iOS 6.1 battery problems may be related to Exchange bug

By Cody Lee on Feb 9, 2013

Yesterday, we reported that Vodafone UK has been sending out text messages to its iPhone 4S subscribers, warning them not to upgrade to iOS 6.1. The update is said to contain a bug that affects the handset’s 3G performance, and subsequently its battery life.

But the issue appears to be more widespread than that. We’ve received a number of comments from readers, that aren’t in the UK and don’t have a 4S, that are seeing similar battery life problems. And it’s been discovered that Exchange might just be the culprit… Read More

 

Skype for iPhone gains emergency call redirection, automatic call recovery

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 7, 2013

Following a Skype for iPad update earlier this week that has enabled automatic dropped call recovery, in-app purchase of Skype credits and a minor UI tweak, the Microsoft-owned VoIP provider has pushed out an update to its iPhone and iPod touch client this morning. Borrowing from the latest iPad build, the iPhone version will now automatically reconnect any dropped call.

More importantly emergency calls now get routed through the native dialer, which is interesting knowing most other VoIP apps don’t support this feature. A few more tidbits and the full changelog follow after the jump… Read More

 

First reviews of Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablet hit the web

By Cody Lee on Feb 6, 2013

After years of sitting on the sidelines, Microsoft entered the modern tablet space late last year with the Surface RT. And although it sparked a lot of initial interest, it failed to translate that into sales, with reports claiming it didn’t fair very well over the holidays.

But alas, the Redmond company has a second shot at greatness with its new Surface Pro tablet. And it too has stirred up quite a bit of commotion, with some pundits deeming it a possible iPad/Macbook Air killer. But will this MS slate actually live up to the hype this time?

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You can now add money to your account directly in Skype for iPad

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 4, 2013

Microsoft-owned Skype has some nice mobile clients on the iPhone and iPad (unlike its fugly Mac app). Though it’s a tad heavy on CPU and battery, Skype on iOS offers excellent voice quality and image clarity in video chats. At least that’s what my experience’s been, your mileage may vary. Today, a new iPad build has surfaced on the App Store with some new nice capabilities worth a mention.

If you use Skype credits to text people and make inexpensive calls, no longer do you need to buy these on the Skype web site as the iPad build now supports adding money in-app, but only if you live in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Sweden or Estonia (more countries to follow soon).

Experiencing poor reception (it’s Skype’s way of letting us know we should buy some credits)? No problem, the new version now automatically reconnects a dropped call. More tidbits right after the break… Read More

 

Kodak completes patent sale to Apple, Google consortium

By Cody Lee on Feb 2, 2013

By now, you’ve all likely heard about Kodak’s patent sale. The one-time photography giant filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy last year, so it was forced to sell off a large chunk of its intellectual property to a consortium of companies to help pay off its debts.

The sale, which included over 1,100 digital imaging patents, was approved earlier this month by Judge Allan Gropper. And this week, Kodak announced that it had completed the deal, and it plans to exit bankruptcy within the next six months… Read More

 

FTC issues app privacy guidelines, proposes ‘Do Not Track’ for mobile

By Ed Sutherland on Feb 1, 2013

A patchwork of online privacy measures should be standardized to form a ‘Do Not Track’ list for mobile app users. In guidelines issued Friday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission says mobile devices such as Apple’s iPhone “facilitate unprecedented amounts of data collection.”

Both devices and app developers should obtain users’ consent before obtaining personal information such as location, photos or contacts. The set of guidelines accompanied Path’s $800,000 settlement with the FTC over grabbing iOS users’ personal address books without their consent… Read More

 

Holiday quarter Surface RT sales barely half the shipments

By Ed Sutherland on Jan 31, 2013

Although Microsoft’s Surface RT is not yet in the bargain bin of tablets, a fire sale could appear any day. That’s the impression from a report that the software giant turned tablet player is selling as few as 55 percent of Surface’s shipped. But wait, there’s more bad news:  A “very high” rate of the Surface RT tablets are being returned to stores.

If true, Microsoft sold between 680,000 and 750,000 of the 1.25 million Surface RT tablets shipped during the fourth quarter of 2012. Little wonder, then that production of the first Surface has likely halted, according to one hardware research firm Thursday… Read More

 

Ballmer dashes Office for iPad hopes (for now)

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 30, 2013

Following up on yesterday’s release of cloud-based Office 365 for Macs and Windows PCs, Microsoft’s energetic CEO Steve Ballmer sat down with Ashlee Vance of Bloomberg Businessweek to talk biz, competition and discuss what’s next for the productivity suite. Office 365, basically a subscription-based offering, shouldn’t be confused with the just released Office 2013 suite.

Despite several credible leaks proving that Microsoft is working on Office for iPad, Ballmer isn’t afraid of an Office-less iPad. Little wonder, considering the Windows maker is keeping a tablet version of Office exclusive to Windows 8 tablets as a crucial advantage over other tablets… Read More

 

Meanwhile, 128GB Surface Pro has only 83GB free storage (23GB on 64GB model)

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 29, 2013

So roughly two out of each three respondents in our poll say the new 128GB iPad 4 is going to be a tough sell when it arrives on February 5.

Some folks say there’s no point in shelling out $929 for a top-of-the-line 128GB cellular iPad when a $70 more buys you an 11-inch MacBook Air.

And even though the entry-level Air has only half as much storage as the new 128GB iPad, it’s a real computer, critics argue.

Comparing apples to oranges doesn’t make sense, but what does is how Microsoft admitted – and on the day Apple announced the new 128GB iPad 4 offering, of all days – that the 128GB Surface Pro has only 83 gigabytes of free storage out of the box.

It ain’t just a serious rounding error: a whopping 45GB is consumed by the Surface OS and bundled apps, Microsoft confirms… Read More

 

Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365 hits Mac and Windows without iOS/Android support

By Ed Sutherland on Jan 29, 2013

Microsoft is at last getting into game, offering its well-known Office suite of products for consumers increasingly turning to the cloud. Office 365 Home Premium provides all the familiar Office applications – including Word, Excel and PowerPoint – along with online storage and a free hour of Skype each month. At $99 per year ($80 for students and educators) the cloud-based application suite will work on up to 5 Macs, PCs and Windows tablets. Five years after Google launched rival Google Docs (now Google Drive), Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer proclaims Office 365 a key component in a “fundamental shift” for the company.

After making billions as a software company, Ballmer is rebranding Microsoft as a devices and services firm, a move some may view as too little and too late for Redmond… Read More

 

Microsoft’s Surface Pro to land on February 9 with $899 price tag

By Cody Lee on Jan 22, 2013

After a bit of a delay, Microsoft today announced launch details for its new Surface Pro tablet. The device will become available for purchase on February 9, and will run $899 for the entry-level 64GB model.

The Pro’s release comes more than three months after its less-capable sibling, the Surface RT. And with reports suggesting that it didn’t do so well over the holidays, Microsoft is hoping the Pro will be a hit… Read More

 

Poll: my next cell phone will be…

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 21, 2013

These days, it’s all but impossible to escape Apple hate speech. You know who to blame: big media. I mean, stock manipulators played even the credulous Wall Street Journal. It’s not just WSJ – or NYT or Reuters, for that matter.

Anti-Apple Forbes hit new lows with clickbait headlines like this one or this one. And as crazypants analysts voice their concern regarding “Apple’s lack of a strategy in the lower-end phone”, they at the same time continue to hallucinate about a happiness or time travel machine from Apple.

And all of them get an assistance from traffic-hungry journalists like Dan Lyons whose write-ups sound bitter and idiotic. But in spite of all that FUD talk, Apple is demolishing Android in every metric that matters. None of this frenzy should matter when considering your next cell phone.

But real life can be a bitch and with so much negative publicity mounting ahead of Apple’s earnings report, no wonder some of the faint-hearted fans are beginning to question their faith in the California firm. I know where my heart stands, but I want to know one thing: do you know where your heart stands? So, what’s your next phone gonna be? Read More

 

Microsoft launches free natural disaster helper app

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 16, 2013

Available now as a free download on Windows Phone, Android and iPhone, HelpBridge is Microsoft’s new mobile app that everybody should have on their handset, just in case. Should you, God forbid, ever find yourself at the epicenter of a large scale natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy, the software will help you connect with those that matter to you most.

As a bonus, you can also use HelpBridge to rally everyone around one cause – that is, donate your money, time and resources to support relief and rebuilding efforts. The above clip shows off the Windows Phone version of HelpBridge, but you get the idea… Read More

 

IllumiRoom from Microsoft Research gives ‘immersive gaming’ a whole new meaning

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 14, 2013

Here’s a killer concept I’d love to have installed in my living room. Courtesy of Microsoft Research comes this enhanced gaming experience that projects images beyond a television set, basically turning your entire living room into a video game. I know this is just a concept, but keep in mind that the popular Kinect motion sensing input device also started out as an idea in Microsoft’s R&D lab.

What you’re seeing in this clip is the real deal – no special effects were added in post processing or anything like that. Microsoft isn’t saying when (or if, for that matter) the IllumiRoom project might get incorporated into a next-gen Xbox with Kinect. For now, it’s just a a proof-of-concept system, but we wouldn’t rule out the possibility of having something akin to this implemented on the Xbox console… Read More

 

Microsoft (barely) sells a million Surface units

By Ed Sutherland on Jan 14, 2013

If you’re Microsoft, January can’t end too soon. The company’s Surface RT is taking a battering from the iPad, selling one million of the tablets during the holidays. According to one Wall Street observer, the consumer-oriented tablet has two strikes against it: being compared to Apple’s product and too little retail exposure.

The one million figure is less than half of the two million units previously forecast by UBS analyst Brent Thill. In December, IHS iSuppli projected Microsoft would sell just 1.3 million units of the Surface RT… Read More

 

PC marketshare to drop to 65% in 2013 as tablets take over

By Ed Sutherland on Jan 12, 2013

The days when PCs ruled the computer market are quickly coming to a close. The familiar battle between PCs and Macs is quickly morphing into an iOS versus Android landscape. As consumers opt for tablets over PCs, shipments of Wintel devices will drop to 65 percent in 2013 amid double-digit tablet growth.

After PC shipments fell 10 percent during the holiday fourth quarter of 2010, the 2013 PC marketshare will drop to 65 percent, down from 72 percent last year, according to researchers at Canalys. The reason: PCs – be they desktops, notebooks, or netbooks – are no longer needed for common computing tasks, such as reading e-mail and browsing the web… Read More

 

Judge green-lights Kodak patent sale to Apple-Google consortium

By Cody Lee on Jan 11, 2013

Last year, Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and came up with a plan to sell off its collection of imaging patents to pay off its debts. It wanted more than $2 billion for the IP, but ended up settling on a $525 million offer from a consortium of companies led by Apple and Google. And today, Bankruptcy Court Judge Allan Gropper has green-lighted the deal… Read More

 

Steve Ballmer crashes CES keynote and other Qualcomm tidbits

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 8, 2013

Though Microsoft passed on this year’s CES keynote, that didn’t stop the company’s boss Steve Ballmer from making his trademark entrance to last night’s keynote by Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs. His running out on stage wasn’t on par with the previous bigger than life entrances and the now famous ‘developers’ chant and was in fact a prearranged surprise, but it’s still kinda noteworthy. Ballmer basically praised Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors that power new Windows 8 and Windows Phone devices. Qualcomm made a number of announcements at the show and the company’s keynote wasn’t short on celebrities…
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AT&T confirms ‘best-ever’ sales of iPhone and Android smartphones

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 8, 2013

Ahead of its earnings call pertaining to calendar 2012 fourth-quarter results scheduled for January 24, carrier AT&T just announced, reporting ‘best-ever’ sales of Apple and Android smartphones. The Dallas, Texas wireless company sold a record ten million smartphones powered by Apple’s and Google’s platform during the holiday quarter of 2012 as Android and iPhone sales hit all-time highs. The figure beats the year-ago quarter when AT&T moved 9.4 million smartphones, 7.6 million of them being iPhones.

The “best-ever quarterly sales of Android and Apple smartphones”, according to AT&T Mobility President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph de la Vega, came down to an average of 110,000 smartphone sales each day. “These are the industry’s most valuable postpaid subscribers with average revenues twice that of non-smartphone subscribers”, he noted… Read More

 

Microsoft actually applauds Windows RT jailbreak

By Cody Lee on Jan 8, 2013

This is kind of interesting. Earlier this week, Microsoft’s new Windows RT was jailbroken for the first time. The operating system was hacked to run unsigned, arm-based desktop applications using a memory exploit.

Surprisingly, the Redmond-based software company commented on the news yesterday, saying that it actually applauded the efforts of those involved in the jailbreak, and all of the work they did to document it… Read More

 
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