iDesk: A Microsoft Surface-Like Alternative for Macs
February 4th, 2012
Anyone who’s seen or who knows about Microsoft Surface understands that the thought of a giant touchscreen tabletop is nothing new. Adam Benton’s iDesk idea is simply the Apple-lover’s version of the same expensive tech that is been obtainable for Windows for some time. Whilst I do think that Surface is really cool, the price tag of these significant touchscreens is nevertheless out of reach for mere mortals (~$ 8,400 USD).
Maybe if the iDesk is ever produced, it will be a lot more affordable than Surface, but I have my doubts. Regardless, operating a multitouch display desk like this sounds fairly sweet, considering that it would be capable of not only operating apps of its own, but offering you with virtual input devices for your laptop and mobile devices, which includes keyboards and touch-input surfaces.
Will Apple ever make some thing like the iDesk? There are surely rumors that the subsequent version of the iMac may have a touchscreen, but that’s not been confirmed. If they do, possibly they’ll be in a position to scale touchscreens successfully larger screens in time, and at some point drive the costs down to make something like this reasonably priced. For now. We just get to appear at a fairly idea.
iPhone photography course on offer for ‘appy snappers
three February 2012 17:36 GMT / By Paul Lamkin
In what is believed to be a UK first, London’s Kensington and Chelsea College is to offer budding photographers a photography course with a twist. For there won’t be any SLR action going on the course, called “iPhoneography” is, you guessed it, centred on teaching fanboys and girls how to take very good pictures with their Apple handsets.
Richard Gray will be taking the course and he says that “all you need to have is a passion for photography and a creative thoughts”.
In Depth: iCloud: the essential guide
Essential iCloud guide: Introduction
Poor old MobileMe. It tried hard, but never quite delivered. Expensive, sometimes slow and saddled with a clumsy name, it has long had the air of an unloved child.
Its development cycle was long and drawn out. And by the time Steve Jobs announced the end of its short and undistinguished life, just two years after its rebirth from the ashes of .Mac, few were inclined to shed any tears.
Yet it wasn’t all bad. The email service was stable and largely dependable. It synced our contacts, so we didn’t need to tap them all in on an iPhone keyboard, and the calendar tool always made sure we turned up on time, wherever we happened to be.
Apple knew this as well as anyone, which is why it chose to preserve those parts, jettisoning the web publishing, photo gallery and iDisk, as it set about building iCloud.
Housed in a vast data centre in North Carolina, iCloud is Apple’s next-generation online service. It syncs your iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod touch. It can track a lost device, copy your iPhone snaps over the web so they’re safely backed up on your Mac, and synchronise your iWork files so that whatever device you’re using, downtime is never wasted time.
Why Desktop Apps Would Be Bad News for Windows 8 Tablets
At Microsoft’s Build conference, Michael Angiulo, corporate vice president of Windows Planning, Hardware and PC Ecosystem, displays a prototype Windows 8 tablet. Photo: Microsoft
Windows 8 represents a huge departure for Microsoft.
First, the platform is slated to run on both x86 processors for PCs, and on ARM chips for tablets. Second, it’s a single OS platform with two distinctly different user interfaces. You’ll be able to divide your time between the touch-optimized Metro, which borrows its look, feel and navigation from the Windows Phone OS, and a traditional Windows 7-like desktop experience.
On desktop PCs, this dual-interface approach shouldn’t be a problem. Metro doesn’t demand many resources. It should run on PCs just fine.
RIM giving away BlackBerry PlayBook
Following slashing the price tag of its ailing BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, RIM might now be giving it away for free to developers.
Announced in a tweet by Alec Saunders, RIM’s vice president of developer relations, the offer needs developers to submit their apps to BlackBerry App Planet, speedy wise.
Those wanting to claim their totally free PlayBook require to submit an app by 13 February to qualify.
The subsequent step is to e-mail [email protected] with the name of the app you have submitted to claim a shiny new BlackBerry tablet.
Where’s the small print?
According to a follow-up post on the BlackBerry Developer’s Blog, there will be some as-however-unspecified terms and conditions, but by the time those have been posted, it’s likely that developers will not have a chance to make confident they meet them.
RIM woos Android developers with free PlayBook tablets
At last month’s Consumer Electronics Show, Research in Motion previewed the company’s upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 update, which we exclusively reported would land in mid-February. The anticipated update will give PlayBook users the ability to use Android apps that have been compiled for RIM’s platform, but getting developers on board remains the issue. RIM is taking steps to get the attention of developers, however, and one of the first is to offer free BlackBerry PlayBook tablets to any Android developers that repackages their apps for App World. The promotion was announced by Alec Saunders, the company’s VP of developer relations, with developers having been given until February 13th to submit their applications.
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Symantec declares pcAnywhere safe, offers free upgrade to say sorry
Just days ago, Symantec revealed that the code stolen from its servers in an embarrassing breach included the source for pcAnywhere. They took to Twitter and the internet to tell users that they must disable the software program quickly. Now, even so, Symantec is issuing the all-clear. Sort of.
Symantec now says that you’re entirely secure. That is as lengthy as you are running pcAnywhere 12.5 and have installed the patch that was released on January 26th of this year, or version 12. or 12.1 with a patch that was supplied up the following day.
To aid allay customers’ fears, Symantec has taken the further step of providing a totally free upgrade to pcAnywhere 12.5 to all licensed users of the software package. As lengthy as you’ve got a legitimate pcAnywhere CD-essential lying about somewhere, you are eligible for the upgrade — and if you are concerned about security, you ought to get in touch with Symantec for your freebie quickly.
Either that, or make the switch to a a lot more up-to-date application. It is been ages given that pcAnywhere was top rated dog and apps like Teamviewer, GoToMyPC, and Mikogo are now consuming Symantec’s remote control lunch.
Acquiring back to the code theft itself, the hacker (who goes by the name of YamaTough) has already released the slightly moldy code for Norton Utilities he snatched, and he’s threatened to post Symantec Antivirus Coroporate code, too. Symantec had stated before that the outdated AV code leak posed no threat its customers because the engine its present versions use bear tiny resemblance.
Google Aims for Better Android Apps With New Google+ Page
If you want a high quantity of good quality apps in your app store, you better make positive your developers have all the tools and information to do the job. Google has recognized this, and is taking extra steps to offer ideas, services and even instruction to Android developers in order to promote the Android Marketplace as a hub for plentiful, high-high quality apps.
The most recent work in this push — which also conveniently highlights one more Google item in need to have of attention — is the addition of a Google+ Android Developer Page, +AndroidDeveloper.
The page will be a hub for development guidelines, as nicely as a place to speak about updates to the Android SDK and other developer tools. It will also be employed to spotlight new Android training classes as they turn out to be available. Google will publish photos and video from Android developer events to the +AndroidDeveloper page, too.
“+Android Developer will concentrate on becoming a place for the individuals behind the Android developer experience, and Android developers all about the globe, to meet and go over the most recent in Android app improvement,” Reto Meier, Android Developer Relations Tech Lead, said in a weblog post.
A single of the most useful features of the new developer page could be the introduction of weekly “office hours” via the Hangouts tool in Google+. Developers will be able to ask concerns of the a variety of Android teams, and delve deep into discussion with other coders. Workplace hour hangouts will originate from Mountain View each Wednesday at 2pm PST, but as Google’s international outposts in London and Tokyo get much more involved, a lot more time zones will turn into obtainable.
