Category: Software

We’ve long said that it’s unfair to slap Windows 8 with the dreaded Vista comparison and now we have some data to back it up. ZDNet’s Ed Bott this week took a look at Amazon (AMZN) customer ratings for several versions of Microsoft’s (MSFT) operating system and found that while Windows 8 has its share of haters, it also has even more people who enthusiastically support the platform. Overall, 50% of Windows 8 users gave the platform four or five-star reviews while 40% gave it a one or two-star rating. This contrasts very favorably with Vista, which received one and two-star ratings from 50% of users while receiving four and five-star ratings from just 37% of users. The ratings also show that dislike of Vista was remarkably intense, with 42% of users giving it a one-star rating that Bott describes as a “middle finger” to the platform.

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It seems that Facebook (FB) has given a name to its new version of Android that will purportedly clog home screens with status updates. According to 9to5Google’s sources, Facebook is calling its new Android initiative “Facebook Home,” which fits in well with the notice the company sent out last week inviting people to “come see our new home on Android.” We still have no definitive word on precisely what this new “home” will entail, although The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Facebook is planning “new software for mobile devices powered by Google’s Android operating system that displays content from users’ Facebook accounts on a smartphone’s home screen.” Facebook’s event is scheduled to take place this coming Thursday.

Microsoft (MSFT) isn’t just working on refreshing Windows 8 for later this year — it’s also apparently working on a refresh for Office as well. ZDNet reports that an updated version of Office, currently codenamed Gemini, is slated for release this fall and will include updates for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. ZDNet also reports that “Office is refocusing itself from being an organization that builds and sells Windows apps, to one that builds apps and services that run on multiple, heterogeneous platforms,” so it seems that the next version of Office could be the one that finally runs on iOS and Android.

One comfort for Windows 8 users has been the ability to switch out from the tiled interface to the standard desktop mode, but the recently leaked build of Windows Blue shows that Microsoft (MSFT) may be phasing out that security blanket in the future as well. Paul Thurrott’s Windows Super Site has found that the Windows Blue build adds “a ton of new settings” to its PC settings tile “that were previously only available in the desktop-based Control Panel interface.” Thurrott says that by moving desktop functionalities to the tiled interface, Microsoft is gradually trying to nudge users away from desktop mode and thus pave the way for a Windows 9 operating system that “potentially” comes with no desktop mode intact.

Apple (AAPL) is still plugging away in its efforts to improve its widely panned iOS Maps application and on Monday it paid an estimated $20 million to acquire indoor mapping company WifiSLAM. The Wall Street Journal reports that WifiSLAM “has developed ways for mobile apps to detect a phone user’s location in a building using Wi-Fi signals” and “has been offering the technology to application developers for indoor mapping and new types of retail and social networking apps.” An Apple spokesperson wouldn’t tell the Journal why Apple had acquired the company and only said that it “buys smaller technology companies from time to time.”

Microsoft’s (MSFT) next major Windows update will be crucial for the company because it will show how well it has listened to feedback provided by Windows 8 users who may have found the touch-centric operating system difficult to use at first. The Verge this week got the opportunity to do a hands-on preview with an early version of the upcoming Windows Blue operating system and found that Microsoft has made some important changes to the user interface that should help users make an easier transition from the more traditional desktop version of Windows.

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Microsoft (MSFT) may be a bit behind Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) when it comes to creating a voice-enabled personal assistant for its mobile devices, but it seems the company does have plans to add better speech recognition capabilities to its Bing mobile app in the near future. MSFTKitchen has posted a video demonstration of a new prototype for voice recognition software on Windows Phone devices that’s intended to show how Microsoft has worked to reduce latency and word recognition errors while improving phones’ ability to accurately hear you in crowded, noisy areas. Unfortunately the demonstrators made no mention of when this software would roll out to Windows Phone users but MSFTKitchen speculates it could come as part of the Windows Blue software update coming later this year. A full video of the demonstration is posted below.

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Itching to replace Siri with Google Now on your iPhone? Well, you might have to wait a while longer. TechCrunch reports that Google (GOOG) chairman Eric Schmidt on Thursday said that it was up to Apple (AAPL) on whether Google’s voice-enabled personal assistant application would make its way to the App Store anytime soon. When asked about Google Now coming to iOS at the Google Big Tent Summit in India this week, Schmidt responded that “you’ll need to discuss that with Apple” because “Apple has a policy of approving or disapproving apps that are submitted into its store, and some of them they approve and some of them they don’t.” In other words, it sounds as though the company has submitted Google Now to Apple for approval and that it’s currently waiting to see whether it gets approved.

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Microsoft (MSFT) is willing to pay app developers $100 for every Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 app they develop, but the company insists that payouts aren’t its main strategy for improving its app ecosystem. A Microsoft spokesperson told AllThingsD that the company believes “the best apps come from those partners who are invested in the platform and own their experience now and in the future” and that its limited-time $100 offer “is not representative of an ongoing program.” Microsoft has put a lot of effort into attracting developers to both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 as it tries to generate developer enthusiasm for its platforms that matches the level of enthusiasm for iOS and Android. A recent study by PCMag showed that Windows Phone 8 now offers 63% of the 102 most popular apps available for iOS and Android.

Windows 8 has taken its share of lumps over the past few months, but one analyst thinks its troubles all began with Microsoft’s (MSFT) decision to omit the Start button from its user interface. In an interview with CNET, IDC analyst Bob O’Donnell says that not having a Start button is a big turnoff to many users who have spent years working with Windows and who have come to expect it as a central feature of any Windows device.

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It’s no secret that Microsoft (MSFT) decided to build the Surface on its own because it wanted to set a benchmark for its OEMs to follow when creating their own Windows-based tablets. And now The Verge reports that Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie this week said bluntly that the company had made a mistake by giving OEMs a free rein over design without providing any sort of input or feedback. The result, he said, was that users had wildly different experiences with Windows-based devices based on the device they bought, which hurt Microsoft’s reputation for delivering a consistent experience across all devices.

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The signs of doom are all aligned for Windows RT, which looks like it could soon inhibit the same plane of oblivion currently occupied by Microsoft Bob. Ars Technica’s Peter Bright has written a thorough pre-obituary for the current incarnation of Microsoft’s (MSFT) first attempt at creating a tablet-centric operating system, which he calls “a lemon” that consumers are “avoiding… in droves.” Bright lists several reasons for Windows RT’s failure so far, but most of them boil down to the fact that the operating system as it’s currently built has no reason to exist.

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There is no single internet of things, just a series of connected services and avatars, the physical hardware that connect to those services. This is what Mike Kuniavsky, a principal in the Innovation Services Group at PARC, explained as his vision for the internet of things in a talk last week at the GigaOM internet of things meetup.

The audio in this video is fuzzy, but Kuniavsky is worth listening to, from his definition of the internet of things to his vision for how we are going to have to change our thinking about software development in order to program it. At 19 minutes the video is the perfect length for watching during a lunch break. Check it out.

If you missed it, here is yesterday’s video from the same event: Video: Why you shouldn’t care about securing the Internet of things just yet

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• GigaOM Research highs and lows from CES 2013
• Analyzing the wearable computing market
• The Internet of things: creating tomorrow’s health care

BlackBerry has pushed a big OS update for the all-new Z10. The update patches bugs, improves the camera in low light, optimizes battery and improves the way the browser handles rich media.

One of the things I like most about BlackBerry as of late is their zeal for updating software. It’s great for clients too because generally people are pretty satisfied when they first get their new device, but that satisfaction grows with every update, performance tweak and optimization.

This update is a big one covering a lot of the gripes people are having with the new device such as battery life, camera performance in low light and The way the OS handles all sorts of messaging.

I’ve installed the update and it seems to be running very smoothly so far.

Click here for more details at the Inside BlackBerry Blog.

Today we issued a software update for BlackBerry 10 smartphones that’s focused on your feedback. It’s already available from some carriers and we’re working closely with all our carrier partners to get it to you as soon as possible.

It’s almost been a month since we officially unveiled the new BlackBerry 10 smartphones and many of you already have a BlackBerry Z10 in hand. You’ve been using it for weeks, and we’ve been listening to your feedback, and have been working on an update just for you. Here are just a few of the improvements you can expect after updating your software.

1. 3rd Party App Performance

   We’ve improved performance for 3rd party applications, so developers can build apps that run fast and smooth for you. With this update, you might want to keep an eye out for some fresh new app launches in March, like WhatsApp.

   Guess what’s up #TeamBlackBerry? WhatsApp Messenger is coming to #BlackBerry10 in March ^DH

   — BlackBerry (@BlackBerry) February 24, 2013

2. Phone, Calendar, and Contacts

   Among the top improvements and features are fixes for Gmail calendars on BlackBerry 10. You’ll also find improvements in the BlackBerry Hub for logging calls log and how conversations are handled. We’ve also made general improvements to importing contacts from online sources.

3. Camera

   We’ve optimized the camera for better photos in low-light situations. You’ll love the difference this makes for photos where you don’t use a flash – like the Time Shift Camera feature.

4. Browser and Media

   With more and more of you using the gorgeous screen on the BlackBerry Z10 to consume online videos and media, we’ve made a number of improvements to the software in the way the browser handles video playback to provide a fantastic experience.

5. Battery Life

   The software team has included a number of battery life optimizations with over 60 battery saving improvements since launch to keep you moving. These combined improvements are designed so that you see improvements in battery life and heavy users especially should see a longer average usage per charge cycle.

How to update your software on BlackBerry 10

Software is available over the air (OTA). Typically, you’ll get a notification about new updates, but you can manually check to see if it has been made available by your service provider and install it in a few simple steps.
Settings> Software Updates> Check for Updates> — then follow the on screen steps to install.

The download is approximately 150MB in size, so I recommend updating when connected to Wi-Fi.

There you have it – the first OTA update to your BlackBerry 10 smartphone. We’ll be rolling out the update with all of our carrier partners around the globe over the coming weeks. Be sure to check it out when it’s available and let us know what you think in the comments below. Your feedback is always welcomed and we will continue to listen as we update and improve BlackBerry 10.

Whether or not you agree that Samsung (005930) is the “shameless” copycat Apple (AAPL) has repeatedly accused it of being, there is no denying that the South Korean technology giant has borrowed a few pages from Apple’s playbook. If the design elements in its devices and the launch of features like S Voice and Blocking Mode rolling out on Samsung phones immediately following Siri and Do Not Disturb aren’t telling enough, this 132-page internal Samsung document is pretty damning. Of course, Apple is hardly innocent in all this and has borrowed from plenty of companies in the past as well. The latest chapter in this tiring tale came Tuesday as Samsung unveiled its new Wallet app for Android.

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Google (GOOG) has officially taken the training wheels off the Web Speech application programming interface it first launched as part of a Chrome beta release last month. Google announced on Thursday that the latest version of Chrome now includes the Web Speech API that it says will help developers “integrate speech recognition capabilities into their web apps” so that users can use their voices for functions traditionally covered by mouse and keyboard, such as composing email. Google’s efforts to give Chrome web apps more speech recognition capabilities come after some developers late last year started a new Chromium project dedicated to bringing the voice-enabled Google Now personal assistant to the Chrome browser.

Sony (SNE) finally took the wraps off its next-generation PlayStation 4 on Wednesday evening, and the upcoming gaming console is packed with premium specs that will help usher in the next stage in the evolution of gaming. Sony touted some great tie-ins with the PlayStation Vita during its two-plus-hour-long presentation, but its mobile ambitions extend beyond its own beleaguered portable console. Within Sony’s PS4 press release, the company announced that it will soon launch second screen experiences on the iPhone, iPad and Android devices thanks to its upcoming “PlayStation App.” Few details were provided, but the relevant section from Sony’s press release follows below.

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Popular sexting app maker Snapchat on Thursday updated its Android application of the same name with the ability to send self-destructing videos to Snapchat contacts. The video function had been available in the Snapchat Android app as part of a closed beta, but it is now available to all users in Snapchat 2.0. Snapchat bills its app as a way to “build relationships, collect points, and view your best friends,” though the most widely discussed use for the service is sending nude photos — and now, videos — between devices that are automatically deleted after a set amount of time… unless the recipient decides to use a simple trick to save the files permanently. Snapchat 2.0 is available immediately for free in the Google Play store, which is linked below.