Software/news | s1LX

We’re building a mobile site, and we want your input!

// October 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

I’m very pleased to announce the Ars Technica Mobile Crowdsource, brought to you by lotusknows.com !� Over the next two months, we’re going to be putting our collective heads together to design and implement a mobile browsing solution on Ars Technica. Sure, you can already browse Ars using mobile browsers that can handle normal websites, but the experience isn’t necessarily blissful—and certainly is not optimized for mobile browsing in any way.�

Does broadband need its own government "nutrition label"?

// October 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

The government mandates a “Nutrition Facts” label on all packaged food sold in the US. Since 1958, it has required a ” Monroney sticker ” on the window of each new car. Even home appliances come with a yellow “EnergyGuide” tag showing the device’s estimated yearly energy use and cost to operate. But what about broadband?

Apple pushes unwanted enterprise tool to Windows users

// September 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Apple is once again using its updating program that comes with iTunes and QuickTime on Windows to push unwanted software. This time around, the software in question is an iPhone enterprise tool that is more than useless for most consumers. ZDNet spotted the update, though when we asked around we learned it was actually pushed out earlier this month. Nevertheless, we downloaded iTunes and installed it on a Windows 7 machine to see if we could reproduce the annoyance. We could. Apple is, for whatever reason, pushing enterprise software to Windows PC users who use Apple software.

Hands on: iTunes 9 refinements cool, but hard to find

// September 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Earlier this week, Steve Jobs characterized iTunes 9 the “the biggest release of iTunes in a long time.” We naturally grabbed a copy and took it around the block a few times to see if we could verify that claim for ourselves. Though the biggest changes (aside from the Home Sharing feature) are mainly connected to the highly revised iTunes Store, what we discovered is that iTunes 9 has many refinements that are hidden all over the application. Unfortunately, many of these little settings and features aren’t easy to discover, and may be buried in menus you rarely think to check.

Last.fm Scrobbles coming to a radio near you on October 5

// September 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

CBS is taking Last.fm to the HD radio airwaves on October 5, crowdsourced music trends and all. The company revealed in a press conference Thursday that Last.fm will take over CBS’ HD broadcast stations in four major cities across the US—Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco—though listeners in other markets will also be able to tune in via Last.fm’s website as well as CBS Radio. The broadcast, which will be the same in all cities and online, will feature songs from the aggregated music charts from the social music site, effectively bringing the “wisdom of crowds” to the masses via HD radio. Of course, this has the potential to open the doors to nonstop rickrolls as of October 5, but we think it’s safe to assume that there will be some level of oversight to ensure there’s plenty of variety in the music being played.

Deep packet inspection engine goes open source

// September 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Deep packet inspection (DPI) hardware can identify an astonishing array of protocols passing across the Internet—up to and including protocols that are rare even to us in the Orbiting HQ (Gadu-Gadu? Manolito? Feidian?). But if you’ve ever wondered just how this can be done, and done at wire speed, wonder no more: Europe’s leading DPI vendor has open-sourced a version of its traffic detection engine. OpenDPI.org is the new home for ipoque’s open source project; anyone interested can take a look at the code or contribute patches. The goal in this case, though, isn’t so much about crowdsourcing product development but about easing consumer fears about DPI technology.

US tests censorship circumvention tool; Chinese shrug

// August 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Citizens living in China, Vietnam, Iran, and other countries may soon have another option for bypassing Internet filters, courtesy of a US-based agency. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) announced on Friday that it was working on a new system that would use e-mail to carry encrypted data to and from the recipient, including information that would otherwise be blocked. The system, called “feed over e-mail” (FOE), is not yet ready for primetime, but BBG IT head Ken Berman said that it will be tested in China and Iran when it goes into beta. “China is the benchmark, the gold standard, of Internet censorship,” Berman told the AFP . “We try things. The idea is to extend freedom of the Internet, freedom of the press, freedom of inquiry to those that want to know more.”

Is radio suppressing pro-Performance Rights Act artists?

// August 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

There’s a new battle developing in the bitter war over the Performance Rights Act—proposed legislation that would require terrestrial radio stations to pay royalties to the artists whose songs they broadcast. The Federal Communications Commission has agreed to hear comments on reports that radio station owners are “targeting and threatening artists who have spoken out in favor of the PRA,” and some going so far as refusing to play their music. The FCC is responding to a Petition for Declaratory Relief submitted by the MusicFIRST coalition, a group backed by the Recording Industry Association of America, SoundExchange, and various musicians’ groups. In addition to accusing radio stations of “engaging in a pattern of threats and intimidation against artists to chill their speech,” MusicFIRST says they are refusing to run the coalition’s ads. All this is part of a coordinated campaign “designed to spread malicious and untruthful information—all in an effort to avoid royalty payment to artists,” the group warns.

Microsoft and Nokia bringing Office to Symbian next year

// August 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

The world’s largest software maker and the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer are going to join forces in an attempt to bring some desktop productivity applications to the mobile space. As expected , and despite their long-standing competition, Microsoft and Nokia have agreed to an alliance that will bring Microsoft Office and related software on the Symbian mobile operating system. Up until today’s announcement, native versions of mobile Office have been limited to Windows Mobile, making this is the first time that Microsoft is developing Office software for another company’s platform for handheld devices. Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop and Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Devices Kai Öistämö made the announcement via a teleconference call in which they emphasized that both companies are still looking into more ways to collaborate.

Google using billboards to lure IT into Google Apps embrace

// August 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Google has begun a new ad campaign for its enterprise services, but it isn’t your typical Google venture—it’s going oldschool. Starting today and running for the next four weeks in August, Google will be running a series of billboards—yes, real ones—in Boston, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco in order to showcase the benefits of “going Google” for business. The hope is that more business owners will ditch managing their own e-mail, calendaring, and doc sharing solutions in favor of Google Apps—especially now that they’re out of beta. For those who want to see the billboards for themselves, they will be placed along Highway 101 in San Francisco, the West Side Highway in New York, the Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago (and that’s why we haven’t rushed out to go see it yet), and the Mass Pike in Boston. Google says that the billboards will be changed every single weekday for the next month, but you environmentalists in the crowd should worry not—all vinyl used on the billboards will be recycled and turned into either computer bags or shopping bags.

s1LX

Posts Tagged ‘software/news’