Macs stuck in 4th place on reliability, support ranking
Apple's personal computers remained fixed in fourth place during 2012's second quarter, a spot it's occupied most of the year, a technical support franchise said today.
The cause, ironically, was the very success that Apple has had selling Mac laptops and desktops.
"It's due to Apple's increased market share," said David Milman, founder and CEO of Rescuecom of Syracuse, N.Y., in explaining Apple's spot in his company's repair and reliability rating.
"That increase has put some stress on their systems," Milman argued. "They've done a great job with their retail stores and the [in-store] Genius Bar, but Apple owners are telling us that they sometimes have to wait two, three or four days for an appointment, even when they have AppleCare. [Apple's] not as responsive, so some people are bypassing AppleCare because they don't want to wait."
The number of Mac owners who turn to Rescuecom for support directly impacted Apple's score. Read more...
With iPad Mini, Apple would remain tablet king through ’16, says IDC
Apple will continue to dominate the world's tablet market through 2016 if it launches a smaller iPad this year, according to research firm IDC.
In a revised five-year forecast, IDC said last week that the addition of a so-called "iPad Mini" into its model line-up will keep Apple's share above the 60% bar for the foreseeable future. Apple's tablet line overall would account for 60.8% of the market in 2016.
That's a huge turnaround from earlier IDC projections that just two months ago predicted the iPad would slip under 50% as soon as 2014 and fall to 47.8% by 2016. In May, IDC estimated that Android tablets would soon start to chew into Apple's lead and by 2015 would account for the majority of devices.
The difference between the two forecasts for the iPad was a whopping 14 percentage points. Read more...
Chrome trumps IE as world’s top browser
Chrome's average usage share for the week of May 14-20 was 32.8%, said StatCounter, an analytics company that tracks browser and operating system trends. For the same week, IE's share was 31.9%.
Although Chrome has beaten IE in StatCounter's tally before -- a day here, another there, this was the first time that Google's browser took the top spot for an entire week.
Mozilla's Firefox placed third with a share of 25.5%, while Apple's Safari and Opera Software's Opera brought up the rear with 7.1% and 1.7%, respectively. Read more...
CISPA sponsors support amendments addressing privacy concerns
The sponsors of a controversial cyberthreat information-sharing bill will offer new amendments to address privacy concerns, with changes focused on limiting how government agencies can use information shared by private companies, as the bill comes to a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives this week.
Sponsors of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, said Tuesday they will support amendments to the legislation, including one that would narrow the way U.S. agencies can use the shared information.
The bill now allows agencies to use the information for a broad range of purposes, but the proposed amendment would limit agencies to acting on cybersecurity issues, on investigations involving potential deaths or serious injury, on investigations involving child pornography and on issues related to U.S. national security. Read more...
Demand your data from Internet companies
Tim Berners-Lee has said that the problem with companies like Facebook and Google is not that they collect vast troves of data about their users, but that they don't share with them what they learn from it.
Berners-Lee, who is often described as the inventor of the World Wide Web, was speaking out against the U.K.'s proposal to allow government intelligence to monitor digital communications. Berners-Lee is a U.K. native.
He acknowledged that users reveal deeply personal information about themselves through their use of the Web.
"You get to know every detail, you get to know, in a way, more intimate details about their life than any person that they talk to, because often people will confide in the Internet as they find their way through medical websites ... 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...
Amazon, MS and Nokia sniff around RIM
Buyers including Amazon, Microsoft and Nokia have expressed some interest in hoovering up the remains of Research in Motion, as it reeled from one disaster to another this year.
But the Canadian firm is determined to sort itself out, people with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
Etail giant Amazon hired an investment bank over the summer to look into a potential marriage with RIM, but it didn't make any formal proposals.
Meanwhile, RIM's board are still keen on letting co-chief execs and chairmen Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie do their best to turn the business around and recoup some of its massive share losses. Read more...
Celebs and Twitter: Do they have to go together?
So, Simon Cowell is now on Twitter. That was the big news in social media Wednesday. What was your first reaction? I'll tell you what mine was not: "Amazing! He'll have so many insights to share, and we really don't see that much of him on any of his other media platforms."
With all due respect to Cowell, who I do believe is quite an influential man about television and music, I don't see the need for him to be on Twitter. Here's the thing: most celebrities do their best work in the platform in which they became famous. Very few actually gain something by becoming more accessible via the internet. Take one of Cowell's inaugural tweets, for example: "Melanie --incredible but Josh just stole the show." Does this sound like the Cowell we've all come to know and love/hate? No. That comment about the "X Factor" contestants could have come from anyone, and arguably doesn't serve as any sort of meaningful extension of Cowell himself. Read more...
Easy automation for Google+
Last week, I told you about a great new service called "If This Then That" (IFTTT), which lets you automate things online. I also gave instructions on how to post on Google+ via email.
Together, these let you automatically post things to Google+. But I didn't tell you how, exactly. I announced a "contest" to see who could come up with the most useful and fun Google+ automations using IFTTT.
If you're as lazy as I am, you'll be thrilled to learn that once created, these automations -- called "recipes" -- can be shared and easily re-used by anybody. And I'll share the winning entries with you below.
But first, let's take a look at what this automating Google+ thing is all about.
There are two basic directions for automating Google+: incoming and outgoing. To automate is to set it up so that things are put in or taken out automatically, without you having to do anything. Read more...
Google Propeller Social News Sharing App to Compete Against Flipboard [REPORT]
Google is creating a social news sharing app for iPad and Android that will compete directly with Flipboard, named 2010 iPad App of the Year by Apple. The first word of Google's rumored app that turns social media and news content into magazine-like articles was from Google+ about what he's heard from "someone working with Google" about the news-sharing reader.
"Google is working on a Flipboard competitor for both Android and iPad. My source says that the versions he's seen so far are mind-blowing good."
All Things D's Kara Swisher adds fuel to that fire, saying that her sources have told her the new iPad and Android app is called Propeller, which she calls a "souped-up version of similar reading apps such as Flipboard, AOL's Editions, Yahoo's Livestand, Zite and Pulse."
[More from Mashable: Google+ Allows You to Share Maps]
Given Google's search prowess and ability to categorize and search various content as well as posts within Google+, Propeller could be the news-reading app of the year.
Let us know in the comments what you think Google Propeller will be like.
(Source: old.news.yahoo.com)
DigiNotar hacker threatens to expand spy attacks using stolen certificates
The hacker with links to several breaches of SSL certificate-issuing networks this year admitted sharing stolen certificates with others in Iran, and threatened to extend future spy-style attacks to computer users in the U.S., Europe and Israel.
"I'll own as more as gateways in Israel, USA, Europe, as more as ISPs and attack will run there," the hacker said in a long, rambling statement today written in sometimes-fractured English.
Comodohacker, as he calls himself, also made new claims, saying that he stole sensitive data, including customer information, from two other certificate authorities, or CAs, the term for organizations of companies allowed to issue SSL (secure socket layer) certificates. Read more...
Windows forecast shows XP’s one-of-a-kind dominance
Windows XP may be the last Microsoft operating system to hold a majority share, according to data from Web metrics company Net Applications.
At its peak, Windows XP powered more than eight out of every 10 computers worldwide. In November 2007, the earliest month for which Computerworld has Net Applications' data, XP accounted for 83.6% of all operating systems.
Although Windows XP's share has gradually declined since then, it still enjoys a slight majority: Last month, XP owned a 52.4% share.
The long lag time between Windows XP's release in 2001 and Vista's debut in late 2006 -- combined with Vista's stumble in the marketplace -- are the factors usually cited to explain XP's large-scale and long-term dominance. Read more...
Microsoft’s browser share slide accelerates as IE9 fails to hold users
Internet Explorer's usage share again dipped last month, even as Microsoft's newest browser, IE9, posted record gains, a Web metrics company said today.
Total IE share fell by eight-tenths of a percentage point in May -- the third consecutive month that Microsoft's browser slid by that amount or more -- to end at 54.3%, a new low for Microsoft. The eight-tenths of a point drop was nearly double the average decline over the last 12 months, hinting that IE's decay has accelerated.
Meanwhile, Mozilla's Firefox remained flat last month, adding less than one-tenth of a percentage point to its share of 21.7%, about the same the open-source browser owned in December 2008. Read more...
LimeWire, major record labels settle for $105M
File-sharing software company LimeWire, which shut down last year after being barred from allowing people to share copyright-protected files online, reached a $105 million out-of-court settlement with the major record labels Thursday, the labels said.
In a statement, Recording Industry Association of America Chairman Mitch Bainwol said his group, which represents the labels, is pleased with the settlement.
"The resolution of this case is another milestone in the continuing evolution of online music to a legitimate marketplace that appropriately rewards creators," he later added. Read more...
Windows 7 share tops XP for first time in U.S.
Windows 7 has passed the 10-year-old Windows XP in U.S. usage share, according to data from an Irish Web analytics company.
In the first 10 days of April, Windows 7's average daily share was 32.2 percent as measured by StatCounter, besting XP's average of 30.7 percent.
It was the first time that Windows 7's U.S. usage share was higher than Windows XP's. Read more...