LATEST COMPUTING NEWS

Windows 8 Preview Reveals Major UI Metamorphosis June 02, 2011 Microsoft began its Windows 8 publicity blitz in earnest Wednesday, previewing an operating system that appears to break from the norm in more ways than one. It has a tile interface similar to that of Windows Phone 7, it will run on PCs and tablets, and it will support both touchscreen and mouse-and-keyboard interactions.

HP Sows Seeds for WebOS Ecosystem June 02, 2011 HP is trolling for partners as the computer giant attempts to build an ecosystem for webOS, the operating system it acquired last summer when it bought Palm for $1.2 billion. CEO Leo Apotheker said that he sees webOS as a licensing opportunity. At All Things Digital's D9 conference on Wednesday, Apotheker said HP would entertain the possibility of licensing its use to other companies

Linux's 'Killer Feature': Impossible to Choose Just One June 02, 2011 Well, June has arrived for another year, and that means the dog days of summer can't be far behind. Scorching temperatures have already begun to beat down upon parts of the Linux blogosphere, in fact, which may be why there's nary a barstool to be found down at the seedy but well air-conditioned Punchy Penguin Saloon, where Linux Girl plans to stay until, oh, say, October or so.

VirtualBox 4 Builds a Clean and Easy Sandbox Inside Your Linux Desktop June 01, 2011 Constantly testing software and tinkering with a variety of Linux operating systems puts my multiple test-bench computers to constant use. Granted, Linux comes with a lot fewer security risks. But dealing with unknown factors and beta glitches can be time consuming to correct when they take down an entire box.

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Intel Envisions the Rise of the Ultrabook May 31, 2011 Intel has unveiled details of its plans for the breed of super-thin, rapid-on, tablet-like laptops which it calls "Ultrabooks" at China's Computex Taipei 2011. The computer chip giant expects Ultrabooks to take over 40 percent of the laptop market within six to nine months. The new super-thin laptops run on Intel's Sandy Bridge processor.

Apple Confirms iCloudy Forecasts for WWDC May 31, 2011 Apple on Tuesday gave a thumbnail sketch of what will be demoed at its World Wide Developers Conference, scheduled to kick off June 6. On opening day, CEO Steve Jobs will deliver a keynote address together with a team of company executives, Apple said. The keynote will include the unveiling of iCloud, Apple's cloud services offering, as well as information about Mac OS X Lion and iOS 5, Cupertino stated.

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Dell's XPS 15z: Making a Case to a Prosumer Market May 31, 2011 As mobile computing has evolved from the exception to the norm, many vendors have attempted to imbue their products with a certain high-end cachet. Some succeeded beyond measure and expectation, even with devices that were initially technologically flawed. Others have developed products which initially seemed destined for commercial success but were abandoned in a matter of weeks.

Is Microsoft Finally Ready to Put Its Tablet Talents on Display? May 31, 2011 Microsoft will preview specially made Windows tablet software as soon as this week, Bloomberg recently reported. It will showcase the operating system's touchscreen interface running on hardware that uses an Nvidia Tegra chip, according to the report. "Right now, the stated strategy is to have Windows 8 run on everything except smartphones," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld.

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The Tech Market on Stranger Tides May 30, 2011 This is turning out to be an amazing decade, with companies getting a rebirth, other firms getting new identities, and still others sliding into delusional obscurity. Microsoft released the impressive Windows Phone platform and recently added 500, yep 500, new features, which should give the Android folks a bit of a scare, though Jobs, who is apparently doing OK, likely thinks they missed a meeting.

Are Android Tablets Stumbling Out of the Gate? May 27, 2011 Based on initial sales reports and some tablet market flip flops, the few Android tablets that have hit the shelves so far seem to have crashed and burned. Early sales figures indicate that no Android tab is coming close to being the much-awaited Apple iPad alternative. But will time heal all? Does the Android tablet just need the same growing time that consumers gave the iPad?

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Where in the World Is the Linux Desktop Thriving? May 26, 2011 The old "market share" debate is one that's all too familiar to most Linux fans, particularly the tired -- not to mention wildly unrealistic -- "1 percent" figure detractors love to cite as desktop Linux's portion. So it was hard not to sit up and take notice earlier this month when the Pingdom blog published a post entitled "The top 20 strongholds for desktop Linux."

WinPho Developers Get a Bite of the Mango May 26, 2011 Microsoft has rolled out app development tools for Mango, the Windows Phone 7 update about which the company released details earlier this week. Registered developers can download the Mango Beta Windows Phone Developer Tools from AppHub, Casey McGee, marketing manager for Windows Phone, told TechNewsWorld.

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gLabels Does the Job but Wouldn't Make Patrick Bateman Sweat May 25, 2011 It is rare that I lament about a task I cannot do in Linux better than when I used that Redmond OS that rhymes with lindows. But you can hear me pining for those commercial and shareware programs every time I have to create a printing job around business cards or mailing labels on my Linux rigs. For many of these specialized label and card-making jobs, gLabels is a very workable solution.

Microsoft Delivers the Mango Juice May 24, 2011 Among its various new features, Mango has smarter Live Tiles that can carry notifications and offer Twitter and LinkedIn support. Windows Live Messenger and Facebook Chat are integrated into Mango out of the box. Mango will also add visual voicemail support. Users can view multiple email accounts in one linked inbox.

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Is Android Really the 'Open' Platform? May 24, 2011 Much has been claimed by Google ever since the infant days of its Android mobile operating system. The claim it has seemed to champion the most is that its platform is open by nature. One of the biggest complaints about iOS has been Apple's lockdown policy, so naturally, Google would want to make its platform's openness a main selling point.

Firefox 5: Track Me, Just Don't Track Me May 23, 2011 The Mozilla Foundation launched a beta version of its fifth edition of the Firefox Web browser Monday -- just eight weeks after it rolled out Firefox 4. This includes a mobile version for Android as well as versions for Windows, Mac and Linux desktops. Desktop and mobile versions have a Do Not Track privacy feature.