Popular exercise- and nutrition-tracking service MyFitnessPal is making its first significant effort to reach an international audience.
Co-founder Mike Lee said that MyFitnessPal now has “well north of” 40 million registered users. That already includes users in other countries: “In absolute numbers it’s large, but … it’s just a small percentage of our total userbase.” So Lee argued that there’s a big opportunity in creating localized versions of the service.
TechCrunch
New submitter EdPbllips writes “Law enforcement officials nationwide are demanding the creation of a ‘kill switch’ that would render smartphones inoperable after they are stolen, New York’s top prosecutor said Thursday in a clear warning to the world’s smartphone manufacturers. Citing statistics showing that 1 in 3 robberies nationwide involve the theft of a mobile phone, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the formation of a coalition of law enforcement agencies devoted to stamping out what he called an ‘epidemic’ of smartphone robberies. ‘All too often, these robberies turn violent,’ said Schneiderman, who was joined at a news conference by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon. ‘There are assaults. There are murders.’” Apple described a system like this in their presentation about iOS 7 at WWDC.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
While Microsoft and Facebook have both published information tonight about how many requests for customer info the government made over a six month period, Google and Twitter are apparently hoping to take a different route. As Google told AllThingsD and Twitter legal director Benjamin Lee tweeted, “it’s important to be able to publish numbers of national security requests-including FISA disclosures-separately.” Google went further, claiming that lumping the number of National Security Letters together with criminal requests would be a “step backwards.” Clearly this post-PRISM revelations battle for more transparency on just what the government is doing behind the scenes isn’t over, we’ll let you know if any of the parties involved have more information to share.
Source: AllThingsD, Benjamin Lee (Twitter)
China isn’t downloading software off the Web to build its systems, it has design teams writing its software, says Argonne’s Peter Beckman, who heads the DOE’s exascale initiative.
Computerworld News
Nimbuzz is continuing its push for South Asian dominance with its latest telco partnership. The Indian messaging startup just announced a tie-up with Hutch in Sri Lanka, offering six months of free Nimbuzz usage to Hutch subscribers. Today’s announcement is just another in a steady string of telco partnerships that the company has been striking up. In May, it linked up with Mobilink in Pakistan, to give the telco’s 35 million subscribers access to Nimbuzz at a flat cost. The deal was similar to one that Nimbuzz made with India’s Aircel in February. The company has a total of eight telco tie-ups in India, covering nearly 75 per cent of the country, except for Vodafone’s users, said Vikas Saxena, Nimbuzz’s CEO. The point of all these deals is to ease friction in getting Nimbuzz on phones in the country. Saxena explained that billing continues to be an issue in Asia, where credit cards are not as common as they are in the West. Here, telco billing is one of the easier ways to reach users, offering the option of prepaid credit or through monthly phone bills. ”Ringtones and ringback tones sell (over phones) like hotcakes here, even though you can download these over the Internet,” he said. Telco billing is a strategy that even music providers in Asia have turned to. KKBOX and Deezer, for example, have used carrier tie-ups in the region to reach users more effectively. A second reason for the telco tie-ups is that bundled offerings are especially necessary in price-sensitive markets like India and the neighboring countries. In the Aircel deal, for example, signing up for Nimbuzz granted users 40Mb of data per month to use. It doesn’t sound like much, but it helps in a country where people hold multiple SIM cards to use different offers from rival telcos, such as more voice minutes from one and free texts from another. The smartphone messaging landgrab Nimbuzz has a total of 150 million users, and counts more than 210,000 new registrations per day. 25 million of its users are in India. Its plans to stake a claim to South Asia is not unchallenged. Other Asian messengers are eyeing new markets too, and have large existing user bases to pull new users toward them. Tencent’s WeChat app has a base of 300 million subscribers, and Japan’s Line just passed 150 million. US-based WhatsApp has 200 million active monthly users.
TechCrunch
Photo-sharing may seem a very saturated space but there’s still room for disruption reckons Seattle-based startup Linea, which is aiming to reinvent how people share multiple sets of photos with its horizontally scrolling filmstrip of images. The startup has just closed a $ 4 million seed round, with investment from an undisclosed group of Angel investors, and is about to start raising a Series A.
TechCrunch
The push notifications on our mobile devices aren’t just for convenience’s sake — they let apps stay idle and conserve precious battery life. That would explain why Google Cloud Messaging is now integrated with all versions of Chrome and Chrome OS, then. While both platforms are usually online as a matter of course, GCM lets developers refresh a web app or extension only when there are noteworthy changes, such as new chats. All end users have to do is sign in. Developers will have to build the feature into their apps before anyone sees the benefits, but we wouldn’t be surprised if our Chromebooks last for just a little bit longer in the near future.
Filed under: Laptops, Internet, Software, Google
Via: CNET
Source: Chromium Blog
Google is considering Glass boutiques where the public could try out the wearable, it’s reported, better explaining the Android headset by giving live demonstrations. A project closely involving Google co-founder Sergey Brin, according to whispers passed to Business Insider, the Glass-centric retail locations would push not only the concept of bodyworn computing, but the Glass
While Ubisoft already made it clear that it would be releasing its next open world action-adventure game for the PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Wii U, and the Xbox 360, it still didn’t confirm whether or not Watch Dogs would be released for the next-gen Xbox (although then again, why would it leave it
SumUp, one of the many European mobile card reader startups targeting small businesses — and taking advantage of Square’s continued absence to acquire users and build out a business — has taken another step designed to expand its reach by announcing a partnership with Revel Systems, a maker of iPad POS software.
TechCrunch
A patent that Motorola Mobility used to force Apple to turn off its iCloud push mail service in Germany is likely to be invalid, the Higher Regional Court in Karlsruhe said on Wednesday — but the ban will not be lifted, a court spokeswoman said.
Computerworld News
The Department of Energy and the Alaskan Government are speeding up development of oil sands and methane hydrates.
Many environmentalists are protesting the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline because it would help facilitate the delivery of oil from Canada’s oil sands and, they argue, increase carbon dioxide emissions. They may have more reason to worry about what’s happening in Alaska. The state’s Department of Natural Resources is teaming up with the U.S. Department of Energy to speed up production of natural gas from a resource—methane hydrate deposits–that’s far larger than the oil sands in Canada, and could in theory lead to far greater greenhouse gas emissions.
Jolla, the Finnish startup that carried the MeeGo torch out of Nokia in order to light a fire under its own smartphone OS: Sailfish, has taken the next step in its platform play, launching SDK installers to encourage developers to get building native Sailfish apps. It’s offering graphical installers for Windows, OS X and Linux (in 32 bit and 64 bit flavours).
TechCrunch
The market for social marketing startups is getting some natural uplift as advertising money continues to shift online and marketers experiment with alternatives to traditional ad formats that don’t make enough of a mark in the digital space. One such startup, Collective Bias, has just closed a $ 10.5m Series A to expand its blogger-powered social marketing model internationally.
TechCrunch
Dell announced today that it has filed its initial proxy materials with the SEC in connection with a merger agreement between Dell, its Chairman and CEO Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners. Under the terms of the deal, shareholders would received $ 13.65 in cash for each share of stock, which would be valued at about $ 24.4 billion.
Microsoft has relaxed a Windows 8 certification requirement to allow devices with lower resolutions, a move analysts said means Microsoft could soon join the shift to smaller, less expensive tablets.
Computerworld News
MIDI might be a little long in the tooth as protocols go, but it’s been the prevailing standard for getting music hardware and software to play nice pretty much since its inception. As such, the MIDI controller is a fairly established staple in professional and bedroom studios alike. The problem is they’re generic by nature. They come in all shapes and sizes, but to be profitable, they need to appeal to a broad range of applications. Ableton clearly didn’t think this arrangement was up to snuff, though, so it created Push — a software controller built entirely for its popular Live production software. While there have been Live-specific controllers before — some even officially endorsed by Ableton — Push is a whole new beast. It’s one that hopes to unite hardware and software in a way that an all-purpose controller never could.
Ableton also has lofty musical ambitions for Push: it claims it designed the hardware as an instrument in and of itself; something that lets you close the lid of the laptop and use to make music with, while not looking like you are checking your email. And, given that Ableton makes the software that it’s building Push for, integration is understandably expected to be airtight. But how well does it work? Is it an instrument? Will it replace all your other controllers? Do you want one? Is it worth the $ 599 pre-order price? Will it blend? We’ve pushed ourselves to explore the device fully in an effort to find out (apart from that last question, of course).
Gallery: Ableton Push review
Filed under: Misc, Peripherals
HTC has something else to worry about: it’s facing the prospect of having to fork out for damages if it loses a patent litigation court case to haptics company Immersion. Immersion had been content to stay its U.S. lawsuit against HTC — in order to wait for the completion of an ITC patent investigation — but has now asked for the stay to be lifted so it can seek immediate damages.
TechCrunch
Infor, the software industry’s third-largest ERP vendor after SAP and Oracle, has been building out its own underlying technology platform in a bid to gain more revenue as well as provide customers with easier integration and system management. The company maintains that strategy is clicking as its ION middleware has become the fastest-growing product in the vendor's history.
Computerworld News
Nokia is taking one more step to push its mapping and devices services as a standalone business. Today, Stephen Elop announced during the handset maker’s press conference at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that it would be rebranding all of its Nokia-branded mapping and navigation services as “HERE” going forward.
Samsung is considering embedding KNOX into its flagship mobile products for the first half. [Read more]
CNET News
Some major computer makers are pushing Office 365 with their new PCs, but others have stuck with a more traditional bundling tactic of including a factory-installed, single-license trial.
Computerworld News
Forget the ThinkPad, IBM is now all about ThinkMobile.
Computerworld News
The Breville BPR600XL Fast Slow Cooker is designed for slow cooking or pressure cooking. The device streamlines cooking processes with a simple-to-use interface. [Read more]
CNET News
In a White House switch, pro-manufacturing advisers have the ear of the president.
Before a packed arena at the national convention of the Democratic Party in September, Barack Obama outlined a vision for America’s economic recovery with manufacturing as its engine.
Cyber extortionists shilling “ransomware” have upped the ante by pushing users’ panic buttons with claims that their malware will wipe hard drives, a security firm said Monday.
Computerworld News
Mobile transportation startup Cabulous launched in 2010 with plans to bring Uber-like e-hailing to taxi fleets throughout the country. And while it’s been fairly successful in getting cabs signed up and attracting new customers, the company has decided to rebrand as Flywheel, and will be making a big marketing push around the new name in urban markets like New York City and San Francisco.
TechCrunch
sciencehabit writes “It’s textbook physics: An electric charge near the surface of a material gets pulled toward the surface. However, if the charge is spread out into the right shape and moves fast enough, that attraction becomes a repulsion, one physicist calculates. The odd finding could help physicists avoid unexpected effects when guiding beams of particles such as electrons.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Amazon Web Services has added PowerShell to the management options for its cloud, in a move that reaches out to the Windows community.
Computerworld News
The apparent aim of the campaign is to improve the Facebook experience on smartphone platform with the largest marketshare. [Read more]
CNET News
We don’t know much about how successful Google’s Chromebooks really are. Outside of talking about their adoption in schools and businesses, Google has never released any detailed sales figures. Most analysts assume they aren’t exactly a run-away hit. That hasn’t stopped Google from pushing forward with this initiative in the past, though, and this holiday season is no exception. Not only is Google running a massive campaign on Times Square and online, it also looks as if it has managed to secure some prime real estate on Best Buy’s storefront windows.
TechCrunch
It has been a rough stretch for Itanium. HP and its customers were startled after Oracle abruptly announced its intent to discontinue software development on HP’s Itanium servers. But neither HP nor Intel has backed away from Itanium, and last week’s announcements appear to affirm that.
Computerworld News
If new Facebook users understand their privacy on the site, they’ll trust Facebook more and share more too. So Facebook has just made privacy education a central part of the sign-up flow. New users are taught about their default controls, how to limit the audience of their posts, and how ads and apps work. Facebook also added in-line privacy controls so users can customize their settings right from the start.
TechCrunch
Yahoo has bought Stamped, the New York City-based startup that built an app to let people record and share recommendations of their favorite things with friends. The pricetag is in the double digit millions, a nice return for investors who pitched $ 3 million into the startup.
TechCrunch
With Windows 8 going on sale in just four days, Microsoft is doing a sensible thing and releasing a version of Skype optimized for Win 8. As you’d expect, Skype for Windows 8 has the same overarching look and feel as other apps, which is to say you can swipe from left to right to see different categories, such as recent activity, favorites and a complete contacts list. But the integration with Windows 8 goes a little deeper than that. Just as you can pinch your Live Tiles to zoom out and make them easier to navigate, you can use semantic zoom to sift through a long list of contacts. And, because Skype runs in the background, you can set up your Start Screen so that the Skype Live Tile shows notifications for things like missed calls. Additionally, Skype is now baked into the People Hub, so that someone’s Skype handle shows up alongside other forms of contact, like an email address or phone number.
The in-call experience has also been modified to take advantage of certain features in Win 8. For one, you can link your Skype and Microsoft account, so that when you log into your system using your Microsoft ID, you’ll already be logged into Skype. While on a call, you can conduct video chats using the whole screen, at which point chat messages from that person will show up as text bubbles on the side of the screen. At any time, you can swipe to see other recent activity, which could be handy if you’re juggling multiple IM conversations at once.
If you prefer, you can also dock Skype on the side of the screen, as you can with any other program in Win 8. With the Skype chat taking up just a third (or two thirds) of the screen, you can use that remaining real estate for an IM chat within Skype, or maybe a web search. Lastly, if you return to the home screen, there’s a large phone icon up top where you’ll find the dialer, whose number pad allow your fingers plenty of room to hit the right keys. You’ll see your balance listed there, too, in the event you’re not planning on making a free call to another Skype user. That’s our quick summary of what’s new, but if you like you’ll soon be able to experience it yourself: the app will be available for free in the Windows Store on October 26th.
Filed under: Software, Microsoft
Microsoft announces Skype for Windows 8: full-screen calls, push notifications and People Hub integration originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Engadget
Dell on Thursday will outline the next phase of its strategy to move up the IT value chain and sell higher-value systems that combine hardware and software for building out data center infrastructure.
Computerworld News
White-label cloud service provider Funambol has closed a new $ 5.75m funding round aimed at speeding its global expansion. The company’s customers are already deploying its OneMediaHub personal cloud repository to millions of their users. Funambol is aiming to use this latest cash injection, along with a working capital line, to further accelerate its rate of global growth.
TechCrunch
Pivot3, the Texas-based data storage company, and Samsung Electronics are entering a new partnership aimed at broadening the pair’s appeal to small and medium-sized enterprises wanting to deploy virtualized desktop infrastructure. Channel partners of the two companies can now offer a starter bundle to SMEs consisting of a Pivot3 VDI starter appliance and Samsung thin-client monitors.
TechCrunch
Chip maker Calxeda has received an investment to the tune of US$ 55 million to develop low-power server chips with ARM processors, the company is expected to announce on Tuesday.
Computerworld News
Google-owned YouTube is continuing its original channels push to attract more advertising dollars — by expanding its programming line-up internationally with the launch of country-specific channels in Europe. A “new generation of original channels” are launching in France, Germany, the U.K., along with new channels in the U.S. where the original channels push kicked off.
TechCrunch
Enterprises should ask a lot of questions when a vendor touts its business intelligence products as being fully integrated with Hadoop, Forrester analyst Boris Evelson warned.
Computerworld News
Director Robert Mueller tells Congress that police are “increasingly unable” to bring criminals to justice because rapid advances in technology thwart surveillance.
[Read more]
CNET News
Sprint doesn’t seem to be having any supply issues though.
[Read more]
CNET News
Intel will make a major mobile push at the Intel Developer Forum next week as the company tries to remain relevant in a market where tablets and smartphones are becoming an alternative to PCs for everyday computing.
Computerworld News
Existing technologies to improve engine fuel efficiency will get a boost, but it’s still unclear what approaches are most cost-effective to meet the standard of 54.5 miles per gallon.
As automakers engineer their way to meeting higher fuel economy standards, expect the internal combustion engine to shine and electrification to play a minor role.
Google has once again fully replenished their supply of ASUS-made Nexus 7 tablets in both 8 and 16GB iterations, with delivery again cut back to 3-5 days on both models. Several times since the launch of this device in both iterations we’ve seen the Google Play store online move shipping times back to weeks instead
Two security organizations have released online tools that let Windows users check for possible infections by Gauss, the newly-revealed cyber surveillance malware thought to have been government- built.
Computerworld News
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