19 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- Angry Birds Sails Past 10 Million Paid Downloads [TNW Mobile]
- Samsung Galaxy Tab To Get Gingerbread And Honeycomb Updates [TNW Mobile]
- Try This: Measy. Choosing electronics made easy. [TNW Apps]
- Etkalem: Arabic Text-to-Speech for iPhone [TNW Middle East]
- Chrome 9 is now available in the Dev channel [TNW Apps]
- Try This: Lazyscope. Twitter meets RSS reader; subscribe to anything. [TNW Apps]
- Try This: Minus. Wonderfully minimalist drag and drop photo sharing [TNW Apps]
- Surfing and the Web: Part 1 – Rand Leeb du Toit [TNW Australia]
- TwitPic is safe. Facebook is aiming for Ping.fm [TNW Social Media]
- Google’s Biggest Mistakes According to Marissa Mayer [TNW Google]
- Apple anti-malware: Necessary evil or just a money-grab? [TNW Apple]
- Are the HTC 7 Trophy Windows Phones about to be recalled? [TNW Microsoft]
- Datasift gives us a peek at its App Store. A focus on social web applications. [TNW Apps]
- Report: YouTube ordered shut down again in Turkey [TNW Google]
- Meet the “Real Weather Girls,” the world’s first reality-show based app. [TNW Apps]
- Google settles in class action lawsuit over Buzz launch [TNW Google]
- MacBook Air display problems? A faulty logic board might be the culprit. [TNW Apple]
- Bing Maps dropping Silverlight for HTML5 [TNW Microsoft]
- Ok, hands down, best haunted house effect yet. [TNW Shareables]
- Xbox Kinect to outsell the PlayStation Move this holiday [TNW Microsoft]
| Angry Birds Sails Past 10 Million Paid Downloads [TNW Mobile] Posted: 03 Nov 2010 02:44 AM PDT
Whilst that figure is impressive alone, it only accounts for paid downloads. If you were to factor in the number of paid and unpaid downloads, across all smartphone platforms, Angry Birds has been downloaded over 30 million times since its launch in 2009. PocketGamer puts those numbers in perspective:
Released just last week, Angry Birds Halloween Edition has smashes the one million downloads barrier and with completely new levels for gamers to enjoy, it’s doubtful downloads will slow just because Halloween has passed. With the Angry Birds plush toys available just in time for the holiday season, Rovio is set for a very successful final quarter. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab To Get Gingerbread And Honeycomb Updates [TNW Mobile] Posted: 03 Nov 2010 02:17 AM PDT
The Samsung Galaxy Tab went on sale in the UK on November 1, shipping with Android 2.2 (FroYo) firmware, Samsung have not provided any further details as to when owners can expect to receive upgrades. Google has yet to announce the availability of its Gingerbread Android update and comment on whether its new software will include tablet-specific features. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is expected to go on sale worldwide within the next week. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Try This: Measy. Choosing electronics made easy. [TNW Apps] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 11:30 PM PDT
Measy makes choosing the perfect gadget simple. Hits: No sign-up required, great user interface, detailed results Misses: Limited gadget categories available Overall: 4/5 The Details There's no sign-up required to use the site, so you can jump straight in and choose your product category. This is an area that really needs updating for the site to really take off, but so far you can choose from digital cameras, DSLRs, e-readers, HDTVs, netbooks, and smartphones. I would love to see video cameras, laptops, and game consoles here in the future, but they've made a great start. If you prefer to start by looking at what's available, you can choose the 'explore' option, and check out reviews, pictures, and price comparisons of your chosen product. For those who know what they need, however, the 'quiz' option offers a simple way of choosing your preferences and budget.
Once you've indicated your budget, preferred brands (if any), and the relative importance of various functions of the product, you can view details of the top matching products. The product that matches your choices best will be shown to start with, complete with a clear overview, detailed specs, close-up images, and score analysis. Using reviews from around the Web, Measy creates a Compass Score, which combines ratings for how well each feature fits your requirements and the average reviewer's rating. Each feature rating also has a 'show details' option, which explains how the rating is achieved.
Sharing your results is easy, as each product page has buttons for Twitter and Facebook built in, and a link ready to copy-and-paste. If you choose to sign up for a free account, you can also keep track of products you've viewed, and create a favourites list. If you're thinking about buying any electronics, try using Measy to help you pick the best one, or check out the Measy blog for great posts on shopping decisions like finding the perfect toaster or comparing plasma, LCD and OLED TV sets. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Etkalem: Arabic Text-to-Speech for iPhone [TNW Middle East] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 11:29 PM PDT Ever since smartphones began spreading like wildfire throughout the Middle East the demand for translation and Arabic text related applications have increased proportionally. I’d like to claim I know the entire industry, but I only know what passes my way during the occasional app hunt during driven by passion and frustration with what’s available. Till now I can count only two that stand out. Sakhr debuted on the Arabic Text-to-Speech scene with their application ‘Arabic Language Buddy’ that was released last year in the iTunes market but hasn’t exactly been getting cheers from the Arabic iPhone community especially with it’s $4.99 price tag. Yet is ranked #1 for human comprehensibility in U.S. Government evaluations. Go figure. Yesterday marks the launch of the second of such apps with Etkalem (which means Speak) by iPhoneIslam providing both Arabic and English text-to-speech functionality that’s quite impressive.
It doesn’t come with a fancy voice selector, but the female robot’s voice should be sufficient for an app that only costs $2. There are some quirks in the app, such as pronouncing Arabic Diacritics that the application doesn’t exactly master, but we can definitely let that slide. With Google releasing the API for their service Google Tashkeel, that could be overcame without having to reinvent the wheel. I won’t even get into the possibilities combining it with services like Yamli could present. It does on the other hand come with a built in browser that allows users to read online content through, which could prove to be a powerful tool for iPhone/iPad with visual disabilities. If you understand Arabic check out the video iPhoneIslam published yesterday displaying the service and let us know about any other similar apps you’d like reviewed. After you’re done you can find the app here on iTunes. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Chrome 9 is now available in the Dev channel [TNW Apps] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 10:11 PM PDT It was only a few days ago that we started to see the Canary release of Chrome 9 snooping around here on TNW. Now, taking Chrome’s typically quick pace in the Chromium Project releases, it’s available for download in the Dev channel. Want to give it a download? Here’s what you need to know about the Dev channel release:
What that means is that using the Dev channel release of 9 is a “buyer beware” sort of scenario. However, if you want to play with the latest somewhat-stable Chrome build, it’s available for public download and should be usable for the largest majority of its audience.
[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Try This: Lazyscope. Twitter meets RSS reader; subscribe to anything. [TNW Apps] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 07:44 PM PDT
But what if you want more? What if you didn’t want to have to follow links to see the content? What if you wanted to subscribe to blogs and view them via your Twitter feed? Videos? Pictures? Now you can, with Lazyscope. Lazyscope is a new project from the crew who brought you Lazyfeed. It’s being described as “x-ray vision for Twitter” but you really need to see it in action to ge a full appreciation: Lazyscope is an Adobe Air application. Once you’ve downloaded it, you sign in to your Twitter account and you’ll see your feed on the left with an empty pane on the right. If there’s a link in your left pane, you’ll see a preview of the content. Clicking on that preview will show you the full view on your right side:
From that right side, you can subscribe to whatever content is there, so it essentially becomes a Twitter client with a built-in RSS reader. New updates will display a notification in the bottom right of your screen, by default. You can disable them if you so choose, but it’s interesting to leave them on as even the notifications have the rich content format of the Tweets in the stream.
As the video points out, you can subscribe to as much or as little information as you want. If someone only posts great pictures, but has annoying Tweets, you can subscribe to their photo service and view it in Lazyscope. Someone has a great YouTube channel? Add that too. It’s truly lazy content aggregation, brought to your desktop. Now, there are a couple of down sides with Lazyscope. First off, it’s API-based, so you userstream addicts will be left wanting. Also, it only handles one account so it’s not necessarily the best option for power users who need to manage multiple Twitter handles. Finally, I’m not a huge fan of Adobe Air, but Lazyscope is cool enough to make me look past it. Overall, Lazyscope is a 100% win. For those times when I’m not relying on Twitter to do my work, it has just become my client of choice. Given how many we see here at TNW, that’s saying a lot. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Try This: Minus. Wonderfully minimalist drag and drop photo sharing [TNW Apps] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 06:59 PM PDT
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| Surfing and the Web: Part 1 – Rand Leeb du Toit [TNW Australia] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 06:51 PM PDT
In this “Surfing and The Web” series I catch up with people involved in the Australian tech startup scene who are also surfers and ask them about Australia’s rich history in surfing and how that relates to our attempts to build a startup culture This edition sees us talk to Rand Leeb du Toit a veteran of the local startup industry. — How long have you been surfing for? I started surfing in the early 70′s, shaping my first board by the age of 10 and still get in the water any opportunity I can. Why do it? Surfing, like many sports, represents an element of freedom for the surfer. Freedom from other modern worldly constraints and a wonderful opportunity to both immerse oneself in the elements at their most pure, tapping their raw energy while also living in the moment. At a physical level it’s all about the glide – and this is what ties the various forms of surfing I do – from riding shortboards, through my high performance longboard and onto my stand up paddleboards. Where's your local break and what are you riding on most days there? Unlike in my youth I tend to not have a local spot, but I ride wherever and whenever I can. My favorite NSW break though has to be Crescent Head, which is a world class reef break that is perfect for both longboarding and stand up paddlesurfing. Surf and tech – not the most common combination. Does your surfing bring something to you as a technology entrepreneur or is it a way to get away from the troubles of the tech world? Yes, it can be an escape, but I am so immersed in the entrepreneurial environment that I rarely find the need to escape. That said, it is good to go off grid for a few hours. I love the surf + tech question – having experimented with surf designs and materials for many years I really enjoy the immediacy of response achieved through even such simple tweaks as moving your board’s fins forward or back. One area that I am really excited about in the surf arena right now is the scale at which stand up paddlesurfing is taking off – it’s the fastest growing water sport on the planet and there is a lot of tech experimentation around shapes and materials for both surfing and racing as well as with boards, paddles and clothing, not to mention tapping into social media to grow awareness and participation for the sport. I am really interested in exploring the creation of a world class Australian SUP/sport brand – it’s an exciting time. From time to time there have been distinct area that have produced a glut of surfing champions. Last year's Men's World Champion Mick Fanning, Runner-Up Joel Parkinson and 3rd place getter Bede Durbridge all grew up or live within a stretch of beaches that span only a few kilometres on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia. Women's world champion Stephanie Gilmore (who just won her 4th consecutive title yesterday) also lives there. The northern beaches of Sydney had a similar run with Damien Hardman, Tom Carroll and Barton Lynch, all northern beaches locals and world champions in the 1980's. Do you think it's possible for Australia to produce similar results in the tech startup world and, if so, where will that world leading Aussie startup hub be based? Or do you think that Australia simply doesn't have the core components (in surfing terms, the beaches, conditions, cultural history, competition and co-operation etc.) to be a global tech startup hub? I totally agree with the clustering effect. For example, back in 1978, when I was a grom surfer we had the World Surfing Championships at Nahoon Reef, my local break. This inspired a generation of top class surfers, many of whom went on to become world champions and represent South Africa (Wendy Botha, David Malherbe, Andrew Carter). We had a really strong lifesaving community there as well and I became a South African Lifesaving champion across a number of disciplines. These successes inspired further generations and the area has produced a raft of top surfers over the years. Having spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley I deeply understand the elements required to make it such a sustained tech success. Some parts of Australia have some of these elements in varying degrees, but much like I prefer not to compare surf breaks (they are all so different) I don’t think it’s totally constructive to aspire to completely replicate the Silicon Valley formula – rather, I believe we should draw inspiration from it and focus on our unique combination of resources, culture and talent to create our own global successes. I would really like to see Australia create some world leading brands and companies in the tech, and other arenas. Brands that represent Australia and move us away from how we are currently portrayed worldwide. I note in last week’s press Australia was referred to as the dumb blonde, yet in so many respects Australia represents freedom, open space, resilience and a can do, get stuff done attitude. Getting such brand success stories out there will in turn inspire generations of Aussies to go forth and represent us on the world stage. What we’ve done with out athletes is a great inspiration for business and tech entrepreneurs – personally I think there is a great opportunity to build up some of these success stories in the sports-tech arena. —- A big thanks to Rand for answering all our questions. Also, if you, or someone you know, is a surfer working in the tech startup industry that wants to be a part of this series, drop me a line (@kimheras) Finally, on a much sadder note, our condolences go out to the family of former Surfing World Champion Andy Irons, who passed away today aged 32. Rest in Peace. — feature image = “Transworld Surf“[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| TwitPic is safe. Facebook is aiming for Ping.fm [TNW Social Media] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 05:35 PM PDT There’s an interesting hypothesis running around today that Facebook has set its sights on TwitPic. Initiated by an article over at All Facebook, it was noticed that a Facebook staffer had uploaded some pictures then a message was sent to their Twitter account stating the upload. The message looks familiar, quite in line with what you’d see from an automated service, so the All Facebook idea is probably close.
Social SphereFacebook has made no bones about wanting to be your Internet hub. It wants to not only manage your photos, but also your relationships, your schedule and even how you’re introduced to people you don’t already know. In order to do this, Facebook is going to have to come out of the gates with something more than just a tool to broadcast when you upload photos. Having a service within Facebook where you could manage and update your entire social graph simply fits the puzzle for Facebook. Mobile Aspirations
We’ve been talking, around TNW, about what Facebook might announce at tomorrow’s mobile event. An application such as this would simply fit the bill perfectly for what Facebook tries to do. The Shutterbugs
The fact is, however, that Facebook will have to play nice with its users. If its users show a high enough demand to take their photos and make them available to more places, Facebook will need to enable that feature. It will also need to enable it if my line of thinking is correct about the site building its own social management functions. Time will tell, of course. Tomorrow should be interesting. Will we be seeing a Facebook phone, updates to the photo system or something else entirely? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Google’s Biggest Mistakes According to Marissa Mayer [TNW Google] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 04:23 PM PDT
This time round during an interview on Digg Dialogg it was really no different. Fortunately one question did reveal just a little bit more than most; what have been Google’s biggest mistakes? Mayer coyly listed three, the first being Google Wave, the product Mayer claimed she was most excited about just a year or so before.
Next up, the timing of the shut down of DejaNews.
For those of you who may not remember, Dejanews was a site for searching and participating in discussion groups carried on the Internet’s Usenet network. Google shut down the service early on a Monday morning leaving active users baffled as to where the discussion groups had disappeared to. Google had moved the archives over to its Google Groups service. Finally, the timing of the launch of Gmail:
Google is known for going to extra lengths every April 1st, so launching an email service when hotmail and Yahoo already had established competing products left many believing it was yet another joke. It wasn’t till the next day that sceptics began believing this new Gmail product was here to stay. Interesting there was no mention of Google Buzz’ privacy disaster, settled today. Watch the full interview below. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Apple anti-malware: Necessary evil or just a money-grab? [TNW Apple] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 04:11 PM PDT
One argument is that, given the lower number of Mac users, it makes more sense for the blackhat community to write malware and virus programs for the larger population that exists on Windows. Another argument touts Apple’s intuition in how it runs programs on OS X by sandboxing them and not allowing interaction between applications. Recently, though, we’ve started to see another crop of anti-malware software crop up for the Mac. As the population of Macs on the Internet grows and as viruses and malware find more creative was to sneak into systems, the question of necessity comes to mind. Do we Mac users really need antivirus and anti-malware, or are the makers of the products simply tossing fear into the hearts of Mac users in hopes of an easy sell? The Dllema
Virus makers, however, have found that DLL files are often easy to exploit. A re-written DLL can contain the valid information, but also can contain malware that would then be executed by an otherwise-benign program. Why is this a dilemma? Because the vast majority of really nasty Windows malware is spread through infected DLL files, and a quick Google search shows that users deal with the issue at length. Most users are intelligent and careful enough to not run unknown executable files, but a replaced DLL is a trickier monster. If for no other reason than this, Windows system need protection such as Windows Defender at a bare minimum. Mac users, fortunately, aren’t susceptible to a DLL infection. However, that’s not to say that we’re completely safe from malware. In fact, Apple sees it as enough of an issue that in OS X 10.6.4 the company actually included basic malware protection. The DilemmaThe issue that both Apple and its users now face is what happens as the platform continues to grow. Clearly, there are threats out there in the wild. Even though Apple doesn’t use DLL files, it can still transfer them across a network and infect Windows computers. So then, that seems like a really solid reasoning for carrying anti-malware software on your Mac, no? Not so fast. While the saying goes that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, it’s worth noting another cliche – “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. At present, there’s simply not enough of a call for educated users (as we assume you TNW readers to be) to run malware protection other than what is built in on their Macs. Typically speaking, antivirus and anti-malware applications have a host of issues all on their own. At this point, even with new software coming out very recently, it just doesn’t make sense to be overly concerned with malware on a Mac. Now, that’s not to say that you can be foolish. You shouldn’t go playing with fire without expecting the charring results. Likewise, questionable websites and browsing behaviors don’t suddenly get safe when you use a Mac. But if you’re an everyday user, without dipping into places that you probably shouldn’t be anyway, you’re likely still considerably safer than a fresh-from-the-box Windows machine. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Are the HTC 7 Trophy Windows Phones about to be recalled? [TNW Microsoft] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 03:49 PM PDT
The defect is made up of streaks that discolor the screen when powered off that appear to to be under the glass itself. Some users are claiming that humidity affects the defect’s appearance, while others are suggesting that it could be air trapped in the screen. The defect looks like this:
It is not finger smudging as the picture may seem to suggest; no amount of rubbing can seemingly remove the marks, and users have employed various cleaning solutions to no avail. Perhaps the best guess as to what has happened is that the glass and what is behind it were not perfectly sealed, leaving the devices open to the problem. The original reporter of the problem left a second note that is of rather great importance. Of course, this is unconfirmed, so please take it with a grain of salt:
Mobile blog PocketNow points out what is perhaps most interesting in this whole scenario, and it is not that a new phone may have a problem, that is simple enough. No, as they note, “this supposed issue [does] not bode well for HTC if true, as the associated publicity would certainly be a hit the general reputation of quality that the manufacturer has developed over the years.” HTC is known for quality, let’s hope that these phones are isolated cases. Finally, if you want to see the problem demonstrated, we recommend that you watch this video of it. More as it comes.XDA-Developers, PokectNow, Image Credit: Engadget [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Datasift gives us a peek at its App Store. A focus on social web applications. [TNW Apps] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 03:34 PM PDT
In view of that, Nick Halstead the Datasift and Tweetmeme CEO, has just announced that Datasift is building a dedicated app store that will feature Datasift applications. From the Datasift blog:
We’ve already talked about the potential implications of apps built on the Datasift platform. Halstead himself, in an interview with our own @Chadcat, points out that he sees Datasift being used to build a Flipboard competitor. The question that remains, of course, is whether someone can come up with an application that can supplant the reigning king of readers. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Report: YouTube ordered shut down again in Turkey [TNW Google] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 02:15 PM PDT According to Bloomberg, a Turkish court has ordered that access to YouTube be blocked again, just days after the video sharing site was unblocked in the country after a 30-month ban. Bloomberg says:
So it’s unclear when the site will actually be blocked again. Hurriyet Daily News, which Bloomberg sourced, says that over 4,000 other websites are currently blocked in Turkey.Bloomberg, Techmeme [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Meet the “Real Weather Girls,” the world’s first reality-show based app. [TNW Apps] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 02:06 PM PDT
Meet the “Real Weather Girls,” the world’s first reality-show based app. OMG. The video app follows the lives of 12 women in 12 cities across the globe who “share everything from their daily lives to the newest trends in their individual towns.” Carolina in the blue tube top will tell you that “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of Miami.” Users can even ask the girls questions. For example, heading to the World Series and not sure what to pack? Ask Baily in San Francisco. Going to London for the holidays and need a great hotel recommendation? Ask Camilla. Visiting Hollywood and want to know the best place to spot celebrities? Ask Colby. The app, available on both the iPhone and the iPad, is normally $2.99 but is currently on sale for free in the iTunes store. BTW, it will also give you a real weather forecast. Considering the wild success of reality TV over the past decade, it’s probably only a matter of time before Snookie, Ozzy and Kim Kardashian have their own apps. The thought of a Heidi and Spencer iPhone app makes me fear for our future. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Google settles in class action lawsuit over Buzz launch [TNW Google] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 01:47 PM PDT Google has released a statement that last month a federal judge “preliminarily approved a class action settlement related to the launch of Google Buzz last February.” Google was being sued by Gmail users that felt that the way that Buzz launched (which was widely considered a privacy disaster) infringed on their privacy. Google has since made changes to the way Buzz works with Gmail and as part of the settlement, it will create a $8.5 million fund for non-profits that focus on Internet privacy issues. The release includes the following quotes from a “Google spokesperson” and the lawyer for the class action plaintiffs: Google: “We are satisfied with the agreement and are glad to move forward.” Plaintiff lawyer: “We feel this settlement has many benefits to class members, including providing a significant amount of money to non-profit groups committed to educating users about Internet privacy and ensuring that Buzz users can join this on-line community without compromising their privacy.” The final approval of the settlement will take place on January 31, 2011.Press release, Business Insider, Techmeme [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| MacBook Air display problems? A faulty logic board might be the culprit. [TNW Apple] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 01:25 PM PDT We’re seeing a few rumors floating around about people who are experiencing video issues with the new MacBook Air models. Typically speaking, the issues range from having lines across the screen to the screen turning differnt colors entirely.
From what we’re reading over at Macworld, a faulty logic board might be to blame.
The problem doesn’t seem to be massively wide-spread, but it’s certainly being encountered by enough users to warrant some concern. A thread over on the Apple Support forums shows at least 10 more users who are experiencing the same issues:
And from another user:
For a better look at the problem, here’s a video that was picked up by Cult of Mac over the weekend: And so the questions begin. Have you had any issues with your new Air? As we said, it doesn’t appear that this is widely spread just yet, but the MacBook Air hasn’t had much of a lifespan yet either. If you’ve seen the issue, have you been able to correct it somehow? Is this reason enough to just stick to your iPad until it gets sorted?Techmeme Discussion [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Bing Maps dropping Silverlight for HTML5 [TNW Microsoft] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 01:21 PM PDT
Update: please see the bottom of the post. Microsoft is in the process of turning the Titanic around. At last year’s PDC the shouted mantra was “Silverlight, Silverlight, Silverlight.” Following this year’s PDC the cry has been the exact opposite. While Microsoft claims that they are merely ‘shifting’ the future of Silverlight and focusing more on HTML5 for cross-platform support, actions speak louder than words, and Bing Maps just made a call that is going to set the pace for the future of HTML5 across Microsoft’s internet teams. The Bing Maps team had this to say in regards to the future of Bing ‘Bird’s Eye’ and ’3D’ features:
Right, now what does that mean? In short for the 3D view of Bing Maps, the company is dropping their plugin (which runs on Silverlight), and will instead bake-in its capabilities into the larger Map function of Bing using HTML5.
If you recall, we brought you news yesterday that Internet Explorer 9 is beating every other browser on the market in terms of HTML5 compliance, and now we know why Microsoft is pushing that as hard as it is, the company is planning on switching over as quickly as possible. As we noted:
That Microsoft is going to shove their products onto HTML5 makes their concurrent browser push completely sensical. Developers on the other hand are not all pleased. The first comment on the blog post was scathing (excerpt):
Whatever the effects, the future of development at Microsoft seems to be set. Update: Alright, so this post, and posts like it around the internet from ZDnet, WinRumors, and Cnet, have sparked a good deal of controversy. The problem stems from the blog post written by Bing being rather, ahem, convoluted, as it turns out. Before we get into it, here is the update from MSFT:
Ok, let’s get into it. What exactly is going on? To put it as blunty as possible, quoting Tom Warren: “birds eye is the biggest SL only feature of bing maps. Now … it’s [Silverlight] not required…” To recap, the Active-X/3D change has nothing to do with Silverlight, our post was off the mark there and for that we apologize. However, Microsoft is still pulling the SL-exclusivity from Silverlight’s most important ‘hook’ in Bing Maps and letting people run it without Silverlight. Look into the future, what is going on is obvious.H/T WinRumors, Bing [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Ok, hands down, best haunted house effect yet. [TNW Shareables] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 01:14 PM PDT Using Hallowindow, a spooky effects generator, and a couple of projectors, this man has created the best haunted house effect yet. Brace yourself, apparently it made a few kids cry – not surprised. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Xbox Kinect to outsell the PlayStation Move this holiday [TNW Microsoft] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 12:21 PM PDT
With an estimated 2.5 million to 3 million Kinects to be sold, against an estimated 2 million and 2.25 units sold for Move, the Microsoft division should come out ahead. Those numbers pale when compared to the total number of Wiis with motion control sold, but that is a different ball game. Lewis Ward, the manager of IDC’s video game team had this to say: “While it doesn’t appear Kinect or Move will be this year’s Tickle Me Elmo, millions of additional U.S. households will be enjoying motion-based gaming this holiday season.” The Kinect will be up for sale this Thursday for a standalone price of $150. In other news, our friends over at WinRumors dug through the Kinect manual and found an image that is sure to tickle you. At least according to the Microsoft writing staff, you should just move your furniture and not sell it to clear enough space to play with your new Kinect:
Top Image Credit, SeattlePi, IDC, WinRumors [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
With 
TNW Quick Hit
However, all respect given to Nick O’Neill, I don’t think that he’s looking at the full scope of things. If I were a betting man (which I’m not, but that’s another story entirely) I’d say that Facebook is aiming for the social media update services such as 
Facebook has pushed its way into the mobile market with a strong hand. 
While I think that O’Neill was correct in his assumption that Facebook is doing something with its photos app, I simply don’t think it’s enough to roll out only a broadcast messenger. Imagine if you will, if Facebook owned its own service for aggregating your photos onto your social sites such as Posterous and Flickr? Could it be done? You bet. Is it likely that Facebook would want to share? Not really.
Google’s 
We’ve all heard the horror stories about viruses and malware. Of course, most of the often-relayed ones are 
Windows systems rely heavily on a function known as a 
Of all the applications and platforms that we’ve seen this year, we’ve not seen anything that even comes close to what 
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