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."