Rivals Report Boost from Microsoft’s Browser Ballot (NewsFactor)
Mozilla and Opera Software say they are seeing an uptick in demand for their browsers in the wake of Microsoft ’s launch of a choice ballot in Europe . Mozilla CEO John Lilly told The New York Times over the weekend that more than 50,000 Firefox downloads have already occurred via direct links from the new choice screen that the European Commission mandated last year as part of its antitrust settlement with Microsoft. Though Microsoft has said it won’t complete its ballot rollout in Europe until May, demand for Opera’s rival browser has already grown, noted Opera Software Communications Manager Falguni Bhuta. “Since the browser screen rollout, we have seen downloads of our desktop browser more than triple in major European countries such as Belgium , France, Spain , Poland and the U.K.,” Bhuta said. Increased Visibility Microsoft’s browser rivals hope to see a further rise in demand once more European PC users gain access to the choice screen. Still, there is a world of difference between the amount of software downloads and the number of users who actually adopt a browser as their preferred surfing application. For example, the maker of the Maxthon browser boasts of 300 million downloads worldwide, yet the product barely registers a blip on the latest web metrics. However, Opera believes that once users have had a chance to try out Opera 10.50, they will quickly see the advantages — particularly when browsing the web in bandwidth-constrained online environments. As Bhuta points out, users will be able to set up the browser’s Opera Turbo engine to dramatically cut the amount of time it takes for any web page to load. Even better, the turbo function can be set to automatically engage whenever it detects a slow network connection. “On your browser window, on the bottom left you will see an icon that looks like a speedometer,” Bhuta explained. “You click on the down-arrow key and it will give you an option to ‘Configure Turbo.’” Users clicking on this link get to choose between three different Turbo settings, Bhuta observed. Automatic enables Opera Turbo only when a slow network is detected; on optimizes pages with Opera Turbo so they load faster on slow networks; and off enables pages to load normally, he said. Choice Limitations Although the choice ballot is intended to enhance the visibility of browser offerings from Microsoft’s rivals, some competitors are unhappy with the result. In a letter to the EC last week, the makers of the Avant, Flock, Green, Maxthon, Slim and Sleipnir browsers complained that their ballot listings are invisible unless the user scrolls sideways at the bottom of the ballot page. By contrast, the slots given to the Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari browsers are prominently displayed at all times. Moreover, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) — which counts IBM, Nokia and Oracle among its members — believes that the implementation of Microsoft’s choice ballot should be extended beyond Europe . The European initiative will help spur competition, but leaves most of the world’s computers with operating systems that are tied to Internet Explorer, noted Thomas Vinje, ECIS legal counsel and spokesperson. “We call on competition authorities around the world to look closely at what has happened in Europe and to act on behalf of their consumers,” Vinje said. “Only then will we get a fully competitive market that will drive intense competition to build better browsers.”
techple’s IPad Hype Machine Rolls Into Action at the Oscars (tech)
Apple chose the Oscars on the ABC television network to air its first iPad commercial on Sunday night in the U.S. The Cupertino, California, company kept the ad simple, showing the device set on someone’s lap and being used for a range of activities, from viewing pictures to surfing the Internet and reading e-books. The commercial has already been posted on YouTube. Apple often chooses high profile TV events to place ads for its products. The company unveiled the Macintosh personal computer during Super Bowl XVIII in its popular 1984 commercial, for example, and has also aired iPhone commercials during past Oscars. The iPad, a 9.7-inch touchscreen computer with no physical keyboard attached, is due out in the U.S. on April 3, though people can pre-order the device starting Mar. 12, according to Apple. A version of the iPad with Wi-Fi only will be available initially in the U.S., with 3G-enabled iPads coming out later in April. The device will be out in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K. in late April, the company said last week.
iPad for Movies? Call My Chiropractor (tech)
Apple is pitching its new iPad tablet as a multi-use consumer device, a superior alternative to clunky netbooks and laptops. Admittedly, the device does have its virtues, particularly for Web-surfing couch potatoes who’d rather not balance a clamshell-style portable PC on their laps. But there’s one area where the iPad won’t succeed: movies. In Apple’s iPad promo video , Phil Schiller, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, calls the tablet “the best . . . movie-watching experience.” Not a chance. In fact, from an ergonomic perspective, the iPad is a lousy movie-watching device. In the iPad video, we see a person lounging in a comfy chair, iPad nestled on his/her crotch, watching Star Trek . Now, this particular position may be fine for, say, a five-minute YouTube clip or maybe even a 22-minute sitcom, but not for a two-hour feature film . You’d have to cradle, grasp, or find some other way to prop up the iPad for a lengthy period. In this scenario, you’ve become the iPad’s stand, and that’s no fun. Sure, you could always sit up, change positions, switch hands, and so on. Or you could buy the optional iPad stand and place the device on a coffee table. But if that’s your solution, why not simply watch movies on a laptop instead? After all, a $500 Windows notebook typically comes with a 15-inch display, which is much larger than the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen. (For you Apple devotees, the MacBook , with a 13-inch display, starts at $1000.) Of course, the iPad isn’t a laptop, nor is it intended to be. It may do some things better than a laptop — although we won’t know exactly what until it ships — but movie-watching isn’t one of them. Like to watch movies on airplanes? A small laptop is the better choice. It rests comfortably on the meal tray and doesn’t require any holding or cradling. With the iPad, however, you’ll need to hold the tablet one hand while munching on salted pretzels with the other. Or you could do that crotch-positioning trick, like in the Apple video. Either way, I’d rather watch movies on my laptop — provided there isn’t an HDTV nearby. Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter (@jbertolucci ) or at jbertolucci.blogspot.com .
Survey: iPad may take bite out of e-book rivals (tech)
A new consumer survey from ChangeWave shows that four in ten people who are thinking about buying an e-book reader are planning to get Apple’s iPad . And more than one in four people who had previously purchased a different device say they would have gotten the iPad if it had been available when they shopped. ChangeWave Research polled 3,171 consumers to gauge interest in the iPad and to find out how the iPad might impact the budding e-book reader market. Overall, 4 percent of people are “very likely” to buy the iPad after its release, and 9 percent say they are “somewhat likely” to do so. The comparable numbers for the iPhone before its release in 2007 were 3 percent “very likely” and 6 percent “somewhat likely.” So, it would seem the iPad has even more pent-up demand. Looking at future market share for e-book readers, the iPad, with 40 percent, is well ahead of its second-place competitor, Amazon’s Kindle, which is expected to come in around 28 percent. Barnes and Noble’s Nook is down at 6 percent, and the nearly forgotten Sony Reader comes in at just 1 percent. But obviously, the iPad is much more than an e-book reader, as ChangeWave’s survey also demonstrates. Likely buyers were asked to list their top uses for the iPad, and reading e-books comes in third, after surfing the Web and checking email. The survey doesn’t address how the iPad will impact the burgeoning market for tablet computers. But in one possible cautionary point for Apple, one in four likely iPad buyers state they will hold off on the purchase of another Apple product to get their hands on the iPad. After all, there’s only so much disposable income to go around. Of course, you should approach all consumer surveys with at least a little skepticism. After all, a survey released a month ago showed that people’s interest in the iPad declined significantly after Apple’s announcement. What does it all mean? Apple may indeed have a hit on its hands with the iPad, but no one can say for certain until the thing hits the streets on April 3 .
New TiVo DVRs Blend TV and Internet Viewing (NewsFactor)
TiVo on Tuesday set out to reinvent itself with DVRs that blend television and Internet viewing experiences. The TiVo Premiere and TV Premiere XL combine access to cable programming, movies, web videos, and music. TiVo is positioning the new devices as a one-stop shop for entertainment, offering viewers broadband and broadcast integration that lets them search for YouTube clips, Netflix , Amazon Video On Demand and Blockbuster On Demand libraries, and more from one interface. The new offering uses pictures and graphics to make the television guide more interactive as users search through millions of pieces of content. “TiVo has advanced the state of the art in DVR appliances. There’s no question about that,” said Phil Leigh, a senior analyst at Inside Digital Media. “But whether it’s enough to motivate existing owners of TiVo to spend money on a new box is more debatable. If I didn’t have a DVR, it certainly gives me a material added reason to buy TiVo. But if I just bought a TiVo a year or two ago, I’m not ready to spend more money just to get a newer interface.” Next-Gen Surfing TiVo Premiere encourages browsing by organizing every show by category and topic. A full-screen menu displays movie posters and TV-show logos to speed browsing. Clicking on a show or actor pulls up entertainment resumes and cast lists so viewers can watch other programming containing the same stars. TiVo promises easier navigation by making the most of the extra room HD offers to slash the number of screens viewers need to visit. Because the set-top boxes are built on the Adobe Flash platform, it opens the door to more third-party applications that can further enhance the viewing experience. Premiere also offers an on-screen disk-space meter that shows consumers how much room they have left to record, a built-in 30-second scan, and a new video window that lets viewers watch their favorite show while navigating the TiVo menus. In all, the Premiere DVR holds up to 45 hours of HD storage or up to 400 hours of standard TV programming . The XL model holds up to 150 hours of HD shows or 1,350 hours of standard programming. No More Hunt and Peck TiVo also announced new relationships with Pandora and FrameChannel. In the coming months, Premiere and the TiVo Series 3 HD DVR and Series 2 customers can listen to personalized Pandora radio stations through their set-top boxes. The deal with FrameChannel gives users access to about 1,000 content widgets, from tweets, photos and status updates to news, weather, sports scores, and stock quotes. In May, TiVo will offer a Wireless N adapter that makes way for faster downloads and faster content streaming. And later this year TiVo will offer a slide-out QWERTY remote for a faster browsing experience. “The remote with the QWERTY keyboard is significant when you start searching for movies or shows at places like Netflix , Amazon or Blockbuster. It’s important to have a fast way to enter the title that you are looking for. The existing way they have is a hunt-and-peck virtual keyboard ,” Leigh said. “If you are searching for movies and TV shows from Internet sources, whether it’s from Amazon, Blockbuster or Netflix, you can search very quickly.”
Tivo’s New Set-top Box Unites TV, Internet Programming (tech)
Tivo on Tuesday took a step forward in marrying TV with the Web, introducing a new set-top box that will bring cable programming and streaming content from the Internet to TV screens. Tivo’s Premiere box is a cable box that can search and record content from TV broadcasts and the Internet. Tivo previously offered digital video recorders that recorded content from TV broadcasts. There is a lot of content available on the Internet that users haven’t brought to their TV sets, said Tivo’s president and CEO Tom Rogers during a press event in New York. The goal behind the Premiere device was to unite programming options from both mediums, and the company has developed a software interface that makes surfing for programs easier, he said. For example, when a user selects a movie, they will be provided with an option to view it from a cable provider or have it streamed from sites like Amazon.com or Netflix , Joyce said. The company has also tied up with CinemaNow and Blockbuster to stream movies. Beyond movies, the software will also search for content like TV shows, podcasts and radio from multiple sources, Joyce said. Based on a show selection, links to related videos like outtakes on YouTube will also be provided. In the future, more links will be provided to sites like Amazon.com so viewers can buy merchandise related to shows or movies. The new interface also provides quick access to content based on categories like actors, directors or seasons. Users can also browse through collections, like an Oscar collection, to quickly view relevant movies. A new feature provided with the box is the ability to display remaining storage on the device in real time, Joyce said. Users will be able to import their music collection from a PC to the box. To make interaction with the Web easier, the company will later this year release a remote control with a slide-out keypad which will make typing easier. A set-top box with 320GB of storage will be available for US$299, and will record up to 45 hours of high-definition programs. A box with 1TB of storage will be available for $499. The boxes are based on the Linux operating system , and the software interface is built on the Adobe Flash platform. The boxes will support Wi-Fi 802.11 g/n to pull content from broadband connections. The company is taking orders for the boxes in the U.S. starting on Wednesday. Cable company RCN will be offering the boxes with its cable service in the U.S., while Virgin Media in the U.K. will offer the boxes. Tivo is not the first company to try to marry the Internet with TV. The Boxee Box from D-Link, introduced earlier this year, is designed to search and bring TV shows and movies from the Internet to TV sets and PCs. Intel and Yahoo are also co-developing the Widget Channel, in which “widgets,” or mini-applications, complement TV viewing with information from the Internet. The effort is backed by consumer electronics companies like Samsung and Toshiba.
Opera Says Version 10.50 Is the Fastest Windows Browser (NewsFactor)
Opera Software released a new version of its Internet browser Tuesday that the company claims is the fastest Windows-based platform for surfing the web. Called Opera 10.50, the free browser download now sports a sleek and refined design, together with new social-networking capabilities as well as a private browsing feature that hides all traces of the sites that users visit. Opera hopes to capitalize on Microsoft ’s new browser-choice screen for Windows, which gives European Union users the opportunity to switch from Internet Explorer to a rival platform. Implemented as part of Microsoft’s recent antitrust settlement with the European Commission , the new browser ballot is expected to be displayed on more than 100 million Windows machines in Europe between now and mid-May. Opera 10.50 is the fastest browser in almost all speed tests , according to Opera Software CEO Lars Boilesen . “But more important than any speed test is the real-world speed during use,” Boilesen said. “We designed Opera 10.50 to be easy to use, while making our unique features stand out so you can get more out of the web.” A Need For Speed European users of Windows PCs with IE set as the default browser are being provided with a browser-choice screen designed to ensure competition, said EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia on Tuesday. The browser-choice screen, which is supposed to randomly rotate the order in which the choices are presented from one machine to the next, includes short descriptions of the major browsers from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and Opera. Microsoft’s short ballot description for IE emphasizes the browser’s leading marketplace ranking, while Apple stresses Safari’s innovation, and Mozilla cites security as Firefox’s top priority. By contrast, Google and Opera have elected to promote their speed. Largely because of its superior speed, Google’s Chrome browser has made major market gains. According to Net Applications, Chrome’s share of the global browser market rose from 1.79 percent in April to 5.61 percent in February. With the release of Opera 10.5, Opera Software also hopes to capitalize on user demands for speed through the addition of a new JavaScript engine that it said is up to seven times faster than earlier Opera releases. Moreover, Opera 10.5 incorporates the company’s Turbo technology, which is designed to accelerate web access whenever bandwidth availability slows to a crawl. Opera Turbo Opera says its Turbo technology, which compresses web pages on the company’s servers, enables users to browse the Internet more than twice as fast as any other browser when connected at speeds of 100 Kbps or less. “Because you transfer less data, web content gets to you faster,” the company said. To maximize speed performance, YouTube videos and other content based on Adobe’s Flash technology are only loaded when the user clicks on it. Web-page images also are modified to reduce their size, but users can access any full-quality images by right-clicking. With Opera’s Turbo, encrypted traffic to banks and other secure sites is never routed through the company’s compression servers, noted Opera Software spokesperson Falguni Bhuta. “Opera has always held security and privacy as extremely important,” Bhuta said. “All the data in Opera Turbo processes is governed by Norwegian privacy laws, which are quite strict.” Opera also has introduced private browsing in Opera 10.5 for Windows. Private browsing “works both in a separate window” — like other browsers — as well as “in a tab alongside your current browsing sessions, unlike other browsers,” Bhuta added.
Case Mod Turns the Wii Into a Portable ‘Ltechtop’ (tech)
Have you ever wanted to play a quick round of Wii Sports while out and about? A recent case-moddder has taken Nintendo ’s popular Wii console and built it into a laptop-style case, making on-the-go Wii gaming possible. This particular case mod requires plenty of patience. This expandable PVC-encased Wii “laptop” took its builder more than three months of spare time and around £400 ($600) to build. This mod takes a regular Wii console , pairs it with a 17-inch LCD monitor, additional fans, and a full QWERTY keyboard for use when surfing online. Check out the end result in action below: This isn’t the first time someone tried to make the Wii more portable; in 2007 Ben Heckendorn’s made a slightly different Wii laptop . For more on this latest effort, though, be sure to check out the Benheck.com forum . [Via SlipperyBrick ] Follow GeekTech and Chris Brandrick on Twitter. Share
EU cell phone users to have limited online surfing (tech)
BRUSSELS – Mobile phone operators must now limit how much they charge customers for using the Internet within the European Union , after new rules went into effect Monday. Customers have until July 1 to set a maximum monthly cost with their network, and those who do not will by default have a euro50 ($68) limit set. Networks will send a warning when customers use up 80 percent of their allotment. At the limit, they will be cut off. The European Commission has pressed networks into slashing roaming charges, leading to a 35 percent drop in the average cell phone bill to about euro20 a month, according to EU data. But until now the cost of online surfing had remained unchanged. The EU office noted that German traveler was billed euro46,000 after watching a TV show in 2009 while roaming online in France, and a British student was charged euro9,000 for a month’s roaming while studying abroad. By setting a monthly Internet limit, the European Commission hopes that “the tendency for operators will be to bring the price of surfing the Web down,” EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said. Neelie Kroes , the new EU digital issues commissioner, called the new measure a step in “building customers’ confidence to surf the Internet when traveling in Europe .” Network operators can now charge each other no more than 1euro per megabyte for downloading. National telecoms regulators are responsible for enforcing the rules with mobile phone operators, and the EU commission will report on the issue by June 2011. Arlene McCarthy , a British Labourite in the European Parliament who was instrumental in pushing through the roaming legislation, said “European consumers can now determine just how much they’re willing to spend on their mobile while they’re abroad. “It’s a shame that despite the huge numbers of complaints, mobile operators dragged their feet and we have had to use the full force of the law to get consumers a fair deal on prices,” she added.
Global PlayStation 3 Glitch: What We Know So Far (tech)
Sony’s PlayStation 3 appears to be in the throes of an inadvertent global gaming lockdown , suffering from an unidentified glitch that prevents gamers from playing specific games whether online or offline. The issue appears to be related to the monthly turnover (February to March, last night) and occurs whether you’re connected to the Internet or not. The company isn’t responding to press emails at this time or detailing what the problem is, only that it’s working on an “issue” and attempting “to restore service to all.” Are you affected? Here’s what we’ve gleaned so far. It really is global . Reports are streaming in from users affected worldwide, and Sony appears to be mobilized (if not particularly chatty about what’s wrong) from North America to Europe to Japan. It only affects older “fat” PlayStation 3 ’s . It also affects debug PS3s, i.e. those used by journalists and game developers . Newer PlayStation models–notably the “slim-line” version–are reportedly unaffected. It prevents you from connecting to Sony’s PlayStation Network as well as from playing certain games, whether online or offline . Which games? Games that perform a trophy-sync check at startup, e.g. Heavy Rain , White Knight Chronicles , and Final Fantasy XIII . Games that don’t, or that don’t use trophies, i.e. older PS3 games, appear to work fine. It doesn’t prevent you from downloading demos, surfing with the PS3 ’s browser, or performing a ’system update’ . Affected PS3s aren’t forced offline, in other words. You’re still able to browse the web, finish downloading demos you’d initiated prior to the glitch (you can’t initiate new ones), and pull down firmware updates . The latter seems the likeliest route for a fix, should one be forthcoming from Sony. The error codes vary by game but appear to be trophy-related . The most common error code judging from user complaints–8001050F–reads “Registration of the trophy information could not be completed…The game will quit.” Another error message outputs “Trophy data failed to load…Please use the PS button to quit.” Biz site Develop reports some PS3 debugs are also experiencing an ‘ endless loop ‘ reboot error that seems to be related. My debug unit hasn’t gone into a reboot–it simply generates the 8001050F error when I try to load Final Fantasy XIII–but then I’m not a developer, and I’m only loading official debug code. The glitch occurs initially when you power on your PS3 . It apparently happens whether you’re connected to the Internet or not: Disable your wireless and/or unplug your Ethernet cable before powering up, and you’ll still experience it. The only way to avoid the reset, for now, is not to power on your PS3. The glitch appears to be time and date related . When initially powered on, the glitch resets your system clock to 12/31/99 (it happened on both my retail and debug systems). Speculation is it started with the February 28 – March 1 turnover. Manually resetting your PS3’s time and date doesn’t resolve the issue . I tried (and it failed). So it’s obviously more nuanced and/or less obvious than just a wonky timestamp issue. Some report re-seating the internal battery resolves the problem . These claims are unverified, but even if they were, I wouldn’t touch this with a golden screwdriver or a no-fault insurance policy . Aside from voiding your warranty, it requires full disassembly and fiddling with the core internals of your system. Sony hasn’t said what the issue is yet, leaving us to puzzle it out based on the symptomology . All the company has said in a handful of Twitter updates and blog posts, is that they’re aware something’s gone wrong and working on it. The EU PlayStation Twitter feed is slightly ahead of its US counterpart here: As of 8:00am PT, the US PlayStation Twitter feed hasn’t updated in over 12 hours. (Update – 8:06am PT) Some users claim the glitch prevents you from watching Netflix movies . I can’t verify this, unfortunately, since I don’t have Netflix installed. (Update – 8:52am PT) It’s getting pretty wild and wooly on the game boards . NeoGAF has a thread that’s over 5,000 posts long in the last dozen or so hours, and Sony’s official US PlayStation boards (see under PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Network ) are positively hopping. (Update – 9:02am PT) Sony’s US PlayStation Twitter account ( @SonyPlayStation ) is growing by leaps and bounds as gamers wait for an official update. Sony’s nabbed well over 20,000 followers since I started paying attention to the count–then at roughly 160,000–six or seven hours ago. (Major Update – 9:14am PT) Sony Community Team Leader ‘MusterBuster’ just posted the following to the official EU PlayStation Network boards. The information also appears in the latest post to Sony’s official EU blog . As you may be aware, some customers have been unable to connect to the PlayStation Network today. This problem affects the models other than the new slim PS3 . We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system. Errors include:* The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.* When the user tries to sign-in to the PlayStation Network, the following message appears on the screen; “An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”.* When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; “Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game.”* When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the Internet, the following message appears on the screen; “The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)”* Users are not able to playback certain rental video downloaded from the PlayStation Store before the expiration date. We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you have one of the above listed models, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data. As mentioned above the new slim PS3 is not affected with this error. We are doing our best to resolve the issue and do apologise for any inconvenience caused. (Update – 9:55am PT) Sony’s Jeff Rubenstein says we should be “fine” in 24 hours . @JeffRubenstein : Summary: PS3 slim is good to go, older models should be fine within 24 hrs. Leave em off until then. Sites and feeds to keep tabs on: Sony’s US PlayStation Twitter Feed Sony’s EU PlayStation Twitter Feed Sony’s US PlayStation Blog Sony’s EU PlayStation Blog Sony’s EU PlayStation Message Board ( this thread specifically ) Updates to follow as we receive them. Connect with Game On on Twitter ( @game_on )
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