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HP’s Slate7 is the company’s return to the reasonably-priced consumer tablet space, following the failure of its webOS-based TouchPad. I’ve had a hands-on play with it a couple of times at Mobile World Congress, and spoken to HP mobile chief Alberto Torres about it, and I’m still unconvinced.

I do think the tablet will sell — not magnificently, but not poorly either. Its outward styling is attractive enough, and some people find Beats Audio to be a killer feature (I’m a bit too much of an audio purist to enjoy the bass overload that it represents, but that’s me). It has a slightly feeble camera when its key rivals around its price — $169 — have none.

Blandness

However, if I were in the market for a small tablet — I’m not, as I own both an iPad mini and a Nexus 7 — I would steer clear for one reason: the screen.

The resolution isn’t the problem; it’s fine for the size. What I can’t get past is how washed-out it is compared to both the devices I own. More than any other kind of computer, a tablet is essentially a screen with trimmings. It has to convince.

The upside with relatively low-contrast screens is that they can be easier to view in sunlight, and according to Torres this was a conscious choice.

“We really have emphasised readability, particularly outdoors readability,” he told me. “It provides quite a good experience for video and gaming, but we decided to emphasise readability.” Why so? “We were looking at a worldwide product. We thought this product will play well in America, but also when looking at emerging markets outdoor readability is quite important.”

You may wonder why I’m obsessing over this contrast point. Part of that’s down to the splendid metaphor it presents. But it’s also because, even after conversing with Torres on the subject, I am none the wiser as to HP’s mobile strategy. So the tablet has what many potential customers will consider an unsuitable screen, because HP wants to address emerging markets? Why then is the Slate7 priced for the U.S., not for the emerging markets, where you really want to strike below the $100 mark if you want to make an impact?

More blandness

And why has HP chosen to barely skin the Slate7′s Android interface? “It’s not final — there will be a bit more [before release],” Torres said, but he confirmed that HP is trying to leave the Android user experience as close as possible to its stock origins.

I’m an Android user, and I opt for the Nexus line (I also have a Nexus 4 phone), which does use pure stock Android, but that’s not why I buy Nexus: I buy Nexus so I always get the latest OS updates as soon as possible. I used to have an HTC phone, and I kind of miss some of the Sense gimmicks that HTC throws into its devices. Stock Android is fine, but HP is missing an opportunity to really differentiate what it’s offering here.

And that’s the fundamental problem with the Slate7: it’s too “meh.” In my opinion, HP rushed it — you must bear in mind that the company only set up its new mobile division last September, less than six months ago. It feels like the Slate7 was timed to come out at Mobile World Congress, as opposed to coming out when it was ready to turn heads on its own merits.

Hoping for greater contrast

“We are the number one PC manufacturer in the word and we intend to be a leader on tablets as well,” Torres told me. But HP’s leadership strategy is to have as broad a portfolio as possible — some Google and some Microsoft in each segment, a bit of something for everyone.

That’s not enough. Samsung also plays that game, but it can get away with it because some of its products have been real head-turners; the Galaxy Note, which was unlike anything else out there when it launched, springs to mind.

The Note was a risk. Half the world laughed when it came out, scorning its excessive size, by smartphone standards, and its reintroduction of the much-maligned mobile device stylus. But it was a hit, and no one’s laughing now.

It’s not too late, HP. You still have it in you to release something extraordinary. Take your time, take a risk, and make the next one a killer.

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Google is battling data protection authorities in Spain over whether or not search engines can be ordered to block search results that link to legal content on Spanish newspaper and government sites.

Google has a post on its Europe Blog today discussing the matter. William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, EMEA at Google writes:

In the case before the CJEU today – one that is representative of around 180 similar Spanish cases – Google declined to comply with an order from the Spanish Data Protection Authority. We were asked to remove links from our search results that point to a legal notice published in a newspaper. The notice, announcing houses being auctioned off as part of a legal proceeding, is required under Spanish law and includes factually correct information that is still publicly available on the newspaper’s website.

There are clear societal reasons why this kind of information should be publicly available. People shouldn’t be prevented from learning that a politician was convicted of taking a bribe, or that a doctor was convicted of malpractice. The substantive question before the Court today is whether search engines should be obliged to remove links to valid legal material that still exists online.

We believe the answer to that question is “no”. Search engines point to information that is published online – and in this case to information that had to be made public, by law. In our view, only the original publisher can take the the decision to remove such content. Once removed from the source webpage, content will disappear from a search engine’s index.

This has pretty much been the way Google has always operated. Here’s an explanation from Matt Cutts about why Google won’t remove pages about you.

Google is also facing antitrust issues in Europe, but according to a recent report, the European Commission will not reach a decision on that until at least August.

Max Levchin has launched a new payments startup called Affirm that will attempt to convert mobile browsers into mobile customers by instituting one-click checkouts, AllThingsD reported Tuesday. The longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur sat down with Om in January to talk about his new R&D lab called HVF (Hard Valuable Fun), and Affirm is the first startup out of that project.

Levchin co-founded PayPal and then sold his second company, Slide, to Google for hundreds of millions. Slide came out of MRL Ventures, a similar type of R&D lab, that also produced Yelp as one of its companies. The Ukraine-born founder first pitched his idea for the new lab in Munich in January of this year, and explained the idea behind it to Om:

“As we become more connected, we can make things a lot more efficient around us,” he said at the time. “There is a lot of change that is going to happen.” Levchin explained that the companies coming out of HVF would revolve around the importance of data and how we use it. He said at the time that he was almost ready to launch two different ventures from the self-funded lab.

Affirm will allow merchants to convert mobile browsers to buyers by making purchases easier for people who don’t want to pull out their credit cards. The company’s website explains the concept behind it:

“The mobile shopping experience attracts a certain type of shopper – impulsive, time-constrained, exploratory. Retailers must evaluate how their purchase flow aligns with these motivations. Affirm greases the skids between intent and purchase for these shoppers.”

The concept sounds very much like PayPal or Square or any number of other payments startups on the market right now, but Affirm is looking to distinguish itself by acting as a digital charge card where users can add items to their tab and then pay later, according to the report. At launch, the company is just launching with one partner, 1-800-Flowers, but is allowing more interested merchants to sign up.

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C. Everett Koop, who served as United States Surgeon General for seven years in the ’80s, has died. He was 96 years old.

Koop was well-known for his stance on smoking and spoke out against the widespread use of cigarettes in the U.S. in the ’80s, bringing a very controversial topic to the forefront of conversation. He was also very involved in spreading knowledge about HIV/AIDS during his years of service, getting a public mailing out about the epidemic in a brochure which reached over 107 million people. His outspoken views on the dangers of tobacco, however, earned him accolades from those who had been trying to get their voices heard on the subject for years.

“That was the shot heard around the world, and it began to change public policy everywhere,” said John Seffrin, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society.

Koop was a pediatric surgeon before taking on the role of Surgeon General and was highly regarded in his field as a man who never backed down from doing what he believed was right.

“Dr. Koop was not only a pioneering pediatric surgeon, but also one of the most courageous and passionate public health advocates of the past century,” said Dr. Wiley W. Souba, dean of Dartmouth’s medical school. “He did not back down from deeply rooted health challenges or powerful interests that stood in the way of needed change. Instead, he fought, he educated, and he transformed lives for the better.”

Koop was also the author of over 200 articles and books and even won an Emmy for a series he did on health-care reform.

Anne Wojcicki, biologist and wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, attended an Oscar pre-party on Sunday, wearing Google Glass (a popular look within the family).

TMZ has put out video from the event, in which the reporter asks her to demonstrate the device, not realizing who she is. She demonstrates by taking her own video of the reporter, and sharing it with a friend before the reporter is even done with his own video.

More of the story at TMZ.

Another Wojcicki, Anne’s sister Susan, who is SVP of Advertising at Google, made some headlines today as well with the launch of new Google ad formats.

For a U.S. Congressperson, simply using Twitter or Facebook (or even Instagram) to detail their daily activities to the American public is so yesterday.

Freshman Representative Mark Takano (D, CA) has just submitted his very first bill, and he’s just posted a Vine video of the process:

Submitting my first bill! vine.co/v/bgVTnHx6rLi

— Mark Takano (@RepMarkTakano) February 26, 2013

The bill Rep. Takano just submitted is called the VetSuccess Enhancement Act. It looks to extend the Dept. of Veterans Affairs’ Rehabilitation & Education VetSuccess program eligibility period by 5 years.

“Nearly every veterans group I’ve talked to, including the Disabled American Veterans, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, all said that the 12 year eligibility period for the VetSuccess program was a significant road block for our heroes. The VetSuccess Enhancement Act removes that road block by extending that eligibility by five years. I’m proud to make it the first bill I will introduce in Congress and look forward to it becoming law,” said Takano.

The VetSuccess program helps injured veterans find and maintain employment.

Every year, Google holds a contest called Doodle 4 Google that tasks children with creating one of the many doodles that populate Google’s homepage every year. Microsoft doesn’t want to be left behind so it’s starting its own art contest, but it’s a little more terrifying.

Inspired by the Kid’s Corner feature in Windows Phone 8, Microsoft is tasking children to create original artwork based on Windows Phone. The art in question must answer the following questions:

“What do you wish your Windows Phone could do? How do you imagine yourself, your family, and others using your phone?”

Four winners will be selected and have their artwork professionally recreated by Dave DeVries. DeVries made a name for himself by creating outlandish, and sometimes outright scary, pieces of art based on children’s drawings. Now he’s doing the same here, but with a Windows Phone twist.

To illustrate what kind of art they want, KC Lemson, Program Manger on the Windows Phone team, had her children draw some sketches of Windows Phone inspired “creatures.” DeVries took the original art and made the “lovely” piece of art you see below:

Unlike Google’s Doodle 4 Google contest, Microsoft won’t feature your child’s artwork in a fancy museum. Instead, the child will receive a digital file of the recreated art from DeVries. The art will also be featured on various Microsoft properties around the Web. It’s not fancy museum showing, but hey, your kid will be forever associated with the Microsoft brand. That’s gotta be worth something, right?

Those who wish to enter their children into the Windows Phone Kid’s Art Contest need only send the art to [email protected] with the subject line “Kid’s Art Entry.” Unfortunately, the contest is only open to 12-year-olds and younger. Those of us with hopes of having our art reimagined as scary monsters will have to do it ourselves.

Justin Bieber is a well-known fan of getting inked, and every time he shows up somewhere with a new tattoo, his fans want photos as well as an explanation as to the meaning.

The 18-year old has a new piece, but so far the meaning isn’t forthcoming. The elegant black “x” on his forearm–just below the owl that was already there–could mean any number of things. As of now, this is his fourth tattoo of 2013, joining a rose on his leg, a Native American portrait on his shoulder, and his mother’s birthday on his collarbone.

For now, there aren’t any indications on his Twitter page as to the meaning behind the ink, but he does have a birthday coming up this week and is getting quite a bit of love from his fans in anticipation of the event.

Image: Splash News

Imagine getting #RightHere to number one. That’d give justin two reasons to have a massive party on his birthday!!

— READ BIO PLEASE ♛ (@JustinsAvenger) February 25, 2013

we need to get #RightHere to number one to give Justin an early birthday present! YOU READY?

— #JBMeetBeautifulJDB (@BeautifulJDB) February 25, 2013

@justinbieber your birthday is Friday. 19 years! Promise me you’ll never change. #ALWAYSKIDRAUHL! I LOVE U SO MUCHHHHHHHH! x1

— francisca. (@kissmejustinnn) February 26, 2013

It’s almost my baby’s birthday. I love you so much @justinbieber

— ♡ Jayne & Danah ♡ (@MustachioBieber) February 26, 2013

A new studio founded by ex-Zynga employees today announced its official opening. The studio, named Proletariat Inc., has been working on an iOS game called Letter Rush, which will launch for Apple devices next week.

This comes just one day after Zynga announced yet more layoffs and studio consolidations.

The five founding members of Proletariat were employees at Zynga’s Cambridge, Massachusetts branch, which was unceremoniously closed in late October 2012 after the company announced poorer-than-expected third-quarter financial results. The team had worked on the Facebook game Indiana Jones Adventure World for Zynga, and now hopes to find mobile gaming success on their own. Individual members of Proletariat have worked on projects as diverse as Guitar Hero and Lord of the Rings Online.

“We have all known each other and worked with one another for so long that we’ve developed an organic way of making games together,” said Seth Sivak, CEO of Proletariat. “We all want to make successful games, both creatively and as a business. This team has been on both sides and knows how to find that balance.”

Proletariat’s Letter Rush will be a word-find game featuring leaderboards and multiplayer gameplay. The studio has already released another game called Hug The Sloth for iOS, which tasks players with hugging a sloth to earn different hats for the sloth.

Perhaps as a veiled criticism of Zynga, Sivak stated that the goal at Proletariat will be “to keep teams small and let highly skilled groups of creative people innovate.”

(via Joystiq)

What you’re about to see is “anger, frustration, forgiveness, revenge: communicated in 17 Beatles songs.” It’s not your typical dinner fight between a couple, I mean, there’s some pretty serious stuff going on here. But, like all great music, many of The Beatles’ songs were about love. And the lack of love. And the fight you’re about to see is about love (in a few different forms).

And specific girls with specific names. That helps too.

[CDZA via Laughing Squid]

Rock and Roll Game Studio has announced the release of their first game since the BlackBerry Z10 launch. Land Of Mines is a turn based artillery strategy game that challenges players to clear the screen of enemies using limited resources.

Using a strange variety of weapons, players must carefully aim and destroy all the on-screen enemies. The game features a cute art style, fun fire-and-forget game mechanics, and a fresh and original arsenal.

Click here to download Land Of Mines free for BlackBerry 10.

President Obama was inaugurated a scant few weeks ago but it’s never too early to think about the next election cycle. Tech teams for the 2016 campaign will need to hone in on location-based applications and finely tuned personalization, said Michael Slaby, former CIO for Obama for America.

Michael Slaby, former CIO of Obama for America.

According to Slaby, the team’s the initial 2008 effort was all about putting social networking on par with other messaging and communication. “We didn’t just stick it in the corner with a blog, it was a meaningful way to think about solving organizational problems,” Slaby told attendees of a Salesforce.com event in New York City Tuesday.

“In 2008 we were just trying to stay alive – [there was] an election every two weeks for months and months” he said. That didn’t leave a ton of time for strategizing or even staffing up. “We didn’t really hire engineers,” Slaby said during a panel discussion led by former U.S. CIO Vivek Kundra, who is now Salesforce.com’s executive vice president for emerging markets.

The next time out, in 2012, OFA had the luxury of an incumbent candidate — meaning no primaries – so it was able to focus more on building infrastructure to provide “a unified experience for our supporters.”

In the future, teams like this will need to consider more big data and analytics advances. “There’s an old adage that all politics is local — I would add that all politics is personal … We need to use big data advances and technology that makes us capable of listening to more people at the same time and to provide a more personal experience for everyone,” he said.

“No one has figured out how to use location-based technology really well … We need to figure that out so in the future we can look at location metrics — where you vote, who you vote with, how you vote. Increasing personalization and awareness of location are part of what we need.”

Asked by Kundra what lessons he had for business IT pros, Slaby warned against getting obsessed with technology for technology’s sake. ”People have to focus on making your business more effective rather than focusing on this new thing. That’s the best defense against the new shiny object syndrome.”

And, there has to be a reset on thinking as well. “We see inbound cases not as a bucket of things to process but of opportunities for voter-initiated contact,” he said. “We had 6 million people coming to us — it’s an opportunity, not something we have to weather.

After the election, OFA team members have turned up at a number of tech events including Amazon’s  AWS: Reinvent conference in November and OFA CTO Harper Reed talked to GigaOM’s Derrick Harris last year about his work on the effort.

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For the past several weeks, Blizzard has been showing all the new features that will make their way into the upcoming StarCraft II expansion – Heart of the Swarm. Now the game is almost upon us, and Blizzard has just one more message for its fans. It’s time to get hyped.

Players can look forward to playing through Kerrigan’s, and by extension the Zerg’s, campaign on March 12. Blizzard will be hosting launch parties around the world for the game’s physical release. Those who purchased the game via Blizzard’s online store will be able to start playing at midnight.

Continue reading…

Codenvy, a San Francisco-based cloud environment for coding, building, and testing apps, today announced it has closed $9 million in Series A led by Toba Capital with Auriga Partners and a number of angels participating.

PRESS RELEASE:

Codenvy (formerly Exo IDE), the cloud environment for coding, building, and testing apps, today announced it has closed its first round of financing of $9 million in venture capital. Led by Toba Capital with Auriga Partners and a number of angels participating, the initial funding will accelerate the company’s growth and employee count to 40. The company has announced itself as Codenvy with 50,000 registered developers and the largest selection of integrated partners including GitHub, RedHat Openshift, Google App Engine, Amazon Web Services BeanStalk, VMWare CloudFoundry, Heroku, AppFog, CloudBees and ZeroTurnaround.

“Other than the developer’s workbench, every other IT application has already moved to the cloud”
“Other than the developer’s workbench, every other IT application has already moved to the cloud,” said Vinny Smith, founder of TobaCapital and former CEO of Quest Software (NASDAQ: QSFT). “At Quest, we saw the impact Toad could have on millions of DBAs. We are going to help Codenvy have the same impact on software engineers.”

Over the past decade, cloud computing has disrupted nearly every facet of IT. From sales, marketing, finance, support – all of these applications are being re-engineered to take advantage of cloud’s instant access, no download, and pay-as-you-go attributes. Despite this transformation, developers, teams, and organizations still continue to use desktop IDEs as their workbench of choice. Desktop development and IDEs have high failure rates for developers, and are costing enterprises untold millions.

Codenvy overcomes the constraints of desktop IDEs like configuration, memory, and compute. Developers gain up to two hours of additional coding time each day due to cloud-powered always-on workspaces, parallel multi-core compilation, continuous iterative deployment, and multi-cursor pair programming. Teams benefit from having a shared workspace that integrates with agile tools, code management systems, and production PaaS runtimes.

“The IDE model for application development hasn’t changed in four decades. It’s so pervasive; the IT industry has become complacent to its severe limitations,” said Tyler Jewell, CEO of Codenvy. “Cloud gives us a unique tool to disrupt the traditional model and to improve developer productivity through innovation. We are thrilled to partner with investors that have deep experience in the enterprise and share a common vision for Codenvy.”

Codenvy’s robust ecosystem of partners gives developers a simple way to deploy and operate code on the largest selection of PaaS vendors. Its Eclipse-like programming model enables an easier transition for Eclipse developers and plug-ins.

“In today’s marketplace, developers are met with increasing demands with limited resources and time. We are working with Codenvy to eliminate waste in the process of building, testing, running and managing applications,” said Sacha Labourey, chief executive officer, CloudBees. “Our partnership with Codenvy provides enterprise developers with an integrated set of services spanning development to production.”

Availability and Pricing

Codenvy is free for public projects, and has a monthly subscription for private projects and those that require larger builder and tester resources. Codenvy also offers Codenvy Enterprise, a private cloud installation for organizations with strict compliance requirements.

About Codenvy

Codenvy is the cloud development environment for coding, building, and testing applications. Codenvy’s 50,000 developers gain up to two additional hours of viable coding time each day due to cloud-powered always-on workspaces, parallel multi-core compilation, continuous iterative deployment, and multi-cursor pair programming. For more information visit http://codenvy.com/.

About Toba Capital

Toba Capital is a venture firm focused on enterprise software and infrastructure. Toba backs entrepreneurs building transformative businesses, both as an investor and as an ongoing operational partner. The firm was founded by Vinny Smith, an early investor and former CEO of Quest Software.

About Auriga Partners

Auriga Partners is an independent venture capital firm. Based in Paris, it invests in information technologies and life sciences, in innovative high potential ventures, in seed or early development stages, in Europe, North America and Israel. Auriga Partners manages three funds for a total of more than 330 millions euros. Along with investing the necessary capital, Auriga Partners brings also its savoir-faire in developing and solidifying executive teams, organizing companies, broadening their networks and forming strategic and corporate partnerships.

The post Codenvy Raises $9 Million appeared first on peHUB.

Google announced Chrome 26 Beta today, with improved spell check capabilities. Google has refreshed the dictionaries the browser’s default spell check users, and it now supports proper nouns as well as Korean, Tamil and Albanian.

“Users who sync their settings will also notice their custom dictionary gets shared across devices now, so you won’t need to teach that new Chromebook how to spell your name,” says software engineer Rachel Petterson. “Furthermore, for users who have enabled the ‘Ask Google for suggestions’ spell check feature, we’re now rolling out support for grammar, homonym and context-sensitive spell checking in English, powered by the same technologies used by Google search. Support for additional languages is on the way.”

Google is pushing the update to users on Windows, Linux and Chrome OS in the coming weeks. Mac support will be on the way soon.

The browser update also have a bunch of new bells and whistles for developers, as discussed in this post on the Chromium blog.

Epic Games today announced the details of its “Season Pass” DLC bundle for Gears of War: Judgment.

For 1600 Microsoft Points ($20), gamers will get two DLC packs that will be made up of six multiplayer maps, two new multiplayer modes, and exclusive armor and weapon skins. Purchasers of the Season Pass will also get early access to new multiplayer maps.

In addition to this in-game content, Epic will be offering Season Pass subscribers a permanent multiplayer XP boost.

The junk-food extra XP tie-ins for shooters such as Halo were sketchy, but were limited by their physical nature and limited-time offers. Weekend XP bonuses don’t discriminate among players who don’t have extra cash to spend on DLC. Paying for this permanent double XP offer is, according to Epic, a way “to accelerate your ascent through the ranks.”

That’s the way Epic is promoting it, at least. Another way to look at it would be to say that players who don’t pony up a $20 tribute will only earn half XP.

True, extra XP in this case may not confer any winning advantages (unless you consider being a high rank winning), but regardless of whether Judgment‘s XP boost amounts to a pay-to-win scenario, it’s another in a long line of incremental DLC offers that are moving in that direction. While these types offerings are normal and accepted in low-cost mobile games and free-to-play games, seeing them pop up for AAA, $60 console titles is more than a bit disconcerting.