Page Speed Service by Google, Website Optimization Service

 Site Speed Optimization Service by Google
Google has launched a new service that promises to speed up people's websites if they point them to its DNS servers by optimization pages and serving them from the company's servers around the world.

Called the Page Speed Service, the new product will be a paid offering with prices yet to be disclosed, but for now the company is accepting beta testers for free.

It is a continuation of Google's efforts to help webmaster optimize their websites. These previously included the Page Speed browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox, the Page Speed Online API and the mod_pagespeed Apache module.

The Page Speed Service works by fetching pages from the user's servers, rewriting them according to web performance best practices like compressing images, concatenating CSS, gzipping resources, etc., and serving them from Google's cache servers.

"Your users will continue to access your site just as they did before, only with faster load times," said Ram Ramani, engineering manager on Google's Make the Web Faster Team.

The team claims the speed improvements observed so far have been between 25% to 60%, depending on the website, and notes that optimizations are still being added to the service.

"Pricing will be competitive and details will be made available later," Ramani said. But in the meantime, interested webmasters can try out for free by requesting access to the service via a web form.

A comparison tool that lets webmasters test their pages in advance of signing up has also been released. However, there is a bug that causes people to actually see slower load times than for the original pages.

This is caused by the use of bare domains like example.com without the www prefix. "Running the tests again with the fully qualified domain such as www.example.com usually fixes the issue and gives you the correct measurement," Google says

AMD 16-Core Interlagos Server CPUs to Begin Shipping in August

In the company's latest conference call with financial analysts, AMD has confirmed that its high-performance Interlagos server processors, which can sport up to 16-core and are based on the Bulldozer architecture, will start shipping next month with availability expected by the end of the year.

"Interlagos, which is our server-based product, will begin shipping initial production next month," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of products group at AMD, during a conference call with financial analysts, reports Xbit Labs.

AMD's Interlagos processors are based on the company's high-performance Bulldozer architecture and will have either 12 or 16 processing cores, while also featuring a series of improvements that should increase their performance when compared with the current Opteron 6100-series CPUs.

The chips will also feature support for AMD's Turbo Core dynamic overclocking technology, a configurable TDP, and come with advanced power saving technologies.

Interlagos CPUs features a multi-chip design (the processor is built by joining together two six or eight core Valencia dies) and are compatible with the existing G34 socket.

"We expect to begin shipping our first server platform featuring the Bulldozer this quarter. The Interlagos platform is our first server offering optimized for today's cloud datacenters,” said Thomas Seifert, AMD's interim CEO.

“The [Bulldozer] architecture excels at compute-intensive and HPC workloads, where it will deliver up to 35% performance improvements compared to our current offerings.

“Customer excitement for Interlagos is high: all of our major customers are expected to introduce servers based on the new platform this year. We are committed to the server market and are focused on returning the business to a growth trajectory,” he added.

One of the first machines to include the new server CPUs will be built by Cray and is expected to arrive in the second half of this year. The XK6 pairs AMD's multi-core processors with Nvidia's Tesla 2000-series compute boards.

The AMD representatives haven't disclosed any information regarding the release date of the Valencia server processors, or about the desktop version of these Bulldozer CPUs. However, a recent FX-Series advertising movie seems to suggest the latter will arrive on September 19.

Google+ Business Pages Policy Ping Pong Manages to Annoy Everyone

Business pages for Google+ have always been a sore point. From the get go Google+ only supported human profiles, but some businesses did create profiles anyway. And, while Google has been removing some of them, others were left intact, to the frustration of those that 'played by the rules.'

And it looks like the more Google+ tries to fix it, the worse it gets. Google's solution for the moment is to set up a personal profile which will represent your company.

Google+ profiles, for now, are designed for people, they need a birthday, gender and things like that.

But the hype around the project made several companies sign up anyway, big corporations like Ford, or popular blogs like Mashable.

Google+ deleted non-human profiles arbitrarily

After more companies and organizations started setting up shops, Google made it clear that this was forbidden and that it will be deleting these profiles, which it did, rather slowly and randomly.

The company did say that it is working on creating a business pages feature, but it will take several months until it's ready for everyone.

In the meantime, a select few will be able to work with Google to test the beta version of the pages features.

This was already messy enough, but at least everyone was in the same bucket. Except that, some profiles, rather popular ones, didn't get deleted, while other did.

Search engine expert and founder of Search Engine Land, Danny Sullivan was reasonably upset that he wasn't able to create a business profile, especially as others clearly broke the rules but were still live.

"I know you have great plans to have super wonderful business profiles eventually. But if you're going to only let a 'tiny' number of businesses operate before that, then you taint them and yourselves with favoritism," he wrote in an open letter on Google+.

"Don't try to put the genie back in the bottle. Restore the business profiles you have closed. Drop the rule you silently added that blocks business profiles. Let businesses use profiles here just as regular people do. Works just fine on Twitter. Then upgrade those accounts when you're ready," he urged Google.

This was in response to a post by Google's Christian Oestlien who is leading business pages development.

Google+ business pages will go live in a few months, only a very few non-human pages will be allowed in the meantime

"We have refocused a few priorities and we expect to have an initial version of businesses profiles up and running for EVERYONE in the next few months," Oestlien wrote.

"There may be a tiny handful business profiles that will remain in the meantime solely for the purpose of testing how businesses interact with consumers," he said.

"We will continue to disable business profiles using regular profiles. We recommend you find a real person who is willing to represent your organization on Google+ using a real profile as him-or-herself," he proposed.

After all of this, Google finally disabled the profiles of Ford, Mashable, Sesame Street and the other prominent examples. Problem solved! At least, Google was being fair to everyone.

Businesses can continue to use their existing profiles if they 'promise' a person is managing and representing them
That didn't last long, Ford is back and so is Mashable in a way, as the blog's founder Pete Cashmore has taken over the account. Well, he changed the profile picture and the description of the profile, at least.

Interestingly enough, he already has a personal profile, with 40,000 followers, though he says he'll stop using that. But having two profiles is very likely against Google+'s terms of service as well.

Ford's profile has a big "Test Account" badge on it, so it is probably the first iteration of the business pages Google has been talking about. There seems to be a change of plans about them as well.

No more beta stage for business profiles

Google asked those interested to be part of a closed beta test to sign up. But after tens of thousands of requests, Google has decided to drop the wide test and instead only have a "tiny" number of companies, in direct communication with Google, create business pages. Ford seems to be the first.

In the end, Google is left looking rather poorly. It was clearly a mistake to launch Google+ without business pages and it was unsure on how to enforce its own rules.

As the inconsistencies continued, Google managed to frustrate those that played by the rules, and didn't create a profile, and those that didn't, who got their profiles deleted except for the small minority that didn't. It's good to see that Google is at least recognizing that it went about this the wrong way. If it managed to fix the situation, it would be even better.

AMD Shipped More Than a Million A-Series 'Llano' APUs

 During a recent conference call with analysts, AMD said that it had shipped more than one million A-Series accelerated processing units in the second financial quarter of 2011 and that it expects demand to grow rapidly in the next quarter.

"We shipped more than one million A-series APUs in the second quarter. Based on strong demand signals and SKU assortment for the second half of the year, we expect Llano ramp to outpace the Brazos ramp," said Thomas Seifert, interim chief executive officer at AMD, who was cited by Xbit Labs.

AMD started shipping the first A-Series APUs to notebook makers at the beginning of April and their official launch followed on June 15.

Right now, AMD's notebook APU range comprises seven models that feature two or four processing cores, integrated Radeon HD 6000 graphics, 2MB or 4MB of Level 2 cache and their base frequencies range between 1.4GHz and 2.1GHz.

AMD's most powerful processor in this series is called the A8-3530MX and packs four computing cores, with a base frequency of 1.9GHz, as well as Radeon HD 6620G integrated graphics.

This features no less than 400 shader processors clocked at 444MHz and OEMs have the option of pairing together with select discrete graphics cards in a Hybrid CorssFireX mode for added graphics performance.

On June 30, Llano made its debut in the desktop space, but this time, AMD's lineup includes only two APUs, the A8-3850 and the A6-3650.

All the Llano chips also include a dual-channel memory controller, a PCI Express controller and select models support the Turbo Core dynamic overclocking technology.

According to estimates provided by sources familiar with AMD's plans, the company expects FM1 APUs to account for around 45% to 50% of the company's total processor shipments in the third quarter of this year.

New Windows Phone Devices on Shelves by Christmas

Last week, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, said at the Imagine Cup 2011 event that the company is gearing up for bringing the next Windows Phone devices on shelves before the end of the ongoing year, and mentioned Christmas as the reference point for their availability.

What this means is that users will be able to purchase the new Windows Phones during the holiday season, just as they did last year.

Basically, the new Windows Phone-powered handsets, running under the new flavor of the OS, codenamed Mango, will be on the market in the November-December time frame, just as previously expected.

Most probably, the same as last year, Microsoft will try to have the new devices ready for launch sometime in October, so that they would start shipping before the holiday season kicks off.

“Windows Phone. You know, a year ago we didn't have a phone in the market. Now, we're charging forward with Nokia. We have the second generation of our phones coming out this Christmas, and people are starting to do things they had never imagined before,” Ballmer stated.

“I love the applications that I saw for the Windows Phone from the people in this room, and the way you're pushing that device, and using that device. It was really exciting for me.”

The Redmond-based software giant unveiled the new Windows Phone Mango OS flavor not too long ago, promising a number of over 500 enhancements for its users.

When released, the new platform flavor would bring along improvements throughout menus and applications, as well as various performance enhancements and a great deal of new features.

The second generation Windows Phone devices will arrive on shelves from leading handset vendors like HTC, Samsung, LG, or Nokia. The Finnish company is the latest major manufacturer to have joined the Windows Phone party, and should begin shipping Windows Phone devices in volume next year.

15 Million Apple iPhone 5s Orders For September

Apple has placed an order for 15 million iPhone 5s to ship in September to netbook-maker Pegatron Technologies, a supplier, according to DigiTimes sources.

iPhone 5 Not Very Different from iPhone 4, Say Component Makers
Pegatron is a big Apple supplier, and worked with them on the iPhone 4, which allowed them to expand their plants. How Apple uses its cash to help its suppliers expand plant and equipment, and get exclusivity and discounts on components in exchange.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com

AMD FX-Series Bulldozer CPU Benchmarked Against Intel Core i7-990X

After managing to get their hands on an engineering sample of an FX-Series processor, a Czech publication has published the first benchmark scores which compare AMD's upcoming high-performance CPUs with Intel's current flagship, the six-core Core i7-990X.

The comparative benchmarks are included in a review of the AMD 990FX chipset which was published recently by the PCTuning website.

Both processors included in the test were overclocked to 4GHz and were paired with two Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards operating in SLI in order to asses their gaming performance.

Judging by the results provided by PCTuning, the two systems seem to perform pretty similarly, except for a few cases in which the Intel platform takes the lead. However, this happens in just a few games, namely DiRT 2, H.A.W.X. 2 and Resident Evil 5, and the results are pretty close to one another.
Sadly, no information about the FX-Series CPU used for this test was provided, so we don't know exactly how many cores it packs or what's its L2 and L3 cache size or default clocks speed.

When taking a look at these benchmarks, one also has to keep in mind the fact that the Bulldozer CPU used isn't based on the final silicon version, which means that retail units may feature an important boost in performance.

There is also the question of drivers, as the AMD platform was tested with the Nvidia 275.36 beta version since the GPU maker hasn't released a final SLI-enabled driver for AMD 900-series chipsets.

Unlike AMD's previous designs, Bulldozer will use a new approach that relies on a modular architecture. Each module includes two processing cores, as well as other components, and these can be paired together to form CPUs with up to eight computing cores.

The first chips built on this architecture were expected to arrive in June and targeted the desktop market, but at this year's Computex AMD announced that the first Zambezi FX CPUs won't arrive until August or September of 2011. (via ComputerBase)

UPDATE: AMD Bulldozer FX-8130P and FX-8110 CPUs Available for Sale 

Get Your Friends a Google+ Account Without an Invite

Google+ has raised quite a lot of interest these past couple of days. The initial reactions have been very positive and this may be Google's first competitive social project, so people are at least intrigued.

When Google enabled existing users to send invitations to their friends, the surge in activity promptly led Google to shut down invitations.

But if you have a friend on the inside, you can get an invite of sorts quite easily.

Anyone with a Google+ account can share something, be it a status update, a photo or anything else, with the people in their circles, or even with friends who don't have a Google+ account.

In this latter case, the friends will receive an email notifying them that the user shared something with them and a link to "Learn more about Google+".

All they have to do is follow that link and they'll be able to sign up for a new account within seconds. There's no limit on the number of people you can 'send an invite' like this and the process is hardly complicated.

Once you manage to get your hands on a brand new account, you can share something with whomever you like and they will be able to sign up as well, so you could build up a circle of friends in no time at all, as long as they're the early adopter types that are going to be excited about Google+.

Granted, this is not a sure fire way, Google may move to block this like it did previous ways of sending out invitations or getting people inside. For the time being it seems to be working so all you need to do is to find a friend with a Google+ account.

TL;DR: If you already have a Google+ account, write something and share it with anyone you want by typing in their email addresses. They'll receive an email notification and a link to sign up.

Google+ More Private than Facebook but Not Perfect

Google's new privacy-oriented social network, Google+, has captured everyone's attention since it launched earlier this week, but people have already begun to discover flaws in the implementation.

One of Google Plus' primary features is called "Circles," groups of people that users can create under their accounts and which are a fundamental part of the social network.

Circles allow users to share some information only with certain categories of users, allowing for a fine-grained experience that is closer to the real life where, for example, not everyone you know is your friend and not everything you share with friends you want your family to see.

However, it wasn't long until bugs that break this chain of trust surface. First, it people discovered that after information is shared with a circle, they have no way of controlling what those users do with it.

Sharing a post without disabling the "resharing" feature for it from the beginning was a done deal. Users couldn't go back and change their mind. However, Google reacted quickly and enabled a menu for already posted items that allows resharing to be disabled.

Another reported privacy bug involved photo tagging. For example, if a user shared a photo with a particular circle and someone in that circle tagged an outside person into that picture, that person could have reshared it with anyone they wished.

This was fixed and resharing is now impossible if the original poster disables it, however, tagging outside persons into the picture in order to give them access to it still works.

This is because sharing and tagging work independently. One possible fix would be to give users the power to disable tagging for photos too, but it remains to be seen how Google will choose to address the problem.

Google+ is still in a closed beta phase and users need an invitation to join. This means that bugs like these will continue to be identified and fixed until the network is opened to everyone. Therefore, if you do join at this stage, be cautions about what kind of information you share.
Google+ Google+ Google+

Galaxy S II 4G in Canada at Virgin Mobile on July 14th

 Android!!!! Galaxy S II 4G
We already knew that wireless carrier Virgin Mobile was on its way to bring to the market in Canada the new Android-based flagship from Samsung, namely the Galaxy S II, but no specific info on when that might happen emerged until now.

Virgin Mobile announced only a few days ago that it would add the handset to its offering as the Galaxy S II 4G, but specific details on the availability of this device and on its pricing were not made official.

However, a recently leaked screenshot of an internal document from the wireless operator seems to have

changed that.

According to the leak, the Samsung Galaxy S II 4G should be released on shelves at the mobile phone carrier on July 14th.

The company seems to have put in place a specific program to see which of its employees will sell the most Galaxy S II smartphones, something that might actually prove to be an easy task.

The handset comes with appealing looks and with impressive hardware packed inside, which should make it a top seller in no time.

What remains to be seen is the cost that it will come with. According to MobileSyrup, the handset might go for $599.95 off contract, while being set to land at SaskTel for only $79.99 on a three-year contract.

With a dual-core application processor packed inside, clocked in at 1.2GHz, the Samsung Galaxy S II 4G will certainly be worth every penny.

To that, we might add the 4.3-inch touchscreen display on the front, along with a camera to enable video calling, and an 8-megapixel photo snapper on the back with support for HD video recording. 
The Samsung Galaxy S II runs under Google's Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, and sports great multimedia capabilities, as well as multi-tasking features to run multiple applications at the same time.

It features 16GB of internal memory, HSPA+, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity options, built-in GPS receiver, and a microSD memory card slot with support for up to 32GB of additional storage space

HP TouchPad Available but Found Underwhelming

HP's TouchPad has been a long time coming but it looks as though, now that sales have officially started, the product is not that great an accomplishment according to reviewers.

By now, end-users will have found out that the long-awaited HP tablet known as TouchPad has finally come forth.

HP was actually one of, if not the first notebook maker to announce it was making a slate, right around the same time as the first Apple iPad reared its head last year.

After that, it kept changing plans, until it decided to give up on the ones for Windows 7-loaded media slates, once it bought Palm.

After that, the webOS software platform that the latter had was changed, first into something for printers and, now, into a tablet operating system, although some loose ends still have to be tied up.

Either way, with the device now up for order, reviewers, understandably enough, got to put the slate through its paces.

Turns out that the impression left was not that bright, as there was more than one point of friction, according to the likes of PCMag, Engadget, ThisIsMyNext, PCWorld, BGR and CNET.

For one, the fact that the HP TouchPad is built without a camera on the back was seen as a disadvantage by the majority of testers.

Another sore spot was that the front camera isn't able to actually take any pictures, meaning that it can't compensate for the lack of the rear one.

Moving on, the product turned out to be almost twice as thick as the Apple iPad 2, even as the display had the same resolution and size.

Furthermore, though the 1.2 Ghz snapdragon had set expectations, the lag was found to be somewhat too pronounced, though browsing does appear to be quick.

All in all, though the hardware and design were criticized somewhat, webOS made a good impression (and an update should come soon enough, to make things run more smoothly), even despite the fact that there are few apps for it, for the moment.

Preparations for iPhone 5 and iPad 3 Assembly Kick Off - Report

 Citing the usual industry sources with connections to Apple’s production partners, trade publication DigiTimes reports that Taiwan-based companies included in the supply chain for iPhone 5 and iPad 3 have begun to prepare production materials.

Both devices are expected to make their debut this September, the report notes, with end users being able to buy them in October.

A large number of Apple partners are mentioned in the report, including Foxconn Electronics (who will assemble the goods); Simplo Technologies and Dynapack International Technology (battery manufacturing); TPK Holding and Wintek (touch panel modules); Catcher (chassis); and Largan Precision (cameras).

The tech-site goes to note that Simply is responsible for over half of Apple's total battery demand (65%). Dynapack is handling the remainder (35%).

Contrary to recent analyst reports saying that September would see the launch of two iPhones (including one rumored iPhone 4S), the Taiwanese sources specifically noted that Apple only plans to launch one new iPhone model.

This device is referred to as the ‘iPhone 5’.

Interestingly, the same sources also said that an iPad 3 has just recently been added to the production schedule.

Even so, both the iPhone 5 and the third-generation iPad are to undergo mass production this August, but only in small volumes.

Production volume will reportedly start picking up in September, and shipping is estimated for October.

It is unclear whether these sources are referring only to the iPhone 5 when they estimate shipping timeframes.

Apple launching a third-generation iPad this year (instead of 2012), is highly questionable.

The iPhone, on the other hand, is overdue for a refresh, if Apple wants to keep its annual refresh cycles alive.

Still, the sources talking to DigiTimes specifically noted that Apple has made up its mind about supplying the iPad 3 this year, with shipments of the entire iPad series of products (including the iPad 2) expected to go beyond the 15 million mark for the company’s fiscal quarter.

Apple’s entire iPad supply volume for fiscal 2011 reportedly stands a good chance to reach 40 million units shipped, if not more.

Windows 8 Very Important to Microsoft

Windows 8 is very important to Microsoft, the company’s Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer stressed during a Q&A at the Rotary Club of Seattle on June 29th, 2011.
Microsoft’s CEO declined to comment on the size and scale of the investment that are going into developing the next major iteration of Windows. And most probably, the Redmond company will never detail the resources necessary for building Windows 8.

But just consider that Windows continues to be the heart of the software giant, when attempting to guess the massive size and the scope of the investment.

“How important is it? We basically increasingly only are working on things which are actually very important. I would say the day and age of sort of idle, kind of smaller things is a little bit behind us. There were sort of more small probes; we're putting bigger, more energy behind fewer things than we have historically,” Ballmer said.

“I can't say that about Windows in general. Windows is -- you know, if you cut me open and saw what was inside, Windows, it's just sort of Windows, Windows, Windows. Our company was born on the back of Windows. Windows underpins a huge percentage of all of our success, all of our profitability, all of the important things that we do. So, how important is it? Very would be a very fair answer,” he added.

As far as I’m concerned, there are a few reasons why Windows 8 should be considered crucial, and not just very important to Microsoft.

With Windows 8, the Redmond company finally has the chance to do natural user interface (NUI) + graphical user interface (GUI) right. According to the sneak peeks at the platform so far, the software giant seems to be on the right track.

Windows 8 is also Microsoft’s best bet to conquer markets on which Windows has been mildly or little successful, or not at all. This is the OS that will go against Android and iOS on tablets/slates and additional next generation form factors. It needs to be at the top of its game.

Revolutionary. Innovative. Windows 7 was many things, but it was neither of the two just mentioned. Windows 8 is the right catalyst to take Windows to an entirely other level.

Nokia Helen, Zeta, Cindy and Fate with Symbian Belle and 1GHz CPU Leaked

We reported earlier about Nokia's upcoming N series smartphone codenamed N5 that has emerged along with the next in line, the N6 and N7.

It appears that more information about the Finnish giant's plan has been unveiled as the guys over at Flashfly managed to take a few shots of four unannounced phones that we think will be launched by the end of the year.

Although the pictures do not show the actual phone, we do have parts of the phones' specs sheets, which show that they are not ordinary Symbian smartphones.

Just like the N5 that leaked yesterday, the four smartphones are powered by Symbian Anna platform, also known as Symbian Belle.

Nokia Helen, codename Nokia 701, will have a 3.5-inch LCD ClearBlack display, an 8-megapixel camera and a fast 1GHz processor.
Apparently, the 701 will be Nokia X7's successor and its strong points will be the large screen and a better browser experience.

Nokia Zeta, or Nokia 700, will feature a slightly smaller 3.2-inch AMOLED display, NFC technology, as well as 1GHz processor.

The main attraction of the phone will be its design, as Nokia will tout the 700 as “the thinnest smartphone ever.”

Next in line is Nokia Cindy, also known as Nokia 600, which is supposed to carry a 3.2-inch AMOLED display, a 5-megapixel camera, NFC technology, a fast 1GHz processor and built-in FM radio antenna.
  
According to Nokia, the Cindy will be delivered with several pre-installed apps, including Skype, Shazam, Youtube, F-Secure, Vlingo and PDF.

The phone is aimed at youth and will appeal customers through an attractive price.

The last on the list is called Nokia Fate (Nokia 500) and seems to be the cheapest of the four, but will keep almost the same level of hardware.

Nokia Fate will be powered by the same 1GHz processor, but it will lack NFC technology. In addition, it will sport a 5-megapixel camera.

There is no additional information about the phones' release dates or prices, but we can easily assume that these will be launched by the end of the year as part of Nokia's plan to flood the global market with Symbian smartphones until the first Windows Phone 7 devices arrive. 

Get Your Next iPhone Cheaper Through Amazon’s New Trade-In Program

 Get Your Next iPhone Cheaper Through Amazon’s New Trade-In Program
Amazon.com has added Apple’s iOS devices to its Electronic Trade-Ins program, which should fetch quite a bit of cash for those who still have an old-generation iPhone or iPod in their possession.

According to the current listings at amazon.com/electronics-trade-in, customers can get up to $114 for iPod classics, $235 for first-generation 16 GB Wi-Fi iPads, and $162 for 8 GB iPhone 3GS handsets.

An original iPhone with 8 gigs of storage can nab you $86.00 if it’s still in good condition.

To pick up on the offer, the steps are:

1. Search for items to trade in (your trade-in items must meet the product eligibility criteria).
2. Print a shipping label and packing slip, package your items, and ship them for free
3. An Amazon.com Gift Card will be deposited into your account upon receipt of items.

It is worth noting that only items that match the exact version displayed in the Amazon Trade-in stores are eligible for trade-ins.

According to the giant online retailer, specific conditions that must be met can be found displayed next to the item during the trade-in submission process.

To view the condition description, customers must hover over or click the trade-in product condition after they’ve added the item.

As far as shipping and payment is concerned, all items must be postmarked no later than seven days after the trade-in submission.

Should everything go as planned, customers will receive an email confirmation from the retailer that an Amazon Gift Card has been deposited into their account within 2 business days of receipt and verification of the items in question.

Amazon also notes that trade-in titles are actually purchased by an unnamed third-party merchant.

Softpedia would like to end this report noting that Amazon’s price offerings for the iDevice trade-ins seem fairly advantageous.

If you have an old iPhone or iPod touch lying around and are planning to upgrade, we encourage you to check out these deals.

Windows 8 Should Embrace New Computing Paradigms

Windows 8 is reportedly in the Milestone 3 (M3) stage of the development process, on its way to the Beta Build.
There is no official word from Microsoft, but speculation points to the second half of 2011, around fall, for the public availability of Windows 8 Beta.

Supposedly, there will be a Windows 8 flavor tailored specifically to emerging form factors, including slates / Tablet PCs, whether they are powered by System on a Chip (ARM architectures) or by traditional processors.

Since Windows 8 is just at M3, there’s still plenty of time for the software giant to build the next generation of Windows in accordance with the evolution of technology and consumer preferences.

Earlier this week I read a post-PC blog post authored by Forrester’s Sarah Rotman Epps. I’ve already opined that I don’t believe for a fact that the Personal Computer is dead, or that the world of technology is in the post-PC evolutionary era.

Post-PC is used more as a handy moniker, and it does pack quite a wow factor on the consumer side. Strictly in terms of what’s under the hood, new form factors from smartphones to slates are in fact on their way to becoming PCs.

Sure, not traditional PCs, but PCs nonetheless. New machines that bundle the power of a computer with the inherent characteristics of new form factors.

Speaking of which. Epps enumerates some new characteristics that are becoming representatives of the shifting computing paradigm:

“• Stationary to ubiquitous. Contrast the experience of computing on a desktop PC, in one place with a clear start and finish time, to that of the anytime/anywhere computing done on a smartphone or tablet. Ubiquitous computing is also more context-aware computing, aided by sensors like accelerometers, gyroscopes, and geolocators in smartphones and tablets.

• Formal to casual. In contrast to PC interactions with a formal start and finish time marked by booting up and shutting down, instant-on/always-on computing on smartphones and tablets fills in-between moments like standing in line or watching TV.

• Arms-length to intimate. With desktops, computing is literally an arms-length activity. With portable form factors like laptops, netbooks, and tablets, computers become something consumers keep close to their body, and they use them in intimate places: The No. 1 place all three devices are used in the home is the living room, followed by an adult’s bedroom.

• Abstracted to physical. The mouse/keyboard paradigm relies on an abstracted interaction with content. Touchscreens like those on smartphones and tablets enable direct physical manipulation of content in two-dimensional space. Cameras with facial recognition, voice sensors, and motion sensors like those on the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 permit an even wider range of physical interaction with devices, where a user’s body and voice become the controller.”

The PC is very much alive. But customers just need to take the old definition of a computer, slap concepts such as ubiquitous, casual, intimate, and physical on top, and it will help them better define the devices of today and tomorrow.

I do feel that there’s one concept that missing from the enumeration of emerging computing characteristics above, one that I see as key to the success of these form factors: simplicity.

It certainly has a lot to do with the evolution of natural user interfaces, touch, voice, gestures, etc., but it also goes beyond that.

And this is something that Microsoft need to work on with Windows 8, simplicity. Windows vNext is bound to feature a powerful NUI + GUI combination, enabling a new level of human – computer interaction.

But this needs to go deeper than the surface. As I’ve said before, not all consumers want or need the full Windows operating system on their device.

Long battery life, instant on and off, painless management, lightening performance are just some goals for the software giant to strive for with Windows 8.

If Microsoft thinks that customers want to buy a Windows 8 slate then go home, boot it in 30 seconds, install an antivirus; check nagging messages on the taskbar; dig through Control Panel for some obscure networking option; install all of their favorite Windows programs; back-up; clean the registry; deploy updates; reboot so that the updates finish installing; etc. then the company has completely missed the point.

Microsoft Buys Skype $8.5 billion

Microsoft purchase of Skype a good thing? Who will benefit the most?
 Skype is particularly important for migrant workers communicating with their family in their homeland

Skype shares many of the basic defining elements of social media: namely, it is an online platform that allows people to communicate in a new way that costs less than previous communication channels. It is also a useful illustration of the business dynamics behind social media, especially following Microsoft's acquisition of the video and voice chat service for $8.5 billion, announced on Tuesday.

Initial reactions to the purchase were varied, with some analysts pointing to the potential for integration with the Xbox network and Microsoft Windows 8, while critics said it was a rearguard action, merely intended to keep Skype out of the hands of competitors like Google and Facebook. Meanwhile Skype CEO Tom Bates touted the potential of advertising, focusing on video ads: "We think advertising is a very powerful monetization stream for us, if you think about the size of our user base." And Skype's user base is admittedly impressive -- but it won't translate automatically into advertising revenues.

Like other social media, Skype has enjoyed rapid growth over the last five years, with the number of registered users jumping from 75 million in 2005 to 663 million in 2010, while the number of active monthly users jumped from 15 million to 170 million. Over the same period, the total number of minutes spent in online voice and video chats on Skype soared from around 12 billion in 2005 to 207 billion in 2010, and total revenues increased from $60 million to $860 million -- but ads were nowhere to be seen, until March of this year.
Skype's revenues (up until now, at least) have been based entirely on people paying subscriptions for certain premium services, including calls to non-Skype phones and unlimited international calling. In other words, it is an enormously successful social media service that had never employed advertising as part of its business model until very recently (March of this year). Moreover, the vast majority of Skype's users haven't contributed to revenues: the total number of paying subscribers in 2010 was 8.8 million, paying an average subscription fee of $8.14 per month.

This relatively small group of paying subscribers has carried Skype financially, in effect subsidizing free access for hundreds of millions of non-payers. In this context, it's not surprising that Skype (and now Microsoft) would like to squeeze some revenue out of the great, unmonetized masses with online video advertising, following the introduction of display ads two months ago -- but judging by the record of other social media, it will be an uphill battle.

For example, Facebook -- the largest social network in existence -- is still struggling to make online advertising "work." Facebook delivered just over one trillion display ads in 2010, collecting total ad revenue of $1.21 billion, or 13.6% of total display ad revenues, according to figures from comScore and eMarketer. In 2010 some estimates put Facebook's average CPM as low as $0.56. Meanwhile click-through rates for Facebook ads declined from about 0.06% in 2009 to about 0.05% in 2010, according to Webtrends. Simply put, despite its impressive reach Facebook still doesn't seem to be a particularly effective display advertising medium.

Or consider YouTube, which may be a better comparison for Skype because it is a video-based platform. According to Citi Investment Research analyst Mark Mahaney, YouTube's total net ad revenues, after revenue shared with publishers was deducted, came to $544 million in 2010, with an average CPM of about $1.02. Click-through rates, while higher than the industry average for display, are still less than 1% for pre-roll and overlay ads, according to recent figures from the U.K. IAB. And since both of these formats would probably be considered intrusive by Skype users, the company may look to alternatives like video banner ads, where click-through rates tend to be even lower.

 Moreover the issues facing YouTube will be even more challenging for Skype, considering that video chat is more of a "lean forward" activity for which users will consider any advertising (pre-roll, overlay, static banner, video banner, etc.) an unwelcome distraction. If someone is anticipating a video chat they are probably even less likely to click on ads that will interrupt the chat experience.

Acer Aspire One 751 to Boast 11.6-Inch Display

Yet to be released

Over the past weeks, Acer has quietly introduced a number of new netbook systems, including the Aspire One D250 and the 531, both of which have been designed with a 10-inch display. However, according to some details that have recently surfaced on the Internet, the PC vendor is planning to add another small-sized system that will be powered by an Atom processor. The Aspire One 751 is, however, going to boast a larger
11.6-inch LED backlit display, capable of a higher resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. With the new version, Acer wants to add some diversity to a market that is currently dominated by 10-inch and 9-inch netbooks.


Although the system hasn't been officially announced yet, some of its technical specifications have already been made available over the Internet. According to a recent news-article on bit-tech, the Aspire One 751 comes as a combination of a netbook and a fully fledged notebook, providing users with the performance capability of Intel'z 1.33GHz Z520 or 1.6GHz Z530 processors. The system is based on the now familiar Intel GMA500 chip and will be provided with a three-cell battery pack, which should give users about four hours of runtime. There will also be an option for a higher, 6-cell battery, for those who are looking for a more reliable netbook system.


Unfortunately, as with the other new Aspire One netbooks, we have few to no details about the system's pricing or availability, but when this will be released, it will certainly provide users with a Windows operating system. A Linux-version could also be available, but that is yet to be confirmed.

Given the number of new netbook models Acer has prepared for this year, we could say that the company has taken some inspiration from ASUS, which is known for its large lineup of Eee PC netbooks. However, that could affect the company's sales in a bad way, as users could get confused by the large number of configuration options.

IBM to Start Selling Software for Cloud Computing

Enters competition with Microsoft and Google

IBM will reportedly sell a suite of Web-based applications, including instant messaging, contact management and file sharing programs for businesses. This is part of the company's biggest effort in trying to sell software as a service, a move that has been announced on Wednesday and which has put IBM in a direct competition with other leading companies, including Microsoft, Google and privately held Zoho.

According to a recent news-article reported by Reuters, companies that will start using IBM's software will be charged between $10 and $45 per month, as the applications will be hosted on IBM's servers and delivered via the Internet. According to the company, the suite will be available on April 7. “What you are seeing are the beginnings of the whole IBM company moving toward cloud computing,” IBM Vice President Sean Poulley said.

IBM's move is somewhat to be expected, especially since cloud computing is becoming one of the industry's biggest buzz concepts. The term is associated to a practice by which a variety of IT companies provide end-users with various computing services by using the Internet and remote data centers. The cloud refers to a virtual space that is used to access the data that is stored on a number of data centers worldwide. To access that data, users are required only to have an Internet-capable device, thus further minimizing the need for high-end computer systems that take a lot of space and are power hungry.

According to the latest estimations by tech research company Gartner, the global market for cloud-based computing services, software and storage will total about $10 billion in 2009. However, on the other side, the traditional business software model will account for about $223 billion, according to Gartner estimations. Still the industry is increasingly interested in the development and adoption of cloud computing, which will probably become the standard business model in the near future.

Gmail Celebrates 5th Anniversary, Still in Beta

The service debuted back in 2004

The start of April 2009 was synonymous with the first five years since Google introduced its email service to the public. Dubbed Gmail, the service was offering at that time no less than 1 GB of storage space for emails. In time, storage space for accounts has grown continually, and users are now enjoying in excess of 7.3 GB of space. According to the Mountain View search giant, tens of millions of users are currently using a service that debuted as an internal tool. Gmail was launched on April Fools' Day back in 2004.


“We want to give a big thank you to all of you who use Gmail every day, to those who've been around since the beginning, to those who were using an AJAX app before the term AJAX was popular, to those who started chatting right in your email and then video chatting a couple years later, to those who changed your theme on day one, and to those who have turned on some of the 43 experimental Gmail Labs features (and put up with the occasional bugs they introduce)...we couldn't have gotten here without you,” revealed Todd Jackson, Gmail product manager.

Despite celebrating its fifth anniversary on the market, Gmail continues to be in Beta stage. Still, the service is evolving at a rapid pace, with new additions introduced on a regular basis. The latest feature that made its debut this month is Search Autocomplete, available through Gmail Labs. It is still experimental, revealed Ibrahim Bokharouss, Google software engineer, and has to be turned on under Gmail Settings, and Labs tab.

“One of the most popular searches in Gmail is for names or email addresses, so the first kind of suggestions you'll see are contacts,” Bokharouss explained. “Gmail also offers a bunch of advanced search operators, which provide a powerful way to find that one message you have in mind. You can search in specific places (e.g. in chats or sent items), or search for messages with attachments of a certain type (e.g. docs or photos).”