an interview. Read more...