Technology News Headlines and Software

O&O releases SafeErase Professional 5.0

By Nick Peers on February 22, 2011, 3:55 PM

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Berlin-based software powerhouse O&O has released a brand new version of its data-shredding tool for Windows. O&O SafeErase Professional 5.0's stand-out new feature is an analysis tool that searches the hard drive for deleted data it considers to be unsafe, providing the end user with the security that all sensitive files, even those deleted prior to the program's installation, have been removed from the computer.

O&O SafeErase Professional also searches for Internet data such as cookies, temporary files, forms and passwords, plus temporary Windows and program files. All the user has to do is launch the main program, click the "Start Analysis" button and wait for the program to search for these insecure files and settings. Once complete, they can be cleaned from the computer with a single click.

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You're the DJ with free tool Mixxx

By Mike Williams on February 22, 2011, 3:47 PM

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Quality DJ mixing software tends to be expensive, which can be a big problem if you're a mixing novice and still trying to hone your skills. There is an alternative, though. Mixxx is a free open source DJ mixing package that gives you everything you need to produce professional live mixes.

The Auto DJ makes it reasonably easy to get started, even if you're a total beginner: just import a few MP3 files and the program will mix from one track to another while you get on with other things.

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There's no delay: iPad 2 event set for March 2

By Ed Oswald on February 22, 2011, 3:29 PM

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After a day where Apple's iPad was rumored to have been delayed by financial publication Bloomberg -- and then strongly refuted by noted Apple columnist John Dalrymple, a new rumor has surfaced: a date for the debut of the iPad 2.

Kara Swisher of AllThingsDigital said Tuesday afternoon that "multiple sources" are telling her that Apple plans to hold a media event on March 2, where the iPad 2 would make its first appearance. Details are scant, however Swisher says the unveiling would take place at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco.

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Google faces new charges in EU antitrust case

By Ed Oswald on February 22, 2011, 2:56 PM

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One of the three companies that had filed antitrust complaints against Google with the European Union broadened their list of accusations on Tuesday, sending a supplementary complaint to the European Commission's antitrust regulators regarding AdSense.

French company 1plusV claims that Google's advertising system was blocking one of its sites -- legal search engine Ejustice.fr -- from competing in the market place. From 2006 to 2010, Google prevented vertical search engines from using the AdSense product on their sites.

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Amazon Prime just got better: Free movie and TV show streaming

By Joe Wilcox on February 22, 2011, 1:23 PM

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One of Amazon's best values is its Prime service, which costs $79 a year. For that fee, buyers get free two-day shipping or overnight packages for $3.99 per item. Today, Amazon added something more: free streaming of 5,000 movies or TV shows. Or so the retailer claims. I only see 1,688 movies and 484 TV shows currently available on Amazon Instant Video.

Amazon offers a surpringly good selection, too; that is sure to give Netflix some unexpected and needed competition in the streaming market, and Prime is a better value. Netflix charges $7.99 per month (before taxes) for movie and TV show streaming, or minimum $95.88 a year. Not only does Prime cost less but it offers more in the aforementioned shipping costs -- and there's something else: Amazon allows the sharing of Prime among four accounts in the household. If, say, you're a college student with roomies sharing Primes, the value just got whole lots better.

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Verizon subsidizing Motorola XOOM, LTE upgrade will be free

By Ed Oswald on February 22, 2011, 12:26 PM

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Verizon confirmed that it would subsidize the cost of the Motorola XOOM tablet on Tuesday, possibly answering critics that it is too expensive for consumers. While the Android-powered device was introduced at CES to generally good reviews, its $799.99 unsubsidized price could be seen as a deterrent.

Those who subscribe to a 2-year contracted data plan would receive the standard $200 subsidy, lowering the cost to $599.99. At that price, the device becomes a whole lot more competitive with its contemporaries such as Apple's iPad. Data plans would begin at $20 monthly for 1GB of data.

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Update here: Windows 7 SP1 RTM now available for download

By Tim Conneally on February 22, 2011, 11:52 AM

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As expected, Microsoft made the complete, release to manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows 7 SP1 available for download Tuesday. The RTM build is listed as (7601.17514.101119-1850) and it is expected to be pushed to Windows Update and the Windows Service Pack Center later today. However, for those eager to get the update downloaded and installed right away, we're hosting it for download in FileForum today.

Download Windows 7 SP1 RTM in FileForum now!

It's time Apple came clean about Steve Jobs' health

By Joe Wilcox on February 22, 2011, 11:03 AM

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Apple can no longer remain silent about its CEO's health. This is no longer a debate about corporate responsibility or fair disclosure to shareholders. Now that Paparazzi are following Jobs and taking photos or videos of him outside the cancer treatment facility, Apple must respond. Silence is bad for Apple, bad for its shareholders and quite possibly damaging to Jobs' recovery. How would you feel about seeing your photos in the National Enquirer? How would it affect your cancer recovery?

Jobs announced indefinite medical leave from Apple on January 17. "My family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy," Jobs requested. That clearly isn't happening. Yesterday, Radar Online posted a video of Jobs leaving the Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto, Calif. The video was shot 13 days earlier. Last week, the Enquirer published photos of Jobs outside the same facility. Out of respect to Jobs' recovery and privacy, I won't link to either the photos or video. If you want to see them, Bing or Google.

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Lenovo launches Sandy Bridge ThinkPads with 30 hour battery

By Jacqueline Emigh on February 22, 2011, 5:36 AM

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Lenovo on Tuesday expanded its ThinkPad notebook line-up on the high end by rolling out six new Intel Sandy Bridge-enabled models with features like 30 hours of battery life, Dolby Home Theater v4, NVidia Optimus graphic switching, and Instant Resume, for more continuous wireless connectivity.

The new series of enhanced ThinkPads includes the top-of-the-line T420 and T520, the less pricey L420 and L520, the ultrathin T420s, and the W520, Lenovo's latest portable workstation for graphics-intensive applications like CAD, said Ross Compton, a Lenovo product manager, in an interview.

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5 reasons Macs will never outsell Windows PCs

By Joe Wilcox on February 21, 2011, 8:24 PM

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Apple may be the most talked about tech company in geekdom and on Wall Street. The brand is hot, but for all the hype Macintosh is not. Sure Mac sales are way up, as is Apple's personal computer market share -- at least compared to May 2001 when CEO Steve Jobs talked about topping 5 percent share when opening the first company-owned retail store in McLean, Virginia. Ten years later, Jobs' has his 5 percent, but Windows PC sales dwarf Macintosh, and there absolutely are no signs of change coming anytime soon.

During fourth-quarter 2010, Apple's PC market share fell sequentially, dropping to fifth place in US market share -- from third place according to IDC (10.4 percent to 8.7 percent) and from fourth by Gartner's reckoning (10.6 percent to 9.7 percent). Combined Windows PC market share is still about 90 percent, and let's be brutally honest: Windows PCs are used pretty much everywhere.

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"Smart": the next soon-to-be outdated tech buzzword

By Tim Conneally on February 21, 2011, 6:07 PM

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The different epochs of consumer computing are marked by catchphrases that coincide with the great money-making technology of the time. At the dawn of the twenty-teens, we're already well into the generation of "smart devices." Let's take a look at what brought us to this new age of smartness.

In the 8-bit computing era, everything was "micro." From microprocessors were born microcomputers, and from there we had a whole slew of products, brands, and companies using the prefix in their name: Microprose, Microsoft, Microware, Microvision, BBC Micro and its related TV show Micro Live, Micro-Star International (MSI), and Micronics.

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Microsoft's Mundie: Kinect SDK for PCs due in Spring

By Ed Oswald on February 21, 2011, 5:47 PM

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They say if you can't beat them, join them. Rather than fight back against enterprising hackers aiming to get the Xbox Kinect motion-sensing controller working with Windows, Microsoft has now announced the availability of an SDK to come this spring.

The news shouldn't be all too surprising, however: CEO Steve Ballmer had made statements that compatibility with PCs was in the works at this year's CES.

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First update comes for Windows Phone, without copy and paste

By Ed Oswald on February 21, 2011, 2:54 PM

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The first major update to the Windows Phone 7 software is now being delivered to customers, Microsoft said on Monday. While the update does not include highly anticipated features such as cut and paste, it does lay the groundwork for future updates.

Microsoft has improved upon the software update process in order to make it more efficient. While the company did not give much detail on what exactly the update changes, Microsoft did call the update "important because it's paving the way for all future goodie-filled updates to your phone, such as copy and paste or improved Marketplace search," hinting towards what the company is working on.

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Tip: Fix photos quickly and easily with SoftColor PhotoEQ 1.0

By Nick Peers on February 21, 2011, 2:51 PM

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Not every photo comes out perfect, and the beauty of image-editing software is that it allows you to rescue those photos that would be perfect but for one or two flaws that render them useless. The trouble is, while image editors give you these options, they're not always the simplest to use. And if you're forced to perform several fixes, say color correction followed by blemish removal, then each fix must be performed in turn, making it more difficult and fiddly to restore your photo.

SoftColor PhotoEQ is a brand new tool designed to make image correction a simpler, less frustrating process. It combines a number of useful tools behind a simple user interface that anyone can understand, and which can quickly and easily lead to vastly improved photos.

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LogMeIn join.me: Free ad-hoc meetings for up to 250 people

By Mike Williams on February 21, 2011, 2:38 PM

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If you need to collaborate with others online then you'll probably think first about using email. But while this is a simple way to tell people what you're doing, there are far more powerful options available, and LogMeIn join.me is top of the list.

This one free tool (LogMeIn's replacement for LogMeIn Express) allows you to connect up to 250 people, for instance. They'll all be able to view your screen, while individuals you select can also control your system. A file transfer option makes it easy to share data, while the integrated chat client allows you to keep everyone in touch with what's going on.

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iPad is not a PC

By Joe Wilcox on February 21, 2011, 1:01 PM

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Last week, DisplaySearch joined Canalys classifying iPad as a personal computer. Canalys claims that iPad lifts Apple to third place in global PC market share. DisplaySearch puts Apple No. 1 in the United States by similar reckoning. The Apple fan club of bloggers and journalists delighted in the DisplaySearch data, gifting Apple with "its No.1 headlines." I write to correct the record about Macs outselling Windows PCs. They don't, and you can put your wishful thinking back in the draw or closet from whence it came. Apple's tablet is not a PC.

In August 2010, I asked: "Is Apple the real US PC market share leader -- or soon will be?" That could only be if iPad classified as a PC. I write posts like that one to get people thinking, to look at something from a different perspective. Also, based on iPad's functionality and available applications, it was legitimate consideration -- Apple's market share would be so much greater if iPad was a PC.

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Best Buy takes XOOM preorders -- get yours for (gasp) $800, not $600

By Joe Wilcox on February 20, 2011, 1:31 PM

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So much for the $600 WiFi-only Motorola XOOM tablet, gadget geeks pine for. While Moto may have promised the lower-cost model, there are no signs it's coming this week. Best Buy has started taking preorders for the 3G/4G/WiFi model for (cough, cough) $799.99, available February 24 -- that is based on earlier leaked information. The higher-cost XOOM requires (cough, cough) Verizon cellular contract and (cough, cough) one month's service required to turn on WiFi capabilities.

Can you say price gouging? Best Buy isn't taking preorders online. Shoppers must go to stores to cough up 800 bucks. Here, in California, applying 9.95 percent tax puts the price at nearly $880 out the door.

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The Hype vs. the Science of digital eyewear

By Tim Conneally on February 20, 2011, 12:47 AM

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Maintaining skepticism is good practice for consumers, but even moderate consumer skepticism can play serious hell with a company that pushes its product too hard. This is especially true among tech adopters. Betanews' Tim Conneally takes an objective look at Gunnar Optiks and the value of their "digital eyewear" against the skepticism it elicits.

Anyone who spends enough hours on the Web will eventually learn to recognize targeted marketing; but people who follow cutting edge technology face an especially large amount of product marketing and sales pitch hyperbole.

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Look no further, the world's fastest iPhones are in Israel

By Tim Conneally on February 18, 2011, 9:15 PM

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Ookla Net Metrics' free network speed test speedtest.net is so widely used that even the federal government has recognized it as a reliable tool for measuring wireless network conditions. Friday, the company published results of some 57,000 user-initiated iPhone speedtests in the U.S., which showed users on the AT&T network getting average speeds substantially higher than iPhone users on Verizon Wireless.

After publishing the data, the story got some good coverage pitting iPhone against iPhone. But it should have come as no surprise to anyone who knows wireless technologies that HSPA was faster than EV-DO rev. A. On paper, HSPA's theoretical max speed is 7.2 Mbps, and EV-DO rev. A's is only 3.1 Mbps. It's pretty widely accepted.

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3 things XOOM and other tablets need to succeed

By Joe Wilcox on February 18, 2011, 3:45 PM

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There are close to 90 different tablets announced for 2011 delivery. Some of the hottest models, like the Motorola XOOM, are weeks away from availability. Meanwhile, hype continues as fervently as ever about iPad 2. In such a competitive market, with overwhelming number of choices, there are going to be losers -- and lots of them. Is there a formula for success?

Earlier today, I asked Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, three things tablet manufacturers/retailers need do to be successful. One of the three I most expected didn't make the list (more on that later). Baker is unusual among industry analysts for his no-nonsense common sense about retail. Tablets aren't just tactile in how they're used. People will want to touch and hold them before buying them, which means retail distribution. Besides something new needs to be seen before purchasing; it's retail marketing 101 stuff.

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