One more new option provides the opportunity

　　Desktop diehards will see a gift ready for them in Home windows 8.1, the upcoming enhance colloquially dubbed ?°Windows Blue.?± An excellent, terrible, oh-so-teasing current.
　　Alternatively, clicking the previous familar button will dump you to the modern day UI Start out monitor. Although the new element is noteworthy for introducing a beneficial visual cue to an operating program rife with concealed menus, it isn?ˉt what precisely individuals begging to the return from the Start out button have been on the lookout for.
　　One much-clamored-for, keyboard- and mouse-friendly feature are going to be generating a debut in Home windows eight.one, nevertheless. The update adds the option in addition instantly on the desktop, bypassing the modern UI start off display absolutely. (Essentially, you'll be able to boot into many alternate spots, which includes the All Applications view.)
　　One more new option provides the opportunity to carry your desktop background over into the modern interface, fostering a far more unified truly feel across the OS. If that doesn?ˉt float your boat, new Start off monitor colors and backgrounds will also be available, such as some animated aspects. You may also pick to make use of a slideshow within your pictures for your lock monitor, in impact getting your Personal computer double being a definitely high-priced digital photograph frame when you?ˉre not actively applying it.
　　All that stated, most of Windows 8.1?ˉs enhancements are created to bolster the trendy surroundings, not the desktop.
　　Probably the most welcome advancement could be the addition of thoroughly customizable Snap views. No longer will you be locked into the two app, quarter-screen Snap restrictions of Home windows 8 vanilla. Windows eight.one provides the chance to resize Snap apps to any ratio you?ˉd like, and involves a possibility to Snap 3 applications side-by-side-by-side. You?ˉll even be capable to have several scenarios of an app open and Snapped; Microsoft?ˉs website put up lists two World wide web Explorer Home windows as an example.
　　Dislike just how that every newly put in application gets plopped in your Start off monitor? You won?ˉt at the time Home windows eight.one hits, because that bothersome ?°feature?± goes the way on the dodo. Alternatively, any apps put in with the Windows Keep will show up less than a fresh ?°New?± filter during the All Apps view, from which you'll selected to pin apps to the Start out display screen if you so want. Yay self-determination!

Apple Has More Game-Changing Tech in the Works, Says CEO Tim Cook

　　Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook spent a lot of time answering questions about how Apple would be different from what it was under Steve Jobs, and just how he would continue Jobs’s incredible legacy.
　　Cook’s appearance at D10 served as a chance for the executive to introduce himself and share his vision for where Apple was headed in terms of products as well as its plans to continue to be a good corporate citizen committed to the human rights of its workers and, if possible, to build some of its products in the U.S.
　　Fast-forward a year, and there are lots of new questions for Cook. The Apple CEO finds himself defending the company’s tax policy, fighting a declining stock price, dealing with a number of antitrust issues and facing questions about just how Apple will stay ahead of always-intense competition.
　　And, of course, one thing hasn’t changed. Tech watchers still hang on Cook’s every word, and scrounge for any tidbits that might indicate just what phone, computer, TV or watch might be coming next from Cupertino.
　　With that as backdrop, Cook is the opening speaker Tuesday night for the D11 conference, which runs through Thursday. An hour of Cook’s time is apparently worth several hundred thousand dollars, but we’ll serve him up here for free.
　　Check back around 6 pm PT for our live coverage of Cook’s interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.
　　6:07 pm: Things haven’t quite started. But you are in the right place.
　　6:11 pm: And #D11 is under way. News Corp. exec Raju Narisetti is doing the big welcome.
　　6:14 pm: Time to sit back and enjoy the show, Narisetti said. Or, for Sheryl Sandberg, lean in and enjoy the show.
　　Enter Walt and Kara, wearing D sunglasses. No marching band this year.
　　Walt jokes that Yahoo has just bought AllThingsD parent News Corp.
　　“That’s not a good thing for me,” Kara said.
　　Walt shows the revamped AllThingsD logo in Yahoo purple.
　　6:16 pm: Okay. Enough pleasantries. Tim Cook comes onstage.
　　6:17 pm: First question is from Walt. Samsung is gaining in phones. Various governments are asking questions. The stock is down a bunch. There’s a sense that you may have lost your cool.
　　Kara: Or we can start with taxes.
　　Walt: Is Apple in trouble?
　　Tim Cook: Absolutely not.
　　“We are a product company so we think about products,” Cook said, noting that the company sold 85 million iPhones last quarter; iPad, 42 million. More important, customers love them.
　　Customer satisfaction numbers are off the chart, and the usage numbers, based on Web traffic, far outpace its market share.
　　6:20 pm: I look at that and say, I feel pretty good.
　　6:20 pm: Cook: From my point of view, over my long tenure at Apple, not as CEO, we’ve always had competent rivals. We fought against Microsoft — still fight against Microsoft, particularly in the PC space.
　　We fought against hardware companies thought to be really tough, like Dell.
　　We’ve always suited up and fought.
　　Apple has always had competition to focus on, but our North Star is always on making the best products. We always come back to that. We want to do the best phone, the best tablet, the best PC. I think we’re doing that.
　　6:22 pm: If you look at the stock, which is a lot of what people focus on, the stock price has been frustrating. It’s been frustrating for investors and for all of us. This, too, is not unprecedented.
　　The beauty of being around for a while is you see a lot of cycles. At the end of 2007, Apple’s stock price was $200. It was $75 a couple years later.
　　The culture is all still there, and many of the people are still there. We have several more game changers in us.
　　Kara: Let’s go through them. You talked last year about television.
　　Cook: We’re still playing in TV through Apple TV. For several years we were selling a few hundred thousand. We’ve now sold 13 million — about half of those in the last year.
　　It’s been good for customers, but also for learning for Apple. Customers would agree there are things about television that aren’t so great.
　　We answered some of those — clearly not all of those through Apple TV.
　　6:28 pm: Kara: Some people in Hollywood are feeling more confident against Apple.
　　Walt: Are they holding up your TV project?
　　Cook: I don’t want to go into detail, as you might have guessed. But it continues to be an area of great interest.

You've viewed the reboot display screen in Home

　　Say everything you will regarding the capacity of Window eight to manage each individual kind of personal computer to choose from, it may accomplish that fairly properly. Certain there are some matters simpler to do in Home windows eight on the contact pill, as well as other responsibilities far more normal with a desktop or laptop computer. It is obvious Microsoft has tried to manage just about every user situation possible.
　　I have grown fond of using my HP Envy x2, and do this for a contact pill as well as a laptop computer. In some cases the laptop computer use is strictly with the trackpad and various instances through the use of the contact display. It can be multipurpose and lets me make use of the control system that makes quite possibly the most sense to the presented job. I can not envision applying Home windows 8 and not using a touch screen.
　　Even with preserving monitor of every one of the different regulate techniques feasible to handle all the consumer situations achievable, Home windows eight features a secret underbelly that's just a little spooky. This key daily life is where by Home windows eight does the entire behind-the-scenes upkeep required to help keep factors running effortlessly. It practically looks as though your entire time I am getting things done using the process, the program is checking for updates to maintain points jogging optimally.
　　You can find at the very least three levels of maintenance that I'm conscious of that Home windows 8 is managing in key. The initial may be the OEM stage, and when which is not technically Home windows eight it can be aspect from the method operation so it feels precisely the same.
　　HP, the maker from the Envy x2, has become intense at updating its system motorists in addition to releasing firmware updates to help keep the components doing work adequately with Home windows 8. These may be build to only occur with guide intervention, but I don't prefer to miss essential updates like these so I've them take place instantly on the common schedule.
　　These components updates involve a technique reboot to acquire used, so I dutifully enable the process to reboot to receive every thing up-to-date. This frequently exposes the concealed underbelly of Home windows 8 as about half some time a reboot indicates it truly is applying other Home windows Updates which were downloaded in mystery. That is the 2nd amount of routine maintenance in Home windows eight.
　　You've viewed the reboot display screen in Home windows 8 that claims it is actually configuring updates using a progress indicator. Often these use promptly and also other situations it'd choose a moment or two. The purpose is Home windows 8 grabbed the updates with no indicator it had been going on, and afterwards sat on them right until the following program reboot.
　　That seems for being an inexpensive method of prevent interrupting the consumer, however it appears to be about fifty percent the reboots I do stop up using an sudden application of Windows Updates. That magic formula life of Windows 8 appears to generally be very lively each of the time beneath my get the job done classes. It's kind of odd that Home windows eight doesn't give a sign that an update is happening inside the track record. It is not an enormous deal but might be the courteous detail to carry out.
　　Often I manually go in to the Home windows Update location in the options to view what may very well be lurking there. Frequently it demonstrates a Windows Defender update is there for being utilized quickly at some point down the road. Since these updates preserve my anti-malware up-to-date I normally strike the connection to go ahead and use them. They only get a handful of seconds to apply so I don't realize why it had been waiting for a long time later on to use them. They demand no reboot nor any person action, so why hold out to update immediately after it is familiar with it needs to be accomplished?

Why IT should stop trying to compete with outside cloud services

As a result, says Bernard Golden, executive withe Dell's cloud computing group, says it's high time IT leaders stop trying to compete with the outside services. In a recent CIO post, he says "the rapid rise of cloud computing means corporate IT may no longer be the cheapest purveyor of application hosting, infrastructure, storage and other services."
As he put it, the cloud challenge "threatens to topple [corporate IT's] position as monopoly supplier of computing to the larger enterprise."
And he has a message for corporate IT leaders: the sooner you come to terms with this, the better.
Golden is on to something, of course. The dedicated cloud providers have gigantic economies of scale they can bring to engagements. They have armies of specialized talent who can keep things humming with the latest software and security tools.
What Golden is telling us cuts right to the heart of corporate IT's role in the world. It isn't just rolling out machines and doing the coding. It's about understanding what the business needs to move forward. It's about researching and understanding the most cost-effective and secure solution to accomplish that. That solution may still be in the corporate data center, or it may be available from a third party. Amazon and Rackspace have a lot of incredibly smart people, but they know very little about your business. Enterprises need their own IT people more than ever to make the right calls. 
The key takeaway here: IT is not a "competitor" to outside cloud services. It is a guide to finding the best path for the business. And, sometimes, the enterprise becomes a cloud provider itself, but again, not as a competitor to the big cloud combines, but as specialized providers within industry niches or customer networks. But that's another story for another post.

Because of this when we are going to even now sell laptops

　　I 1st got wind of Windows Blue from my contacts about four months back and have considering the fact that composed a lot of PCMag columns concerning the OS update. As I've stated just before, Windows eight.one, as it is now formally called, extends this new touch-based OS to tablets inside the 7- to eleven.4-inch selection. It is also being used on what are referred to as ultramobile laptops, or laptops that specifically use an Intel Atom processor or even a new low-voltage chip from AMD named Temash.
　　The drive to include Windows eight to scaled-down tablets comes as no surprise as this is a marketplace that Microsoft has disregarded till now, regardless that tablets while in the 7- to 8-inch range will represent just as much as sixty five per cent of all tablets marketed all over the world starting this year. That's due to the fact these smaller sized tablets are inclined to generally be cheaper-some provide for less than $150 presently and many others are anticipated to drop to $129 by the holidays. These smaller tablets are evidently getting used for information use, not productivity, but evidently Microsoft also thinks that tablets within the ten.1-inch vary are media intake devices and do not cross more than to efficiency.
　　But there is something odd about Microsoft's tactic to tablets and Windows 8.one is notable for your pair of explanations. Initial, it could be used on smaller sized tablets. 2nd, when used on tablets or laptops that sport Intel's Atom chip or AMD's Temash processor, the OEM cost for Windows 8.one is about $30 in comparison with its cost on laptops and PCs with additional highly effective processors where the license cost ranges from $65 to $85 for each machine.
　　But here's the twist: Microsoft has made a decision that on tablets nearly 10.one inches operating Windows 8.one and applying these lower-end processors from Intel and AMD, it will eventually toss Microsoft Office environment in for free. If I am not mistaken, Office is efficiency program. Hence the organization appears to become declaring that tablets as many as 10.one inches are predominantly use equipment, not utilized for productivity, but it is giving them Office for free. Go determine! To be good, this likely has a thing to complete with getting new buyers familiar with Office and making an attempt to move them to some cloud subscription of Place of work sooner or later. However, on the surface it still would seem just like a unusual transfer.
　　As I mentioned above, OEM suppliers could get Windows eight.one for about $30 so long as they use these new low-voltage chips from Intel and AMD and will be applied on screens from 7 inches as significant as 13.3 inches. Nevertheless, these machines are obviously for efficiency so Microsoft will not bundle Office environment totally free. In the event the OEM distributors listened to which they could get Home windows Blue for $30 whenever they used Atom or Temash and could apply it to touch screens up to 13.3 inches, they jumped in the chance to make decreased expense ultramobile laptops. Although they know that creating touch-based laptops during the $399 to $549 vary is relatively risky as it could try to eat in to the profits of more highly-priced ultrabooks, all OEMs have still embraced this opportunity and will before long provide these kinds of ultramobile laptops.
　　These lower-end ultramobile laptops are clearly intended to go just after the Chromebook market that may be selecting up. In fact, NPD analysts said that Chromebooks comprised 25 % of all laptops bought in retail below $300 last thirty day period. Our contacts in a community retailer inform us they get twelve Chromebooks per week which they're all offered out in forty eight several hours. Despite the fact that these ultramobiles may be priced at a $200 to $250 quality in excess of Chromebooks, they do have entire Home windows application compatibility and folks who have invested while in the Home windows ecosystem over the years may possibly find this added price tolerable. Also notice that consumers convey to us the very best price they will shell out to get a laptop computer or Pc is $599.
　　An emerging craze implies that folks favor low-cost laptops. Our study continues to confirm that buyers can cope with about 80 percent of their computing requirements on the pill as well as the remaining twenty percent should even now be completed on a laptop. Therefore, when considering a whole new Computer system, they both choose to increase the daily life in their latest model or buy an affordable product being aware of that it is only necessary for around twenty per cent of the matters they are doing, these types of as property funds, taking care of media collections, or other heavy-lifting responsibilities.
　　The industry's major issue is the fact that these low-cost, touch-based laptops don't just become wildly well-known, but they establish what we call "the new standard." Because of this when we are going to even now sell laptops previously mentioned $599, the shift in purchaser desire will boost the volume bought at reduced price factors. The profit margin on these much less expensive laptops is far more compact than on high-priced machines and when they choose off, they might diminish the need for higher-priced laptops, that have been the bread and butter with the Laptop industry for many years.
　　Home windows eight.1 will really be an important version of Home windows eight due to this major drive with lower-cost, touch-based laptops. I think they might be a massive hit this back-to-school and holiday break period. A more tricky issue to answer is whether or not Home windows eight.1 on smaller tablets will discover any need. It can be up from iOS and Android, which equally have application stores boasting a lot more than 800,000 apps. And whilst we could see some 7-inch Windows 8.one tablets as little as $249 through the holidays, Windows-based tablets may have an uphill climb supplied the existing competition.

iOS 7 Undergoing Ive-Led Transformation

　　Apple put its lauded hardware designer Jony Ive in charge of the company's iOS platform late last year after shaking up some of its executives. Ive is introducing significant design changes to the platform, which is expected to make its first appearance at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) next month.
　　A new report from 9to5Mac offers some insight as to what Ive is bringing to the table. His ideas are described as "black, white, and flat all over."
　　One of the signature characteristics about iOS is its 3-D look and feel. Apps and their icons have shadows, shines, reflections and textures that give them a three-dimensional look. This appearance was favored by the late Steve Jobs, Apple's former CEO. It is these and other design elements that Ive is stripping from the operating system to give it a flatter, more modern look. Ive feels that the 3-D elements won't stand the test of time.
　　Ive is also looking to give the operating system a more uniform look. As it is, apps across the OS such as Notes, Maps, and Mail have wildly different appearances and color schemes. iOS 7's apps all will have the same look and feel.
　　Among specific changes, expect the lock screen and notifications to change. There will be less shine and a softer look to the unlocking elements. Notifications will be more actionable through gestures on the lock screen, rather than just visible. Also going away: Textures such as the background linen in the drop-down notification tray. Ive is looking to make other usability enhancements, such as panels that make adjusting the iPhone's radios (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS) more easily accessible.
　　The basic architecture that forms the home screen, with app icons floating in a grid, will remain the same. iOS 7 will offer support for panorama wallpapers, though, something that's been featured on Android devices for years. The keyboard has been a sore point with many iOS users for years. The new keyboard will have a different look, but 9to5Mac doesn't say anything about the keyboard's underlying software.
　　Apps that will see the biggest changes in iOS 7 include the App Store, Newsstand, Game Center, Safari, Camera and Weather. For example, the weather application will offer animations that coincide with the current conditions, such as snow or rain. (Again, something Android and even Windows Phone have done for years.) The Game Center will lose its old-time casino look, with the green felt disappearing. The Newsstand app will lose its wood-grain textures in favor of a more modern layout, and the way Safari organizes tabs will be altered as well.
　　Based on the report, it sounds like Ive is breathing some much-needed life into iOS. The operating system has remained essentially unchanged in its appearance since its 2007 debut. It sorely needs some updating in order to remain relevant next to the fast-changing Android platform. Even Windows Phone has a more modern look and feel.
　　For the moment, Apple's engineers are focusing on delivering these changes to the iPhone first. Although the new operating system will be previewed next month, it won't arrive on devices until the fall at the earliest. It will likely debut with the next version of the iPhone, and won't be available for the iPad until some point later in the year.

The posturing from equally Microsoft and Google illustrates

　　This month, Windows Mobile phone customers last but not least received Microsoft’s YouTube customer for their handset. Developed by Redmond, immediately after Google declined to aid their cellular system, the client has previously sparked a confrontation (and authorized letters) concerning the two tech firms. The saga with the WP YouTube customer is way from above, but it surely highlights two vital areas - Microsoft suggests company with Home windows Cellphone, and YouTube is becoming as pervasive as being a utility enterprise.
　　Updated during the 1st 7 days of Could, Microsoft’s YouTube consumer ceased currently being an icon that opened up a cell internet site and have become an entire application on any Home windows Telephone handset, like support for Kid’s Corner by restricting use of age restricted videos; pinning channels, playlists and films; and downloading films for offline viewing.
　　By which includes an alternative to down load videos to your handset, rather than exhibiting any in-app advertising, Microsoft was provoking response from Google (many of the time together with the response of ‘we’d appreciate to incorporate these, but we never have the API’). That response duly came, a giant, juicy stop and desist letter (while using the ask for to work with the trapdoor from the Windows Cell phone Shop to remotely delete all copies on the application).
　　And just like that, following a metaphorical spherical of company ‘who’s is bigger’, the 2 businesses are sitting spherical the desk, and it appears like Home windows Cell phone end users could have an honest and formal YouTube consumer right after all.
　　It as soon as had an excellent third-party version named Metrotube, but everyone supporting that app will realise that it was frequently attempting to find methods into the lack of APIs from Google, and at a single issue withdrew alone in the Home windows Cell phone Retail store for the reason that it absolutely was simply too challenging to help keep up together with the modifications. It’s back now, and users continue to love the application. But there was generally demand for a thing far more formal.
　　The posturing from equally Microsoft and Google illustrates just how essential on the web online video will be to a cellular platform, along with the de facto chief in this particular area is evidently YouTube. By delivering purchasers for just a amount of cell platforms in their alternative, but only an HTML5 cell model with the web site for Windows Mobile phone end users, Google has to be cautious of an anti-trust action given the dominance YouTube has in the market.
　　Google has declined to guidance Windows Cellphone with programs, pointing on the decreased marketplace share on the platform, and their HTML5 choices that imply the info may be partly accessed through the cellular web browser. So Microsoft has produced this customer utilizing their methods, but with no authorization to obtain the native APIs, they’re being forced to drive the problem which can reward the consumers, however it also bolsters the Home windows Cell phone platform and offers it parity with the handsets following to it over the Large Street.
　　There is nevertheless going to get plenty of give and get involving the companies (the down load choice has already been eradicated), and a few of that could be performed out in community, even so the phase is about. Microsoft goes intense with Home windows Mobile phone; and Google should treat the YouTube as being a utility that should be available to all people on-line, not as their own personal walled yard in which they will establish entry rights on the system by platform basis.

Android 4.3 video showcases slightly modified camera UI

Google didn't unveil Android 4.3 at its Google I/O conference as many had hoped, but the company may soon release the next version of Android with a new camera app that has better controls and navigation. An attendee at the Thailand Mobile Expo spotted a Nexus 4 running Android 4.3 in the JWR45B build. He then posted a screenshot to XDA showcasing the supposedly updated phone and did not notice many changes other than the camera app.

The camera app has changed the settings navigation to take on the shape of a half moon rather than a circle. In Android 4.2, holding down brings up a group of options for camera switching, settings, and adjustments that are partially obstructed because the finger blocks parts of the circle. The Android 4.3 version is more effective because the settings are done along a line, so the content is easier to see.
While this may seem like a minor adjustment, it's one that makes Android easier to use. Minor adjustments may be a recurring theme if this truly is the first glimpse of Android 4.3. The user interface appears to be the same and the person touring the software has yet to spot any major changes in the software. Google is rumored to deliver Android 4.3 June 10, so perhaps there are more treasures waiting to be unearthed at a later date.

Kindle Fire HD spreads to over 170 countries, bringing uncertainty for other Android tablets

　　Amazon has announced that it is to offer its 7-inch and 8.9-inch Android-powered Kindle Fire HD tablets to customers to pre-order in over 170 additional countries, with the tablets shipping June 13.
　　The biggest online retailer has also expanded its app store to over 200 countries, allowing Kindle Fire owners to choose from tens of thousands of popular Android apps.

　　The Kindle Fire HD hardware is unchanged from the model currently shipping in the US and certain European countries. The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD comes with a 1920x1200 1080p HD display with in-plane switching, Advanced True Wide polarizing filter. The 254 pixels per inch, Amazon says, are "indistinguishable to the human eye" – in other words, it's a retina display. The 7-inch Kindle Fire HD features a 1280x800 screen resolution.
　　Both screen sizes feature 10-point multi-touch support.
　　The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD is powered by the latest generation dual-core 1.5GHz OMAP4 4470 processor with an on-board Imagination SGX544 graphics engine that's capable of over 12 billion floating point operations per second – or 50 percent more than Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor.
　　The processor in the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD is a dual-core OMAP4 4460 1.2GHz processor.
　　The Kindle Fire represents a real threat to the Android tablet landscape not because of the Amazon logo, or even the hardware spec, but because of its highly disruptive pricing. The 7-inch variant costs $214, while its 8.9-inch big brother is only $284.
　　Amazon's goal was to put together a quality Android tablet at an eye-catching price, and it accomplished this with the Kindle Fire HD hardware. Its price is refreshingly accessible when compared to Apple's iPad, and even other Android tablet offerings. The only tablet to come close to the Kindle Fire HD family is Google's own Nexus 7 and 10 tablets.
　　Despite the Kindle Fire HD being an Android tablet, it's rather different from most Android tablets on the market. As opposed to being a one-stop-shop for Google services, the Kindle Fire HD runs a heavily customized forked version of Android Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.4) that's been turned into a portal for all things Amazon. Even compared to newer tablets running Android "Jelly Bean," the Kindle Fire HD's custom operating system looks and feels – to me at any rate – like a better tablet OS.
　　There's no doubt that this expansion in availability of the Kindle Fire HD will give Android a boost, even if it is Amazon's vision of how Android should be.