Microsoft anti-bloatware service to apply to Windows 8 PCs, too
A Microsoft in-store program that scrubs "bloatware" from Windows PCs will also be offered when Windows 8 machines reach the market later this year, a company representative said Wednesday.
The service, which is offered only in Microsoft's small chain of retail stores -- it now has 21 operating or in the works -- is dubbed "Signature Upgrade," and costs $99.
"We take off all the bloatware on the PC," said a Microsoft store employee Wednesday when asked about the service.
On Microsoft's website, the company described the Signature Upgrade this way: "We'll install everything you need and remove the things you don't, for a faster, more efficient, and secure PC experience." Read more...
Android Is Either “Winning” Because Apple Is Letting It, Or Losing
In September 2010, I wrote a post that ignited an absolute shitstorm around these parts. “Shitstorm” in this case meaning a post with a thousand comments, the majority of which were spewed up by rabid Android fanatics. The title of that post:
Is Android Surging Only Because Apple Is Letting It?
At the time, we were in the midst of a massive Android surge to the top of the smartphone ecosystem food chain. This was happening all around the world, but the focus of this particular post was the U.S. market. Based on some comments made by developer David Beach at the time, I wondered if, as the title suggested, Android was only doing so well in the U.S. because the iPhone was still only available on one carrier, AT&T? Read more...
Oracle discusses Taleo product plans, girds for new battle with SAP
Oracle moved quickly on Friday to lay out its plans for the HCM (human capital management) software market, a couple days after rival SAP did the same thing.
SAP and Oracle have each made significant acquisitions of cloud-based HCM vendors in the past few months, with SAP paying $3.4 billion for SuccessFactors and Oracle announcing plans to buy Taleo for $1.9 billion earlier this month.
While many companies have already invested in a core human-resources software system for areas like payroll and benefits management, Taleo will bring Oracle applications on the fringes of the HCM category, such as recruitment and employee onboarding, that can be sold into existing and new accounts. Taleo will also give Oracle increased relevance in the cloud software market as well as staff with hands-on experience running a SaaS (software-as-a-service) business. SAP is seen as getting similar benefits from SuccessFactors. Read more...
Panasonic Eluga is a lightweight, waterproof, and oddly-named Android smartphone
Back in December, Panasonic announced that it was preparing a full-on global assault on the smartphone market. Up first is Europe, where the company’s opening salvo will be fired in a 4.3″ shell. That phone has now gotten official as the Panasonic Eluga.
An interesting choice in names, to be sure, but it probably has something to do with the phone’s aquatic exploits (like the whale that rhymes with Eluga). It joins the ever-increasing list of waterproof and dustproof phones, though it’s anything but whale-like in terms of weight at just 103g. That makes it lighter than even the waifish NEC Medias N-04C. Hardware details are very thin at this point, but Panasonic has revealed that the Eluga’s 4.3-inch display packs 540 x 960 pixels — no word on whether it uses an OLED panel as previously rumored. Read more...
Linux skills in demand, wages up
If you work as a Linux developer or system administrator, your pay should be increasing -- and so should your job offers -- according to a new survey of hiring managers.
The survey found that salaries for Linux developers, system administrators and those with related skills increased 5% last year, with bonuses averaging about 15%.
The survey of approximately 2,000 hiring managers and staffing agencies was conducted by The Linux Foundation, an industry group, and Dice, an employment jobs board. The study only looked at Linux and didn't benchmark gains across other platforms.
Dice has about 11,000 jobs posted on its site that require Linux experience to some extent -- an increase of 17% from last year, said Alice Hill, managing director of Dice.com. Read more...
Coming soon from BlackBerry: 5 things to look forward to
These are dark days for Research In Motion (RIM) and its BlackBerry brand...or at least dim ones.
The Canadian company is struggling with an increasingly negative market perception, shrinking customer loyalty as long-time BlackBerry users move on, and stiff competition from rivals, including Apple, Google and Microsoft, among other things.
But that doesn't mean it should all be doom and gloom for RIM right now. Here are five reasons why current BlackBerry users and others interested in the brand and its future should remain optimistic in the coming months. Read more...
Symantec releases faster next-gen NetBackup, Backup Exec software
Symantec on Monday unveiled new versions of its flagship NetBackup enterprise-class and Backup Exec midrange backup applications -- Backup Exec 2012 and NetBackup v7.5.
The Backup Exec 2012 version includes a new user interface that can automatically configure backups based on the most common policies and settings used by Symatec customers.
The new interface allows for quick configuration with minimal effort, said Jason Fisher, director of product management at Symantec.
The updated Backup Exec offering is available through its traditional software distribution means, as well as in a pre-configured appliance and as a SaaS service. Read more...
Death of IE6 still greatly exaggerated, says browser hit squad
Internet Explorer 6 dead? In your dreams, Microsoft, in your dreams.
Redmond broke out the dancing shoes and did a twirl on IE6's grave in January, citing data that showed its once-celebrated, now-hated browser had slipped below 1 per cent US market share. The decline followed some determined pushing by, of all people, Microsoft.
The software giant was handing out praise along with slices of cake to celebrate.
One problem: the aforementioned data, gathered by Net Applications, counts browsers running on Joe Netizen's PC. It doesn't count enterprise users. Read more...
Amazon Kindle Fire’s Apple-like blitz scorches Samsung
Amazon’s Kindle Fire fourth quarter sales threw Samsung Galaxy into a pyre, as Android-based tabs made their moves against the dominant Apple iPad.
Strategy Analytics reported that that 27 million units of tabs shipped in the fourth quarter. Apple and its iPad owned 58 percent of the market.
But Google Android-based tabs increased their share to 39 percent of the global tablet market, up 10 percentage points from the same quarter a year earlier. Shipments of Android tabs tripled to 10.5 million, as Amazon, Samsung, Asus and others busted a move, said Neil Mawston, SA’s executive director. Read more...
Nintendo cuts full-year forecast – by BILLIONS
The mighty yen and weak sales have combined to take a whack out of Nintendo, forcing the Japanese gaming firm to forecast an even bigger full-year loss.
The Wii and 3DS maker had previously estimated a net income loss for the financial year ending in March of 20 billion yen, but it's now preparing itself to lose up to a whopping 65 billion yen.
Nintendo's once-groundbreaking Wii has been overtaken by motion-additions to Sony's Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox, and is showing its age. Meanwhile, the new iteration of its handheld console, the 3DS, has failed to ignite the market.
The Japanese firm cut its sales forecast of the Wii for the year to 10 million from 12 million and now reckons it will sell 14 million 3DS devices instead of 16 million – despite a "significant price revision" in August intending to shift more of the handhelds. Read more...
What’s up for Apple in 2012?
2011 was a big year for Apple. The company continued to dominate the tablet market, with no rival coming close the iPad in sales. It also released Lion, an update to OS X that delivered hundreds of new features; pushed out a major update to iOS that finally cut the cord for backups and syncing; launched its new cloud service, iCloud (albeit not without some issues); and continued to rack up record sales of Macs.
And, of course, 2011 was the year that Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO because of declining health just weeks before his death on Oct. 5.
On several fronts, Apple seems likely to capitalize on its successes in the coming year. Fueling continued growth in 2012 will be several trends that began this year within the company, the consumer market and enterprise IT. Read more...
Nokia ditches Symbian name, next version just called Nokia Belle
The next version of Nokia's Symbian OS will be called Nokia Belle, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday.
Since Nokia made the decision to go with Microsoft's Windows Phone, the company has made a number of Symbian-related announcements. Symbian is important to Nokia because the company is dependent on the sales of Symbian-based smartphones until it ships larger volumes of Windows Phones, which won't be until next year.
"The announcement underlines the difficulties Nokia is having when trying to convince consumers to buy Symbian-based phones, and that the company thinks Nokia is a stronger brand" said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight. Read more...
Moving to the cloud in 2012? Look out for these pitfalls
Businesses that want to take advantage of the maturing cloud marketplace in 2012 can learn from some common mistakes others have made when moving to infrastructure- and platform-as-a-service offerings, experts said.
One of the most common errors companies make when moving to cloud services is failing to set up redundancies for disaster scenarios.
"One thing people assume is if you spin up a cloud server on Rackspace or Amazon, that that cloud server is somehow redundant or backed up somewhere else. An individual cloud server on its own is not redundant or backed up," said John Engates, CTO at Rackspace.
Researchers at Forrester call this "the uneven handshake" -- between the services cloud providers offer and the responsibilities left to the customer -- and say it extends beyond disaster recovery. Developers, who are commonly the people in an organization who start using these kinds of cloud services, "often assume that the cloud service takes care of security, application availability, backup and recovery, and ensuring service performance," Forrester analysts wrote in a recent report. "In most cases this isn't true." Read more...
Dell pulls back from netbook market
Dell has confirmed that it has ceased production of its Inspiron Mini netbook computer, in effect ending its pursuit of the receding netbook market, at least for consumer sales.
When Dell ran through its stock of the netbooks several months ago, it declined to manufacture more units, according to a Dell spokesman.
Instead the company is focusing its efforts in the mobile computing space on selling more powerful, yet still light, laptops, including an upcoming line of ultrabooks.
"We're committed to the highly portable space and have focused on delivering Thin + Powerful solutions, for which we've seen strong success, particularly in our XPS line," a company statement read, referencing the company's newly introduced XPS 15z and XPS 14z laptops. Read more...
Analysis: Apple struggles to take bigger bite out of China
Apple Inc's share of China's booming smartphone market has risen sharply in the past two years, but for now the company that sells the iconic iPhone is being outpaced by nimble rivals.
It is not that Apple's iPhones and iPads are losing favour among Chinese consumers. The iconic products are flying off the shelves at Apple's five flagship stores in Shanghai and Beijing, unauthorized sellers, and even from fake shops dressed up to look eerily like the real thing.
The problem facing Apple seems to be timing.
Network technology is not sufficient to fully support iPhone and iPad capabilities, while other handset makers supply phones that support the various mobile standards used in China. Read more...