Galaxy S3 beats iPhone 5 for best device of 2012

Imagine seven of CNET's most senior editors locked in a room, arguing over the course of three days to determine the 100 biggest tech stories of the year for our annual CNET 100 package. We bickered, we pounded coffee, we reminisced, and we wrestled over some big questions -- including which products we considered the hands-down best of 2012.

The question of gadget supremacy intrigued us, so we decided to pull from our list of biggest newsmakers the five best devices of the year as well as the five most influential tech products of 2012. The ongoing battle between Apple and Google played itself out in our best list, with Samsung and its Android-based Galaxy S3 trumping the long-awaited iPhone 5 on a lineup of entirely mobile products. But there's more to the story of tech influence in 2012. Read on.

CNET's five best tech products of 2012

Regardless of popularity or industry impact, these five devices claim the best design, the most-compelling features, and the overall most impressive value among all the hundreds of mainstream tech products released in 2012. Our hats off to all five.

Microsoft opens its own social network

After a long period of closed beta testing, Microsoft made the beta version of its social network, Socl, available to everyone on Tuesday.

Socl initially launched this May. It's a search-meets-social networking website that looks more like Pinterest than Facebook, and has until now been open only to invited Microsoft employees and college students.

Now, everyone with a Microsoft or Facebook account can access it. The sign-up process is effortless -- users simply connect their account with Socl. They can then start sharing content (e.g. photos, videos, links), and comment on other members' posts.

Socl's forever-scrolling front page, which shows posts from all users, can feel a bit random. Also, though the site offers categorization by tags, it's not that easy to find the content you want.

Overall, Socl is a solid time-waster at this point. As more people join, the site should become more usable, but the question is: With all the social networks and content-sharing sites around, will Socl ever reach critical mass?

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

How to test-drive Windows 8 for free in VirtualBox

Upgrading to a new operating system can be an intimidating undertaking that massively disrupts your daily workflow. And considering the dramatic interface changes introduced in Windows 8, you may not want to invest in Microsoft's latest OS without first giving it a thorough shakedown.

Fortunately, there's an easy, hassle-free way to test-drive Windows 8. Using a program called VirtualBox and the evaluation version of Windows 8 Enterprise, you can try out the new OS for free, without disturbing your current operating system. Read on—we’ll show you how.

Important considerations

For this project, you'll need to use the evaluation version of Windows 8 Enterprise, which you can download directly from Microsoft at the MSDN Evaluation Center website. There are a few things you should know about the evaluation edition, but you might want to start the download now—at 3.4GB, it will take a while.

Wording on the download page identifies it as “Windows 8 evaluation for developers,” but anyone who has a Microsoft account (such as a free Hotmail or Live account) can download the software and try it out. The download link is at the very bottom of the page. Simply select the 32- or 64-bit version of the operating system, log in, and fill out a brief questionnaire. Just like that, you’re downloading Windows 8!

For Second Opinion, Consult a Computer?

Just how special is Dr. Dhaliwal’s talent? More to the point, what can he do that a computer cannot? Will a computer ever successfully stand in for a skill that is based not simply on a vast fund of knowledge but also on more intangible factors like intuition?

The history of computer-assisted diagnostics is long and rich. In the 1970s, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh developed software to diagnose complex problems in general internal medicine; the project eventually resulted in a commercial program called Quick Medical Reference. Since the 1980s, Massachusetts General Hospital has been developing and refining DXplain, a program that provides a ranked list of clinical diagnoses from a set of symptoms and laboratory data.

And I.B.M., on the heels of its triumph last year with Watson, the Jeopardy-playing computer, is working on Watson for Healthcare.

In some ways, Dr. Dhaliwal’s diagnostic method is similar to that of another I.B.M. project: the Deep Blue chess program, which in 1996 trounced Garry Kasparov, the world’s best player at the time, to claim an unambiguous victory in the computer’s relentless march into the human domain.

Google Nexus 4 back in stock soon, sales set to resume

Google appears to have a better handle on Nexus 4 supplies now, and will resume selling the unlocked Android smartphone at noon Pacific time today.

Android Central reports that Google has sent out e-mails about Nexus 4 availability. The LG-made smartphone, which costs $300 for an 8 GB model or $350 for a 16 GB model, went on sale November 13, but sold out of its initial stock within minutes. Meanwhile, T-Mobile's version of the Nexus 4, which costs $200 with a two-year contract, is back on sale right now. For people who managed to order the Nexus 4 on launch day, Google has been shipping the units in waves. On Monday, Google sent e-mailsto some customers, telling them that shipments will resume this week. So far, it has been a rocky launch for all of Google's new Nexus devices. The Nexus 10 tablet originally sold out within a few days of launch, as did the 3G version of the Nexus 7 tablet. Both tablets are now available for purchase again, but the 32 GB Nexus 10 has a one- to two-week shipping delay. Google hasn't disclosed sales figures for any of its devices, so it's unclear whether the company was simply overwhelmed by demand, or had other supply issues. However, Asus has said that the Nexus 7, which went on sale in July, is approaching 1 million sales per month, and the quick sell-out of other devices at least bodes well for Google. Although Google has struggled to sell Nexus devices online in the past, perhaps the idea of pure Android hardware, sold at competitive prices, is starting to catch on.

Nokia Lumia 900 4G Windows Phone, Black (AT&T)

Samsung galaxy S3 from Amazon

Research in Motion, Struggling, Ponders a Dim Future

After rejecting the idea of a sale for months, Research in Motion acknowledged on Tuesday that it was considering “strategic business model alternatives” — or in banker’s speak, RIM, which makes the BlackBerry, said it was pondering a potential deal for all or parts of the company.

But did it wait too long?

A year ago, RIM, a Canadian company, became the subject of takeover rumors, after Google’s $12.5 billion deal for Motorola Mobility. Then, analysts believed that RIM would draw interest from Microsoft, Amazon.com or any number of Chinese phone manufacturers who could afford what would have been a pricey deal.
The company’s executives rebuffed the idea, arguing that RIM was on the verge of a turnaround. New phones were coming that combined touch-screens with BlackBerry’s e-mail and security features. And the PlayBook, with an industrial-strength operating system, could stand toe to toe with the iPad.

Facebook Tries, Tries Again on a Smartphone

Can a software company build its own smartphone? We may find out soon.

This past week, Google completed its acquisition of the hardware maker Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, which could lead to the search giant’s making its own smartphone. But another software titan might be getting into the hardware game as well: Facebook.

Now, the company has been going deeper into the process, by expanding the group working on Buffy, and exploring other smartphone projects too, creating a team of seasoned hardware engineers who have built the devices before.

One engineer who formerly worked at Apple and worked on the iPhone said he had met with Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, who then peppered him with questions about the inner workings of smartphones. It did not sound like idle intellectual curiosity, the engineer said; Mr. Zuckerberg asked about intricate details, including the types of chips used, he said. Another former Apple hardware engineer was recruited by a Facebook executive and was told about the company’s hardware explorations.

When asked Friday, Facebook did not deny or confirm that a project to build a smartphone existed, but pointed to a previous statement it gave to AllThingsD last year that said in part, “We’re working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers.”


Mahesh Kumar A/Associated Press
For Facebook, the motivation is clear; as a newly public company, it must find new sources of revenue, and it fears being left behind in mobile, one of the most promising areas for growth.

“Mark is worried that if he doesn’t create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms,” a Facebook employee said.

Facebook is going to great lengths to keep the phone project a secret, specifically not posting job listings on the company’s job Web site, but instead going door-to-door to find the right talent for the project.

But can a company that is wired as a social network learn how to build hardware? Mixing the cultures of hardware and software designers is akin to mixing oil and water. With the rare exception of Apple, other phone makers aren’t very good at this.

The biggest names in consumer electronics have struggled with phone hardware. Hewlett-Packard tried and failed. So did Dell. Sony has never done very well making phones.

“Building isn’t something you can just jump into,” explained Hugo Fiennes, a former Apple hardware manager for the first four iPhones who has since left Apple and is starting a new hardware company, Electric Imp. “You change the smallest thing on a smartphone and you can completely change how all the antennas work. You don’t learn this unless you’ve been doing it for a while.”

He added, “Going into the phone business is incredibly complex.”

Facebook also faces hurdles, often of its own making, on mobile. Twitter, for example, is fully integrated into the Apple iPhone and allows people to seamlessly send Twitter messages with photos or article links. Facebook, which has had a contentious relationship with Apple, is still not integrated into iOS.

One Facebook employee said the phone project had been rebooted several times because Facebook originally thought it could figure out hardware on its own. The company has since learned that it needed to bring in people with phone-making experience, several people said. So it is hiring hardware engineers to work with a phone manufacturer and design the shape, style and inner workings of a Facebook phone.

Despite the difficulties, Facebook seems well positioned in certain ways to enter the smartphone market. It already has an entire operating system complete with messaging, calendar, contacts and video, and an immense app store is on its way with thousands of highly popular apps. There’s also that billion-dollar camera app, in the form of Instagram.

If Facebook fails with its own team of engineers, it could buy a smartphone maker. The company took in $16 billion from its bumpy I.P.O. It could easily scoop up an infirm company like Research in Motion, which is valued at less than $6 billion, and drop a beautifully designed Facebook operating system on top of RIM’s phones. HTC, which is upset with Google for buying Motorola, is worth about $11.8 billion and becoming cheaper by the day.

Facebook would not necessarily challenge Apple if it entered the smartphone marketplace. Instead, it could be Facebook vs. Google, which makes the Android operating system, with both companies going after a huge number of buyers of lower-priced smartphones.

“When you offer an advertising-based phone, you’re targeting all the users on prepay that are budget-conscious of their communications costs,” said Carolina Milanesi, a vice president and analyst for the Gartner Group.

Ms. Milanesi said that at a mass market level, both companies could take the same approach as Amazon, offering low-cost hardware, like the Kindle, and subsidizing some of the costs through advertising.

After all, both Facebook and Google make their money through advertising. If the companies have the opportunity to continually put ads in front of people on a smartphone screen, you would think the only question left would be to pick the right ringtone that makes that ka-ching sound.

Employees of Facebook and several engineers who have been sought out by recruiters there, as well as people briefed on Facebook’s plans, say the company hopes to release its own smartphone by next year. These people spoke only on the condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing their employment or relationships with Facebook.

The company has already hired more than half a dozen former Apple software and hardware engineers who worked on the iPhone, and one who worked on the iPad, the employees and those briefed on the plans said.

This would be Facebook’s third effort at building a smartphone, said one person briefed on the plans and one who was recruited. In 2010, the blog TechCrunch reported that Facebook was working on a smartphone. The project crumbled after the company realized the difficulties involved, according to people who had worked on it. The Web site AllThingsD reported last year that Facebook and HTC had entered a partnership to create a smartphone, code-named “Buffy,” which is still in the works.

37 Tech Shortcuts From the Experts

Fly through your daily tasks with these 37 proven productivity boosters.

Make Your Gmail Work for You


Your time is valuable. On the Gmail team, we work hard to offer a user ex­­perience that won't bog you down. But we also want to share some tips for be­­ing even more productive with Gmail.
Focus on search, not folders: Google was built on search, and we've aimed to bring that same search experience to Gmail. Studies show that users save time when they search for an email instead of categorizing it into a folder. In Gmail, you can quickly find the exact message you want by typing keywords into the search box, or you can rely on the program's search autocomplete to specify the attributes you want (try typing 'from:[sender]' or 'has photos').

Let Gmail do your filing for you: Instead of individually finding and filing messages, try a search in Gmail for a specific type of message (for example, all email messages 'from:craigslist.org'). Then select Filter messages like this from the 'More' drop-down menu to set up a filter that will automatically label, archive, delete, or “star” similar types of incoming messages.

Use Priority Inbox: If you receive a lot of email, use Gmail's Priority Inbox to automatically separate your important mail from the rest, based on various signals. We found that Priority Inbox users spend 43 percent more time reading important messages than unimportant ones, and that they spend 15 percent less time reading email overall than do Gmail users working without Priority Inbox.

Keep your contacts up-to-date: Nothing saps time like having to deal with bounced email messages or waiting for a reply to a message that you sent to an outdated email address. You can ensure that you have the latest and most accurate contact information by taking ad­­vantage of Gmail's new profile integration with Google+, which automatically brings any information that your contacts share with you through Google+ into your Contacts list in Gmail.


Create a Schedule for Your Distractions
Instead of reacting to various notifications--email alerts, incoming instant messages, Twitter messages, and other needy software on your machine--as they arrive, consider dedicating a few half-hour blocks of time during the day to distractions, and leave the rest for focused work. I use this strategy, which I first heard from Gina Trapani, when she was at Lifehacker.
To save time, the first thing I do after setting up a new PC or Mac is to disable all notifications for everything: pop-up windows, audible sounds, bouncing icons­--all of it, for every application, including calendar appointments, email messages, and instant messages. Every time those notifications fire, they pull my attention from whatever I'm working on­--and I can't instantaneously re­­focus my attention on my task.

Facebook Gold Rush: Fanfare vs. Realities

IT’S an old line on Wall Street: If you can get your hands on a hot new stock, you probably don’t want it.
This bit of Street wisdom came to mind last week, as Facebook went public amid so much fanfare.

The stock eked out a 23-cent gain on its Day 1, to $38.23. This suggests that many professional money managers viewed all the hype as just that. Whatever the long-term prospects of this company — an issue over which reasonable people reasonably disagree — the idea that small-time investors might get rich fast struck the pros as absurd.

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How you help Facebook make billions

Every post you "like." Every friend you add or fan page you join. Every place you check in, and every Web page you recommend.
To you, those are ways to enjoy, expand and improve your experience on Facebook. To Facebook, they're the building blocks of a multibillion-dollar company.

In business, there's a well-worn line that could apply to the social-networking behemoth: If you're not paying for it, you're not the customer. You're the product.
In this case, you're a product worth, to Facebook, an average $4.84 a year.
As Facebook hits Wall Street this week with a public stock offering that could value the company at more than $100 billion, investors appear dazzled by the company's uncanny ability to put the right advertisements in front of its roughly 900 million users.

Top 10 reasons not to buy Facebook Explain it to me: IPOs Astonishing rise of Facebook
"The unique thing about these guys is the accuracy with which they can help advertisers and marketers understand who they're getting," said Arvind Bhatia, an analyst with Sterne Agee Financial Services. "On Facebook, your information is authentic; they are able to basically make the ads, and your experience, more relevant. I think that is unique. It's unprecedented and the reach is unparalleled."

HTC One X, Evo 4G LTE Denied U.S. Entry Over Patent Dispute

U.S. Customs is holding up imports of HTC's One X and Evo 4G LTE Android phones because of HTC's ongoing legal battle with Apple. “U.S. availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC (International Trade Commission) exclusion order,” an HTC official told PCWorld. “We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval.”

AT&T began selling the One X on May 6 for $199, but Amazon Wireless is currently offering the device for $129. AT&T currently lists the One X as out of stock. The Evo 4G LTE was set to go on sale through Sprint on May 18. It's not clear when the two phones would resume regular sales in the U.S.
The U.S International Trade Commission issued a limited exclusion order against HTC and two of its subsidiaries in December after finding that the company violated some of Apple's patented technology. The ITC's import ban went into effect for new devices on April 19. HTC can until Dec. 19, 2013, import refurbished devices using the disputed technology to fulfill warranty replacements and insurance settlements.
Both the One X and the Evo 4G LTE earned four out of five star reviews from PCWorld. The One X features a 4.7-inch display with 1280-by-720 resolution, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 32GB onboard storage, an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video capture, a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense 4.

The Evo 4G LTE has similar specs to the One X such as a 4.7-inch display with 1280-by-720 resolution (the Evo features In Plane Switching technology), 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, an 8 megapixel camera, and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. The device also has 16GB of onboard storage, a microSDHC slot, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The new addition to HTC's Evo lineup was set to go on sale through Sprint on May 18 but has now reportedly been delayed. Despite its name, the Evo 4G LTE is a 3G phone as Sprint is still building out its LTE network.

Ahead of Facebook I.P.O., a Skeptical Madison Ave.

With Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has created a seemingly perfect home on the Web, one where people feel comfortable chatting with friends, playing games, sharing photos and videos, listening to music and revealing the most intimate details of their lives.

The $100 billion question is whether Facebook will be a perfect home for advertisers, as well.

Facebook, the social networking giant, is on the cusp of an initial public offering that is shaping up to be a success. There has been such an investor frenzy that the company supersized its offering on Wednesday. It now plans to sell nearly 18 percent of the company to the public — up from around 14 percent — in an I.P.O. that could value the company at more than $100 billion.

Despite the overwhelming level of interest, Facebook is facing fresh concerns over its ability to attract enough advertising revenue to justify that stratospheric valuation. On Tuesday, General Motors, the third-largest advertiser in the country, shut down its Facebook budget, about $10 million, saying that those ads were simply not doing enough to sell automobiles.
For Facebook, the loss of $10 million is not a big deal. The company generated $3.7 billion of revenue last year, 85 percent from advertising.

HTC Desire C

HTC Desire C makes it easy to connect and plug into fun. Call or message and note how HTC Sense minimizes navigation for simplicity. Quick social upload means go from picture capture to share effortlessly. Continue the fun with rich, authentic sounds brought to you by Beats Audio.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 10.1: What's Different

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 is now shipping, and PCWorld is running it through our gauntlet of tests to see how it compares with its predecessor. Our full review is forthcoming, but in the meantime, here's a quick look at the Tab 2's performance as compared with the original, nearly year-old Galaxy Tab 10.1.

In short, last year's tablet actually outperformed the new model on some of our tests. Some metrics, such as our Sunspider tests, were effectively identical. Others showed a distinct trend toward sluggish performance by Tab 2 10.1. For example, the Tab 2's cold start-up time was 22 percent longer than the original Tab, 44 seconds to the original's 36 seconds. And its results on our GLBenchmark were mixed -- the Tab 2 slightly outpaced the the original Tab on the Egypt Offscreen and Pro Offscreen tests, but it lagged slightly on Egypt Standard and Egypt Pro Standard.

Microsoft Cloud Survey: Security, Cost Both a Deterrent and an Attraction

Small and midsize businesses that actually use cloud services see them as a way to boost security and save money, according to a survey sponsored by Microsoft.

The same survey finds similar-size businesses not using cloud services worry they might not be secure enough and that the costs of transitioning to them might be a hurdle.

The goal of the survey was to find out the expectations small and midsize businesses had for cloud services and how that compared to the reality experienced by companies that are already using cloud services, says Tim Rains, director of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing.

The upside for security is that cloud services on average cuts 18 hours per week from security management time, the survey says, because much of it is handled by the provider, Rains says. "It doesn't eliminate the need for patch management on-premise, but there's less of it to manage," he says.

IPhone 5 With A Keyboard And Screen Holograms

If you follow the development of the iPhone 5, you must have found so many concept renderings created the iPhone 5. But have you ever seen the concept in a video format that impressive?

This video was created by Aatma Studio, a 3D animation studio and digital content shop located in San Francisco. The concept presented by Aatma Studio is an integration of pico projection holographic screen for the keyboard and the iPhone the future.

Display a virtual keyboard is projected onto the surface by touching the screen. Projection keyboard has a size that can be adjusted for user comfort, the way only with pinch-to-zoom directly to the surface of the projection keyboard. The sensor can detect the key strokes as the combination of light and shadow.

In addition, Aatma Studio also displays the holographic screen on their concept. While Apple filed a patent for pico projection systems and their iPad iPhone, as well as features that can read and react to movement in front of the projected silhouette. Well.. but you must remember that this is just a concept

The New iPad: 4G No More (Sort Of)

Apple has stopped calling the new iPad "4G-capable" after regulators cracked down on its U.S.-only capability to connect to high-speed LTE networks. Although it is still listed as being "4G LTE capable," the new iPad is now called "Wi-Fi + Cellular" instead of "Wi-Fi + 4G" in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, and several parts of Asia.

The new iPad featured 4G LTE connectivity from day one, but the catch is that it was only compatible with the high-speed networks in the U.S., namely AT&T and Verizon. Elsewhere, cellular connectivity was achieved through 3G data networks, including HSPA and HSPA+, which some carriers still labeled as 4G.

Apple's labeling drew criticism from regulators in Australia because its advertisements misled regarding the device's 4G connectivity, and Apple also got complaints from customers in Europe.


In Australia, Apple had to e-mail customers about the tablet's incompatibility with country’s carrier and offer a refund. In the U.K., the country’s Advertising Standards Authority threatened Apple with a marketing ban because carriers there are still debating over the implementation of 4G LTE.

Following the backlash to the new iPad’s 4G claim, it’s no surprise that Apple decided to quietly change the term to "cellular" to appease critics. Now, when you go to Apple’s page to buy an iPad, in the U.S. and several other countries, you won’t see the option to get a "new iPad Wi-Fi + 4G," but "Wi-Fi + Cellular" instead. Outside the U.S. the references to "4G connectivity" in the features description pages have been removed as well.


Meanwhile, while Apple preferred the term "cellular" to replace "4G LTE connectivity" outside the U.S., the name of the "iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G" remains unchanged. It’s still unclear whether the "4G" will be removed from the packaging of the new iPad as well, but it looks like Apple is making the change across the board now.

Windows 8 Upgrade Offer Might Not Be Free

Microsoft might not offer free Windows 8 upgrades to customers who buy new PCs in the months before the new operating system launches.

Instead, Microsoft will charge a fee for the so-called "Windows 8 Offer," according to Mary Jo Foley at CNet. Foley's sources claim that anyone who buys a new Windows 7 PC after June 2 will get a discounted upgrade to Windows 8 Pro. So far there's no word on how much the upgrade will cost.


In the past, Microsoft and PC makers have offered free upgrades to prevent sales from dropping off before the new version of Windows comes out. Customers were able to upgrade to the corresponding version of Windows. For example, PCs running Windows Vista Ultimate could get an upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate.

Why does Siri Say Nokia Lumia 900 best?

You would think Apple’s virtual assistant Siri knows who pays its bills. Apparently not--when asked, Siri says the best smartphone ever is Nokia’s Lumia 900.

What caused this apparent oversight? Siri uses Wolfram Alpha, which answers questions based on sets of data maintained by the company’s researchers. When it comes to smartphones, somebody at the company must be asleep at the wheel. Lumia 900‘s high rating is based on just five reviews of the device, all of which give the phone five stars.

Wolfram’s list of smartphone reviews boggles the mind in what it calls “the best smartphones,” though: HP’s TouchPad tablet comes in third (it’s not even a phone!) behind the absolutely stunning LG 500G on Tracfone. Nokia’s Lumia 710 gets high praise, as well as Samsung’s Illusion and Focus S.

Excuse this moment of PCWorld pride, but take a look at our reviews. We gave the Lumia 710 a so-so review, and didn’t even bother to review the prepaid 500G--just look at it and you will understand why. Wolfram Alpha gets the benefit of the doubt on the Lumia 900 and Focus S: PCWorld’s own Ginny Miles had very good things to say about both devices.

Apple's Siri voice recognitionNotably missing are any Apple iPhone models or any Samsung Galaxy S for that matter. So who’s behind this odd list of the best and brightest in smartphones? I peered into Wolfram Alpha’s data source information and found the answer: Best Buy.

Best Buy’s reviews power Wolfram Alpha’s answers to these types of questions when it comes to electronics. Indeed, Best Buy’s page for the Lumia 900 show those same five glowing reviews. Maybe Wolfram Alpha needs to rethink its data sources?

Apple shares a bit of blame for this oversight too. I tried to trip Siri up repeatedly and failed each time. Take this response for example: Ask it what’s the best tablet ever. Siri’s response? “The Apple iPad is the best. And that’s just not my opinion.”

Now that sounds like the Apple we all know and love (or hate).

HP Touts Windows 8 Tablet This Year

Apple, Asus, and Samsung, look out -- HP is again jumping into the tablet fray.
At a conference in Shanghai this week Hewlett-Packard executives have been touting the company’s reentry into the tablet market, this time with models running Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system. That’s according to the Bangkok Post, which quotes HP big shots who say the move capitalizes on the high numbers of consumers investing in tablets and the fact that Windows 8 will let them share and store content online between different devices.

This isn’t HP’s first foray into tablets. If you recall, last summer the company introduced the short-lived TouchPad but by the end of August was already clearing out inventory by drastically reducing the price of its webOS slate. By the end of the year HP announced it would release webOS to the open-source community, following its decision to stop making phones and tablets using the software.

But with Windows 8 on board, HP’s new tablet will likely fare far better than the TouchPad did.

“The concept of a worthy Windows tablet has been a sort of Holy Grail since the launch of the Apple iPad. Windows 8, with its Metro interface, and compatibility with ARM architecture devices has established an expectation that Windows 8 tablets will fill the void Android tablets have been unable to, and provide some worthwhile competition for Apple -- especially in the business market,” writes PCWorld’s Tony Bradley.

A recent survey by ChangeWave Research finds that nearly one-third of the companies expecting to buy tablets in the next few months are using them as replacements for PCs for at least some users. Not only that, the number of people using tablets for work is increasing, with 22 percent of the businesses surveyed expecting to buy a tablet soon.

Will the Windows 8 tablet put a dent in iPad sales? Clearly nobody is taking down Apple anytime soon, but if the price is right HP’s new offering, which is expected in the third quarter of this year, could very well be a popular alternative.  In the very least, the space is about to get a lot more interesting.

The Education of Mark Zuckerberg

His audience this Monday morning, a Who’s Who of Wall Street heavy-hitters, with untold billions to command, shifts in its seats. Papers rustle. BlackBerrys buzz. Cue Mr. Zuckerberg and —
Wait: where the heck is Zuck?

Mr. Zuckerberg, the hoodied man-child of Facebook, is stuck in the men’s room. Apparently, the suits can wait.

Up on the stage, Sheryl K. Sandberg, Mr. Zuckerberg’s No. 2 and the polished, corporate yin to his nerdy, coder yang, vamps a little: You know Zuck, she shrugs. And the money types laugh: yes, we know Zuck.

It’s May 7, a week before Mr. Zuckerberg’s 28th birthday. And, as Wall Street, Silicon Valley and the wider world all know, something big is coming. It is the deal that will either prove once and for all that Facebook is changing just about everything, everywhere, or that the mania over social media and this company, its apotheosis, is spiraling out of control.

Inside a ballroom at the Sheraton New York in Midtown Manhattan, Facebook’s executives, spinmeisters and bankers are choreographing its initial public stock offering. This is no mere I.P.O. It feels like a cultural event, a pinnacle in the history of tech, a moment. The deep pockets have arrived at the Sheraton for a multibillion-dollar sales pitch. If all goes well, Facebook will go public on Friday in an I.P.O. that could value it at nearly $100 billion.

Microsoft Bing Social vs. Google Search Plus Your World: Showdown

The battle between Bing and Google is getting personal, with both search engines fighting to become more socially connected. Microsoft recently added social features to Bing in response to Google's January rollout of Search Plus Your World (SPYW). Both forays into social integration try to bring your friends and connections into your searches to help uncover references you might not find otherwise.

But Bing and Google are taking different routes to incorporate social features into search. Google is going heavy on Google+ and blending social content right into its results, while Bing says it wants to keep search results "pure" and cordon off its Facebook-focused social features to the sidebar.

PCWorld's comprehensive review of Bing's social additions is coming soon, but until then here's a feature showdown between Google's SPYW and Bing's social features (BSF).

Bing's new lookGoogle's SPYW results are broken down into three columns. On the far left, you have Google's navigation column for modifying search results into as image searches, news searches, and time-specific searches such as data from the past month or year. Google's center column features its regular search results along with links and other data pulled from your own posts and your circles on Google+. To the right of Google's main search results is a space to show Google+ content, such as product pages, popular videos, images, or public posts related to your search.

Technology Industry Seen Growing Fastest in New York

New York City’s budding technology industry is growing rapidly by attracting investors and engineering talent despite spotty access to a reliable broadband network, according to a study released on Wednesday.
The study, “New Tech City,” conducted by the Center for an Urban Future, concluded that the technology industry is growing faster in New York City than anywhere else in America and that the city now trails only Silicon Valley as a hub for the development of new technology companies. The study’s authors, Jonathan Bowles and David Giles, identified 486 technology companies that had been founded in the city since 2007 and determined that the financial crisis and the recession that followed did not slow the industry’s growth.

Mr. Bowles said the technology investors he interviewed agreed that in the last few years, New York had eclipsed the Boston area as the second-leading breeding ground for tech companies in the country. Silicon Valley, around San Jose, Calif., is still by far the dominant center of the industry, but New York was the only place where the number of deals to finance tech start-ups rose between 2007 and 2011, Mr. Bowles said.

Top new apps collection for windows phone

Staff picks
Looking for great apps and games? You've come to the right place. Each month we comb Marketplace for new, trending, and just plain awesome apps. Meet our latest favorites.
Top new apps collection

At Bat 12
Follow your favorite MLB team, wherever you go—every pitch from every at bat, all season long.

Romplr Remix
Mix your way into the charts with this hot music remix app.

SportStream Baseball
The very latest in news and stats from thousands of sources across the web.

NBA Game Time Lite
Get scores, schedules, and standings for the final games of the 2011-2012 NBA season.

WeatherBug
Be prepared with real-time, customized weather information from the largest global weather network.

Vimeo
Upload, manage, and watch videos from anywhere using your Windows Phone.
Social apps collection

Skype
Talk to friends, family, and colleagues anywhere in the world and see them as if they're in the same room.

Facebook
Stay connected to friends with the official Facebook app for Windows Phone.

rowi
An easy-to-use Twitter app with a clean, simple design.

4G iPhone 5 Will Be Immediate Hit, PCWorld Study Suggests

Large numbers of people plan to buy or upgrade to the forthcoming 4G iPhone, many of them citing the new LTE wireless technology in the phone as a main reason.
If the results of a new PCWorld/Macworld survey are any guide, the forthcoming iPhone 5 with LTE is going to be a big hit.

Large numbers of people plan to buy or upgrade to the first 4G iPhone, many of them citing the new LTE wireless technology as a main reason, the survey suggests.

Of the Macworld readers asked, 70 percent say they will buy the new device, with 48 percent of those people saying they will preorder it. Far fewer PCWorld readers--15 percent--are already sold on the device. But almost 40 percent of mobile users who read neither PCWorld nor Macworld say they too will buy the iPhone 5.

The PCWorld/Macworld survey was conducted in March among a group of 1248 survey takers: 592 PCWorld readers, 271 Macworld readers, and a panel of 385 smartphone users who read neither publication.

Microsoft Mute on Nook App's Bundling With Windows 8

Microsoft on Monday declined to say whether Barnes and Noble's Nook app for Metro will be embedded into Windows 8 or Windows RT.
Earlier in the day, Microsoft announced it was investing $300 million to acquire a 17.6% stake in a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary that will include the bookseller's digital Nook and College business. Microsoft also guaranteed Barnes & Noble additional payments of $305 million over the next five years.

As part of the deal, Barnes & Noble will develop a Metro app for the Nook to run on Windows 8 and Windows RT.

What Microsoft didn't say was whether the app would be bundled with Windows 8 or Windows RT, or would be offered -- along with scores of other third-party apps -- as an optional download from the Windows Store.

Microsoft Fixes Critical Flaws with Patch Tuesday Updates

Microsoft released a total of seven new security bulletins for May’s Patch Tuesday. Four are rated as Important, and the other three are Critical, but two in particular are getting the most attention: MS12-034 and MS12-029.
MS12-034 fixes 10 separate vulnerabilities spanning a range of Microsoft products including Windows, Office, .NET Framework, and Silverlight. It’s unusual for Microsoft to lump so many products together in a single security bulletin or patch.
Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of Qualys, provides some background to explain the unusual patch in a blog post. MS12-034 is the result of an effort by Microsoft to seek out other products using the same flawed code exploited by Duqu. This patch knocks out all of the other instances, and addresses a variety of other security issues in the affected products at the same time.

Samsung Focus 2: First Impressions of a $50 Windows Phone

AT&T and Samsung Monday showcased the latest Windows Phone, the Samsung Focus 2, in an old colonial mansion in New Orleans’ Garden District during CTIA 2012.

But you don’t have to be a part of the upper crust to own this phone: The Focus 2 will be $50 with a new two-year contract with AT&T. The smartphone will be available starting on May 20.

samsung focus 2

3G/4G Performance Map: Data Speeds for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon

See our neighborhood-by-neighborhood test results for 127 locations in 13 cities. Click the map for raw speeds, as well as Web page and video load times.




In our April 16 article "3G and 4G Wireless Speed Showdown," we reported the results of our exclusive 13-city tests of the four national wireless services: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Our study is the largest and best-known independent test of wireless service in the United States.

Here, in Part Two of our story, we drill deeper into the massive amounts of data that we collected over six weeks in February and March of this year. Whereas the first article reported the 13-city average speeds of the carriers, in this story we detail the carriers' performance in each of the ten testing locations we visited in each city.

Amazon Leaps Into High End of the Fashion Pool

 Amazon is so serious about its next big thing that it hired three women to do nothing but try on size 8 shoes for its Web reviews. Full time.
The online retailer is shooting 3,000 fashion images a day in a photo studio using patent-pending technology.

And it is happily losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year on free shipping — and, on apparel, even free returns — to keep its shoppers coming back.

The Best Apps, Although a Thinner Selection, for Windows 7

Some people make it a big deal that Apple has 425,000 apps and Android has, by some counts, 250,000.
But would you want a television with 400,000 channels or just 100 great ones?

The Windows Phone 7 platform has “only” 25,000 apps, and that number will quickly grow once Nokia, one of the most popular handset makers, starts producing devices for the platform later this year. Already, though, the phones are good, if you mix in the right apps.

Before I get to my own list, a note or two is in order. The devices come loaded with a mobile version of Microsoft Office, which lets you open and, in some cases, edit Office files. That saves you one big app-related shopping task.

iPad Mini Draws Strong Consumer Interest

More than half (52 percent) of consumers would consider purchasing a hypothetical iPad "Mini" this year if it were priced between $249 and $300, according to a survey released Friday by online comparison shopping site PriceGrabber.com.

Of the more than 2600 consumers participating in the survey, only 22 percent already own a tablet.

From the survey results, the greatest attraction of an iPad Mini would be price, something Apple showed some sensitivity to when it decided to keep the iPad 2 in the market at $399 when it introduced the third generation iPad earlier this year. That move was seen by some as a concession to the market's desire for lower priced tablets as evidenced by the runaway sales of Amazon's Kindle Fire slate during the holiday season.

Samsung Galaxy S III: Battle of the Big Displays

Samsung one-upped itself and gave the Galaxy S III one of the biggest displays available for smartphones. It's the latest example of a trend by iPhone competitors to push larger screen sizes to differentiate themselves. The first Galaxy S phone had a 4-inch screen, and Samsung moved up to 4.3-inch on the SII. The S III, with its 4.8-inch screen, or the HTC One X's 4.7 inches, dwarf the iPhone, which has had a a 3.5-inch since 2007.

With Android phones getting bigger every year, how big can they get until they are simply too big to use as phones? Many people already find 4.3-inch displays too big to operate with one hand, and the "bigger is better" philosophy could bite back at Samsung and other iPhone competitors. At this rate, next year we could see a display larger than 5-inch (similar to the Galaxy Note), which will be big enough to cover your face while you’re on the phone. If this trend continues, you could be sporting a 7-inch tablet as a phone soon.

The Samsung Galaxy S III is only outbid in the screen size department by the Galaxy Note, whose 5.3-inch display is the biggest on a smartphone so far. Even Samsung’s own advertising campaign is unsure whether the Note is a phone or tablet, but Samsung clearly markets the S III (and its 4.8-inch display) as a smartphone.

CTIA 2012 Preview: New Phones, More Debate Over Spectrum

CTIA 2012, the big U.S. mobile phone and tablet show, kicks off Monday. Will a few very hot LTE phones make their debut?
CTIA 2012 kicks off next week in the Big Easy, and PCWorld will be at the show to bring you all the latest mobile news from New Orleans.

Unlike Mobile World Congress (MWC) or even the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), CTIA is more of a U.S.-focused gathering for the wireless industry. Here's what we know so far.
With a lack of press conferences from the major handset makers, we're unlikely to see any flagship phones launching at CTIA this year. Samsung just announced its Galaxy S III phone, after all. We probably won’t encounter U.S.-branded Galaxy S III phones quite yet; those are expected to debut this summer, but no exact dates have been given.

A clutch of interesting HTC phones, such as the HTC One X and the HTC Titan II, have already come out this year, but you can expect even more from the Taiwanese handset maker.

Samsung Galaxy S III FAQ: Everything You Need to Know

After all of the rumors and speculation, the Samsung Galaxy S III is finally here but you probably have a few questions about this new Android phone.

Samsung is the master of flash and flare at its press conferences, but we’re here to help you get to the nitty gritty of why you should care about this phone. The Galaxy S III will go on sale in Europe on May 23. No official word yet on a U.S. launch, but it could come this summer.



Can the S III Really Follow Your Every Move?
The Samsung S III really wants to be your new best friend--your new psychic best friend. According to Samsung’s somewhat creepy commercial (shown below), the S III “follows your every move.” Scared yet?
In reality, the Samsung S III can do things like predict when you want the screen awake by using the front-facing camera to monitor your eyes. If you’re watching a movie on your phone and happen to fall asleep, the phone’s display will turn off.

Microsoft to Retire Windows Live Brand Ahead of Windows 8 Launch

Microsoft will retire the Windows Live brand as it gets ready to release what it describes as a more connected set of online consumer services with the launch of its Windows 8 operating system.
Its vision for a set of tightly woven services and desktop applications that Microsoft outlined when it unveiled Windows Live in 2005 hasn't been fully realized, the company said on Wednesday.

Right now, services like its Hotmail webmail service, SkyDrive storage service and Messenger IM service aren't as closely meshed as they should be with Windows Live desktop software like Photo Gallery and Movie Maker, nor with the Windows Live ID account service, Microsoft said in a blog post.
The Desktop Is in the Way?

The problem lies with Windows desktop operating systems, which so far haven't been designed to fully interact with cloud services. Microsoft expects that situation to change with Windows 8, which is being designed to work not just with desktop and laptop PCs but also tablets and other devices. For example, Windows 8 features a new user interface called Metro, which uses a tile design and is optimized for touch interfaces.

Microsoft Detects New Malware Targeting Apple Computers

Microsoft has detected a new piece of malware targeting Apple OS X computers that exploits a vulnerability in the Office productivity suite patched nearly three years ago.
The malware is not widespread, wrote Jeong Wook Oh of Microsoft's Malware Protection Center. But it does show that hackers pay attention if it's found people do not apply patches as those fixes are released, putting their computers at a higher risk of becoming infected.

"Exploiting Mac OS X is not much different from other operating systems," Oh wrote. "Even though Mac OS X has introduced many mitigation technologies to reduce risk, your protection against security vulnerabilities has a direct correlation with updating installed applications."

The security update that Microsoft released in June 2009, MS09-027, addressed two vulnerabilities that could be used by an attacker to gain remote control over a machine and run other code. Both vulnerabilities could be exploited with a specially-crafted Word document.

Consumerization Trend Driving IT Shops 'Crazy,' Gartner Analyst Says

IT managers who grapple with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies can expect to see an explosion of different smartphones and tablets used by their workers in the next few years.
As a result, IT shops won't be able to keep up with the support demands needed to protect company data used on the various devices, said Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney in a recent interview.

"The number of devices coming in the next few years will outstrip IT's ability to keep the enterprise secure," he said. "IT can't handle all these devices. They're going crazy. They get into fights on whether users should get upgrades or not."

Facebook IPO roadshow scheduled for May 7: source

SAN FRANCISCO, May 1, 2012 (Reuters) — The roadshow for Facebook Inc's initial public offering is scheduled to start on Monday, meaning the company's shares should begin trading on May 18, a source familiar with the process said on Tuesday.
Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has mostly operated in the background during Facebook's journey to public markets, will be involved in the roadshow, another source said.

IPO roadshows, in which company management present their strategy to prospective investors, typically last two weeks. If the roadshow goes particularly well, shares sometimes start trading a few days earlier.

A source familiar with the offering said last week that a recent acquisition spurt by the largest social network could have added about a week to the IPO timetable as regulators signed off on the deals.

However, this review is close to completion, allowing the company to go ahead with the roadshow on Monday, the source added. The sources did not want to be identified because they are not authorized to speak about the company's IPO.

Facebook is set to raise at least $5 billion in what will likely be the largest Silicon Valley IPO ever.

"I have not seen as broad-based interest in an IPO since Google. Investor demand is immense," said Scott Sweet of research firm IPO Boutique. "I expect a roadshow that will rival all roadshows where investors will be turned away at the door."

Windows Phone's Secret Weapon: iPhone Carriers

Analysis: Microsoft may be gaining a powerful set of partners to help Windows 8 become a success -- AT&T and Verizon Wireless, who need leverage against Apple's onerous demands.

Microsoft may be gaining a powerful set of partners to help Windows 8 become a success -- AT&T and Verizon Wireless, who need leverage against Apple's onerous demands for subsidies for every iPhone the carriers sell.

Computerworld reports that AT&T and Verizon are both eyeing Windows Phone as the smartphone platform they can promote to push back against Apple demands for high subsidies and royalties. (See also "Smartphone Face-Off: Seven Phones Put to the Test.").

Yankee Group analyst Katie Lewis wrote in her blogthat one reason that one reason that carriers including AT&T and Verizon are backing Windows Phone is that

"Mobile operators are sick of taking orders from Apple...iPhones are occupying an increasingly dangerous share of mobile operators' smartphone sales. In 2011, iPhones represented half of AT&T's smartphone sales, and now that Verizon has recently voiced a similar shift in sales, the companies' fears of an Apple takeover are growing stronger."

The Greatest PC Mysteries--Solved

PC owners know that every computer has a unique assortment of components, applications and peripherals. Nevertheless, certain things--including a host of common PC problems and mysteries--are part of the shared experience of computer ownership. The editors at PCWorld have seen and solved hundreds of PC mysteries, ranging from balky printers to diffident video players to persnickety file attachments. Most of the answers to these tech questions are simple and straightforward, so we've taken the liberty of compiling some of the most frequently encountered PC mysteries into a single list that we'll update regularly. Following each question we provide a short response that summarizes what we know. For a more detailed explanation and some helpful tips, click the links in each answer.


Why is [Program X] always running when I start my PC?
Windows maintains a list of programs that automatically run every time you boot up your computer. Some of these startup programs (such as antivirus utilities) are beneficial, but many of them are not necessary and can slow your PC as they run automatically in the background. Speed up your boot time by disabling Windows startup programs.

Why does my PC keep making a grinding sound?
This can happen for a lot of reasons--and unfortunately almost all of them are bad news. The most likely answer is that a fan or hard drive in your PC is starting to die, causing it to spin off-kilter. PCWorld contributing editor Lincoln Spector wrote a smart guide to pinpointing the source of a grinding-sound problem in this Answer Line column. No matter what the cause turns out to be, you should immediately back up your hard drive, just in case.

Microsoft Issues Swift Fix for Hotmail Bug

Microsoft has fixed a flaw in Hotmail's password reset system that allowed hackers to take control of webmail accounts.

The vulnerability existed in Hotmail's password reset feature. Hackers were able to use a Firefox add-on called Tamper Data to intercept the outgoing HTTP request following a password reset request and modify the data, locking out the account holder and gaining access to their inbox.

Windows Phone 8 Preview

How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes

 Apple, the world’s most profitable technology company, doesn’t design iPhones here. It doesn’t run AppleCare customer service from this city. And it doesn’t manufacture MacBooks or iPads anywhere nearby.

Yet, with a handful of employees in a small office here in Reno, Apple has done something central to its corporate strategy: it has avoided millions of dollars in taxes in California and 20 other states.

Apple’s headquarters are in Cupertino, Calif. By putting an office in Reno, just 200 miles away, to collect and invest the company’s profits, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains.

U.S. Antitrust Move Has Google Fighting on Two Fronts

The European Commission has been looking for two years into whether the search giant abused local competition laws, and it is expected soon to either file formal charges or achieve a significant settlement.

Now the Federal Trade Commission, which began examining Google last year, is starting its own antitrust inquiry. The commission hired a former federal prosecutor this week to lead any potential case.

“The European Commission and the F.T.C. are investigating the same things,” said Keith N. Hylton, a Boston University law professor. But, he added, Google faces a tougher situation in Europe, where courts have a lower threshold for assessing market dominance. Also, antitrust regulators in Europe are much more powerful than they are in the United States. For instance, they do not need a court order to impose sanctions.

In Search of Apps for Television

The same consumers who delight in navigating the iPad still click frustratingly through cable channels to find a basketball game. Their complaint: Why can’t television be more like a tablet?
The technology industry is trying to address that question for the millions of customers ready to embrace the next generation of viewing options. In the process it could transform the clunky cable interface, with its thousands of channels and a bricklike remote control, into a series of apps that pop up on the television screen.

While still in its early stages, the idea has taken off among tech-loving consumers, and companies are trying to satisfy them. Already, apps for Hulu Plus, Netflix and Wal-Mart’s Vudu streaming service, among others, are built into Internet-enabled televisions. Devices like Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and the streaming video player Roku let viewers watch apps that mimic channels. New sets by Samsung and others come with built-in apps loaded with television shows, movies and sports.

10 Ways to Boost Your Smartphone's Battery Life

For all of their power and versatility, smartphones--even the best of them--are cursed with abysmal battery life. Unless you use your phone very sparingly (and who does that?), you're lucky to make it home at the end of the day with enough juice left in the battery for one more call. But with the right apps and a little insight, you can double your smartphone's battery life--and work (and play) longer than ever before.

Though some phones live a little longer than others on a single charge, all smartphones suffer from the same basic problem: They do too much. Any 3.7-volt battery small enough to fit into your phone's tiny chassis stands no chance of lasting multiple days under a steady workload of running apps, browsing the Web, sending e-mail, and doing whatever else phones are expected to do. (Oh yeah, making calls.)

The author's HTC Thunderbolt is lucky to survive an entire business day on one charge. But with the tricks in this article, he manages to get home at night with a little juice left in the battery.
Most smartphone batteries today are rated at around 5 watt-hours, meaning that they can deliver a constant charge of 1 watt to the device over a period of 5 hours. If your phone actually uses 1 watt per hour, and you pull it off the charger at 7:00 a.m., you can expect it to be dead by lunchtime. So the key to increasing your phone's battery life is to reduce the amount of power the handset uses per hour.

U.S. Escalates Google Case by Hiring Noted Outside Lawyer

Federal regulators escalated their antitrust investigation of Google on Thursday by hiring a prominent litigator, sending a strong signal that they are prepared to take the Internet giant to court.
Related

The Federal Trade Commission is examining Google’s immensely powerful and lucrative search technology, which directs users to hundreds of millions of online and offline destinations every day. The case has the potential to be the biggest showdown between regulators and Silicon Valley since the government took on Microsoft 14 years ago.

Amazon’s Earnings Decline 35% but Top Forecasts

SEATTLE — Investors in many other companies might panic upon hearing of a 35 percent drop in net income. When Amazon.com reported those results on Thursday, its shares went up almost 15 percent in after-hours trading.
Enlarge This Image

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, puts investing in company initiatives ahead of profit. 

That is because Amazon, despite the slip in profit, still managed to exceed Wall Street expectations Thursday for the first quarter ended March 31. The Internet retailer, which is based in Seattle, reported net income of $130 million, or 28 cents a share, compared with $201 million, or 44 cents a share, in the same period a year ago — a decline, but not as much as analysts feared.

Windows 8 Release Preview Set for Early June

The latest pre-release version of the Windows 8 operating system will become available during the first week of June, a Microsoft executive said Tuesday in Tokyo.

The Windows 8 "Release Preview" will be the most complete version to date of the upcoming version of the operating system, said Steven Sinofsky, President of Windows and Windows Live Division. He spoke at Microsoft's Windows Developer Days, an event to teach developers about Windows 8.

Microsoft has said that Windows 8 will be released this year, with media reports saying it will be launched in October.

June's Release Preview of the OS could possibly be followed by more pre-release versions, according to Microsoft Japan spokesman Masaki Ida. Typically a release candidate is a time-limited version of an operating system that's nearly complete and is shared with the public as a final test.

Microsoft released a Developer Preview of Windows 8 last year, and then a Consumer Preview in February. The latest version had notable performance issues, including with its touch interface.

Windows 8 will come in four official versions: Home, Pro and Enterprise for PCs with x86 processors, and Windows 8 RT for tablets and other devices with ARM processors.

The current version of the OS, Windows 7, was released to the general public in October 2009.

Who owns your files on Google Drive?

Dropbox and Microsoft's SkyDrive allow you to retain your copyright and IP rights to the work you upload to the service, but Google Drive takes everything you own.

Within hours of Google launching its new online storage service, the terms and service have come under heavy fire by the wider community for being able to potentially stifle innovation and harm the users' Google seeks to serve.
After Dropbox and Microsoft's SkyDrive -- the two largest online storage services on the Web -- Google was late to the party by a number of years. While Google needed no advertising to drum up support, what may hold back uptake is that as per the terms and conditions of using the product, the files you upload to the Google Drive product undergoes a rights transition.

Change of Tone Could Help Google in European Antitrust Case

BRUSSELS — For the past two years, Google has worked hard to avoid facing formal antitrust charges in Europe that could mean years of expensive litigation and encourage the authorities in other parts of the world to take comparable action.

Time is running out. The European Commission could bring charges against the U.S. company for abusing its dominance in the search and advertising market in the next few weeks.

But there remains hope for a deal that would spare Google the arduous court orders and huge fines once imposed on Microsoft, another U.S. technology titan that ran afoul of European competition laws more than a decade ago.

That hope is the result, at least in part, of a changed environment in Brussels. The bitter fight with Microsoft taught regulators that long-running cases, even if won, may not result in effective remedies in the fast-moving technology sector.

New E-Book Reader Sheds Light on Every Page

If you intend to buy an e-book reader, here’s a tip: First, spend an evening sitting cross-legged on a lotus leaf, surrounded by incense and sitar music.

Because buying a reader isn’t like buying a car, a DVD player or a hair trimmer. All of those tools are fairly universal. You’re not committing to one brand of gas, one kind of movie or one style of mustache.

No, when you buy an e-reader, you’re committing to that one company’s catalog of books forever, because their book formats are mutually incompatible. You can’t read a Kindle book on a Nook, or a Nook book on a Sony Reader, or a Sony book on an iPad. Once you buy the gadget, you’ve just married its company forever. If you ever want to change brands, you have to give up all the books you’ve ever bought.

What makes this excruciating decision even trickier is that the e-book companies update their wares so often. If you have any doubt, consider the new Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight (or the B&NNSTGL, as people in a hurry call it).

Apple Profit Rises on Higher iPhone and iPad Sales

Not long after the iPhone came out, skeptics questioned how much appeal the costly device and related wireless service would have in countries like China with lower income levels. On Tuesday, Apple provided the answer: A lot.

Closing an iPad sale at Apple’s Fifth Avenue store. Apple sold 11.8 million iPads in the second quarter, doubling sales from the same period a year ago. In all, Apple has sold 67 million iPads.

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Closing an iPad sale at Apple’s Fifth Avenue store. Apple sold 11.8 million iPads in the second quarter, doubling sales from the same period a year ago. In all, Apple has sold 67 million iPads.
The company reported Tuesday that soaring sales of the iPhone, especially in China, helped Apple nearly double its profit in the company’s fiscal second quarter.

Why AT&T and Verizon Are Rooting for Windows Phone

In recent weeks, the two big American carriers, AT&T and Verizon, have been talking big about Microsoft’s Windows Phone software. AT&T has been hurling loads of money at marketing Nokia’s Lumia 900, a smartphone that runs on the Windows phone operating system. And now Verizon, too, has revealed plans to aggressively promote Windows Phone 8, the next version of Microsoft’s software.

Fran Shammo, Verizon’s chief financial officer, said last week that it wants a third big player in mobile software to come into the picture, and the company is going to throw Microsoft a bone.

“We’re really looking at the Windows Phone 8.0 platform because that’s a differentiator,” Mr. Shammo told Reuters after Verizon’s earnings report Thursday. “We’re working with Microsoft on it.” He didn’t say when Windows Phone 8 handsets would be available on Verizon.

Microsoft and Facebook Align Further With Patent Deal

A plan by Facebook to acquire a broad range of patents through a deal with Microsoft is on its surface yet another twist in the battles over intellectual property engulfing the tech business.

But the subtext of the deal is a different story, showing how two of technology’s most powerful players are teaming up to create a greater balance of power on the Internet — a market that has been tilted decisively in favor of one company, Google, for years.

Microsoft and Facebook

“This is almost certainly a move against Google,” said Rebecca Lieb, an analyst at Altimeter Group, a research firm.

The agreement between Microsoft and Facebook, announced on Monday, came less than two weeks after Microsoft agreed to pay more than $1 billion for 925 patents held by AOL. In a second deal, Microsoft said it had turned around and sold 70 percent of those same patents — about 650 in all — to Facebook for $550 million in cash, along with rights to 275 AOL patents Microsoft plans to retain.

HTC Rezound & Windows Phone 8 Launching

Noah K tackles the biggest tech rumors of this week! Our own Mike P is headed to NYC for a trio of phone launches next week - is one of them the HTC Rezound? Nokia just launched Windows Phone Mango devices, so why are they talking about Apollo already? And Logitech is shipping Google TV Revue units with "Upgraded!" stickers on them - but why?

Rumor Roundup is a show taking a look at the latest trends, rumors, and leaks buzzing around the technology industry hosted by Noah Kravitz - a well-known and respected tech editor who's been involved in the industry for years. Not only does Noah deliver the news in full force, but he also provides his analytical thoughts and insight leaving one wondering of what lies ahead in the world of tech.

Lumia 900 smartphone 'free' in Canada after bug found

Canadians who buy the $100 Nokia Lumia 900 smartphone between now and April 21 will get a $100 credit on their Rogers Wireless bill to compensate for a software bug, Nokia confirms.

Nokia Lumia 900

The company announced the deal on Facebook on Wednesday evening, after making a similar offer to U.S. AT & T customers earlier in the day on its "Conversations with Nokia" blog.

The blog post said the company had identified a software issue with the "flagship" device that could "in some cases, lead to a loss of data connectivity" and had decided to take immediate action.

Galaxy Nexus by Samsung Available at Sprint on April 22 for $199.99

Sprint continues its 4G LTE launch momentum with the launch of its first Android™ 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, smartphone with 4G LTE capability, Galaxy Nexus by Samsung.

 Galaxy Nexus will be available in Sprint Stores, Sprint Business Sales, Telesales (1-800-SPRINT1) and Web Sales (www.sprint.com) beginning on Sunday, April 22, for $199.99 (excluding taxes) with a new line of service or eligible upgrade and two-year service agreement. Pre-sale orders begin today at www.sprint.com/nexus. Customers who pre-order Galaxy Nexus will begin receiving their devices as early as Friday, April 20 – two days before the device goes on sale – while supplies last.

Weekend Reading: new LTE smartphones, tablets and awesome infographics

            This week saw warmer weather across the country, with some areas even breaking record highs for the month of March. If you were out enjoying sun-filled patios or walking your dog in a t-shirt mid-March, you may have missed some of this week’s tech news. So to help you out, here’s this week’s list of weekend reading:

Nokia Lumia 900 now available to preorder

Back in February, we told you about the Nokia Lumia 900. This awesome, new device is the first Windows LTE smartphone and it actually won best in show at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The device will be making its exclusive debut at Rogers in the coming weeks but if you’ve been drooling over this one since January, now’s your chance to preorder or reserve it. Just head over to http://www.rogers.com/lumia900.

When 24 Hours Is 23:59 Too Long

THE Haggler’s recent column about PayPal, the online money transfer company, summoned forth a fresh round of “I can’t stand PayPal” e-mail. This one stood out.

When 24 Hours Is 23:59 Too Long

Q. My company is new, and as yet has processed just three transactions using credit cards through PayPal. In all of these cases, the payment has been held up for about 24 hours because the buyer was “unverified.” This has happened even when the credit card was the corporate card of a well-known company. Twenty-four hours may not seem long, but in my case it is critical.

My company sells schedule risk analysis software. It can be downloaded from the Web for a 30-day free trial, at the end of which the user must buy a license key to continue using the software. This key is delivered automatically, by e-mail, within seconds of the purchase — except when this purchase is made through PayPal, in which case it takes 24 hours or more.