Latest News - Page 3079

Discovery's CEO is not one bit happy with Dish Network's new ad skipping technology in the Hopper DVR. Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav has let Dish Network know that skipping ads could damage the industry as content creators lose one of their revenue streams. As a result, subscription fees would likely skyrocket.

"Charlie Ergen and Dish are a distributor of content," he said. "They need us to reach homes with our content. And if there is not going to be advertising fees, then there needs to be a lot higher subscriber fees." With increasingly expensive shows and production costs, quality content needs to money offered by advertisers to keep subscription costs low.

As of right now, the Hopper DVR's technology only works on broadcast TV, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be used on premium channels such as Discovery. Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt agrees that the technology could easily destroy TV. "The dual stream of advertising and subscription revenue has been great for content creators," he said. "We have more TV than we could have ever imagined. I don't think we want to destroy one of those revenue streams."

We reported a while ago about how when the weekend came Chrome became the most popular browser in the world for a day. Chrome has once again taken the top browser spot, but this time it held onto it for more than a week. At the time of writing, Chrome is still on top albeit a bit less ahead than it was last week.

Last week, Chrome led with 32.76% market share according to StatCounter. During this same week of May 14 to May 20, Internet Explorer managed to grab only 31.94% of the market. This week isn't looking quite as promising as Chrome has dropped to just 31.88% while Internet Explorer has dropped to 31.47% market share.

Back in March, when Chrome overtook IE on the weekend, StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen said, "whether Chrome can take the lead in the browser wars in the long term remains to be seen, however the trend towards Chrome usage at weekends is undeniable. At weekends, when people are free to choose what browser to use, many of them are selecting Chrome in preference to Internet Explorer."

A new service offered by Vodafone is set to allow parents almost full control of a child's phone. From reading text messages to preventing contact additions, this new parental control system will give parents a new tool to snoop into the lives of their children. Is this something that parents really should be able to do?

The new parental control system is developed by Bemilo and will allow parents access to read every text message, set timers for the phone to turn on and off at, and review new contact additions before storing them. Unlike an app, this service will work with any cell phone as it is linked to the SIM card. The service is controlled by a website and will cost £2.95 per month.

Bemilo founder Simon Gaff told The Telegraph: "Unlike an app, Bemilo's SIM will work on any mobile device or tablet, and most importantly cannot be bypassed by the child." But, should parents really be doing this? As someone who had a cell phone from grade 8 on and the ability to remember this fact, I can say that it's probably a bad idea. It seems as though the kids with parents who were overly restrictive were the kids who managed to get themselves into the biggest trouble.

I love me some new hardware. I don't read Chinese the best, if at all, but what I gather from these pictures and a bad Google Translate is that ASUS has released two new motherboards that support Intel's super fast Thunderbolt port. The products in question are the P8Z77-V PREMIUM and P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT and ASUS claims they have been Intel certified.

The boards appear to be ATX standard based and the P8Z77-V PREMIUM features 4 PCIe-x16 slots and 2 PCIe-x1 slots. It also comes with dual Gigabit Ethernet ports. Additionally, it features an mSATA SSD for Smart Response and a front USB 3 expansion module. These boards are both, as the name implies, using the Intel Z77 chipset that was released in conjunction with Ivy Bridge.

The second board, the P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT, sports the same 2 PCIe-x1 slots with only 3 PCIe-x16 expansion ports. It features a single Gigabit Ethernet port and DVI, VGA, and HDMI video connectors. It does not come with an mSATA SSD, nor does it feature a DisplayPort output. Prices are unknown at this time. More as it comes.

Google Docs' days are numbered. Google has pitched Google Drive as a replacement to Google Docs since its release in April. What I, along with many users, didn't realize is that Google will be killing off Docs and transitioning all users to Drive. Drive is currently still opt-in, but it looks like soon users will be opted-in automatically as their Docs account is upgraded to a Drive account.

In fact, Google has started to warn users of just this fact. It seems as though this transition is coming sooner rather than later, and Google's transition documentation supports that saying that "we expect to finish the transition from the Google Documents List to Google Drive by late summer (2012)."

This transition will occur in three phases. Currently, users are in phase one, or the "opt-in phase." From there, users will be allowed to opt-out for a little while longer if they would like more time to transition. Once users are moved onto phase three, everyone will have a Google Drive and Google Docs will no longer exist.

Microsoft's Windows Phone stepped through the doors of China just two months ago, and in that time the Redmond-based company has already secured 7-percent of the smartphone market share.

Apple's iPhone has just 6-percent of the market share in China, which means in two months time, Microsoft are doing quite well for themselves overseas. Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer for the Greater China Region (wouldn't that look good on your resume?), Michel van der Bel, sees the market ghrowing further, saying "we've only just begun".

He notes that the combination of smartphones and Windows PC tablets will boost Microsoft's traction among both Chinese individuals, and businesses. Microsoft do face continued competition from Android, who has an astonishing 69-percent market share in China. Microsoft currently employs 2,500 or so people in its R&D department in China, but Bel says that Microsoft needs to, and will have to invest much more into the country.

Samsung have said that their upcoming flagship quad-core smartphone, the GALAXY S III, will be on sale in Taiwan come June 1. This is 1-2 days later than its European release, but it looks like they will make up for it on pricing.

It looks like Taiwan will be getting the S III for less than what British retailers and carriers are asking. An unlocked, SIM-free GALAXY S III will set you back 20,900 TWD, which is around $708. This is for the 16GB model and an extra 10-percent of so for the 32GB variant.

To compare this to the British retailers, the S III 16GB model will be selling for around £500 (about $800). Another benefit in Taiwan is that the 32GB model is only $67 more expensive, which is strange because the doubled internal storage usually sets one back $90-100 more. But, who can complain at that?

When Aero Glass first arrived with Windows Vista, people were finally impressed with the sleek look of a Microsoft operating system. Windows 7 polished it up a bit, and pushed it even more, but it seems like Microsoft are ready to throw Aero out when Windows 8 arrives.

Microsoft has "moved beyond" the design, and are looking forward to embrace an approach that feels "clean and crisp". Microsoft's development blog has some great thoughts and information on the move, where they say that by "flattening surfaces, removing reflections and scaling back distracting gradients", Windows 8 will provide a simplified experience over its flashier predecessors:

Let's just be honest about it, when you think of high performance solid state drive controllers the Phison name doesn't exactly jump to the top of the list. That isn't going to change anytime soon but Phison isn't looking to take on the SandForce or Marvell's of the world.

Let's break it down like this, 512GB capacity for less than 500 Dollars with 460MB/s read and 315MB/s write speed. Given that most other 512/480GB solutions are currently hovering around the 700 Dollar mark this is something to get excited about.

Then there's the performance. We didn't get a quote from the company or a specifications list but the 460MB/s read and 315MB/s write speeds were from our tests in ATTO with the very first firmware build for the new controller (S8FM0001). A performance firmware is expected to hit our lab in early June, just in time for Computex or at the latest July, just in time for retail.

There's been a lot of news today about Facebook and its IPO and here is another. Facebook has just completed its first acquisition after becoming a publicly traded company. The mobile commerce startup Karma has been acquired by Facebook. Karma specializes in apps for gifting friends and family. The acquisition sees 16 employees joining Facebook.

The terms of the deal are undisclosed as of now. The acquisition should help Facebook monetize its app and mobile offerings, something its admittedly weak in. Facebook said in a statement: "We've been really impressed with the Karma team and all they accomplished in such a short time. This acquisition combines Karma's passion and innovative mobile app with Facebook's platform to help people connect and share in new and meaningful ways."

Karma also posted on its own blog:

BitTorrent may not be all bad for the music industry which is contrary to how they would like to portray it. It seems that piracy could aid album sales, if a new study is to be believed. North Carolina State University assistant professor Robert Hammond examined prerelease albums being BitTorrented and the album sales of said albums.

The investigation netted some interesting results. What he found was that there was a correlation between the two, although it was pretty small. Keep in mind that correlation does not equate to causation. Since this is an observational study rather than an experiment, it's impossible to say with certainty that BitTorrent aids album sales.

It is, however, possible to indicate that they seem to. After watching 1095 albums, Hammond noted "The findings suggest that file sharing of an album benefits its sales. I don't find any evidence of a negative effect in any specification using any instrument." The average increase in sales was around 59.6 albums, so its not a landslide increase.

It looks as though Facebook may have to sell just a bit more stock to pay for a lawsuit that has been filed in San Jose, California Federal Court. While things may be looking great Wall Street, the courtroom picture is a bit more bleak. Stewarts Law US has combined 21 individual lawsuits into one amended class action suit seeking $15 billion.

The previous lawsuits date back to 2011 and allege that Facebook violated user privacy by tracking web usage. The new class action lawsuit alleges that Facebook violated the US Wiretap Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Stored Communications Act, along with others. The US Wiretap Act grants up to $100 a day per violation up to $10,000.

Specifically, the lawsuit makes claims that Facebook tracks users even once they are no longer logged in. "This is not just a damages action, but a groundbreaking digital-privacy rights case that could have wide and significant legal and business implications," David Straite, a Stewarts Law partner told Bloomberg via e-mail.

If you missed out on Microsoft's deal last year, don't fret as they have brought it back again this year. Requirements are similar, though it seems as though Canadian's are getting a slightly better deal than Americans. The promotion? Buy a new PC worth at least some amount at a participating retailer and get a free Xbox360!

Here are the requirements as Microsoft says, so that I won't be held to anything:

Researchers from Rice University in Houston, Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Switzerland's Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) and the University of California, Berkeley have unveiled an "inexact" chip at the ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers in Cagliari, Italy.

The chip is allowed to make mistakes in order to gain speed and energy usage advances. This new "inexact" processor is up to 15 times more efficient than current processors. It can be used in certain applications where 100% accuracy isn't mission critical. Examples of this would be video or picture processing.

"It is exciting to see this technology in a working chip that we can measure and validate for the first time," said project leader Krishna Palem, who also serves as director of the Rice-NTU Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics (ISAID). "Our work since 2003 showed that significant gains were possible, and I am delighted that these working chips have met and even exceeded our expectations."

If you needed any evidence that the Samsung Galaxy S III was a major competitor to the Apple iPhone, why don't you take a look at the pre-sale numbers. Already the Samsung Galaxy S III has passed 9 million pre-orders, according to an unidentified Samsung official. Towards the end of last month, Samsung had said that the Galaxy S III would "substantially contribute" to Q2 earnings.

Also, it has been leaked that the factory is operating at full capacity, producing as many phones as possible. The number seems to be 5 million a month, so I'm not sure if that will be able to keep up with global demand once the phone becomes available in more places. Currently, Germany is set to be the first to get it on May 29. Afterwards, it will expand to 100 different global carriers.

Samsung has of course declined to comment on these numbers. This year has the makings to be a great year for Samsung. It has recently passed Nokia as top phone manufacturer and looks set to grab even more market share than the 18.4% it did from Q1 2011 to Q1 2012. I know I'm looking forward to getting the new Galaxy.

Nearly a year ago, EA Games President, Frank Gibeau, teased that EA were "actively looking at how to bring [Mirror's Edge] back in the right way", this was in a discussion with GameTrailers. But, now there's some more concrete, well, kinda, information available on this news.

GamerZines reports that judging from two former EA employee's LinkedIn profiles tease they've worked on a Mirror's Edge sequel. According to GamerZines, the profile of an ex-EA Software Engineer has said that he's worked on Mirror's Edge 2 between July and August of 2009, where he was implementing "the wandering of crowd system within Unreal3 engine".

Another ex-employee had a different task, where was implementing "new gadgets and interactive features" into Mirror's Edge 2, including "leaderboards" and a mini-game embedded into Mirror's Edge game story". If development started on Unreal Engine 3, EA must've switches engines mid-development to Frostbite 2, the engine that powers the beautiful first-person shooter that is Battlefield 3.

The Steam remote library management was only in beta for a little while, and has broken out of the beta and into full availability. Now you can lay in your bed, or on the bus or train and manage your library directly from your iOS- or Android-based device.

If you've got the Steam app for iOS or Android, you can start a download remotely, complete online purchases, and more. Here's what Valve have to say about it:

Bloomberg has reported that the late Steve Jobs was involved with the design work for the next-generation iPhone. The new iPhone is said to feature a larger display, somewhere in the 4-inch area. We reported on this yesterday, but now news is hitting that Steve Jobs was personally involved.

I do have a problem with this, of course media outlets are going to push Steve Jobs was involved in the design. It's great PR for everyone involved. I'm not one to dig on a dead man, but they'll continue to push 'Steve Jobs inspired' for years to come. If we remember, Steve Jobs didn't like the idea of a bigger screen on the iPhone. It would mean fragmented design not just for iOS, but for apps to cater to various iPhones with varying screen sizes and resolutions.

I think we're going to see Apple change, especially with the iPhone, because of increasing competition from Google-based devices. Steve Jobs' passing will of course always be remembered, as will the visionary himself. I expect the iPhone to take on changes in the coming year, the same with iOS. Apple are one of the biggest for back peddling, and we're seeing this now with the news of a larger iPhone screen.

VideoCardz.com is reporting that NVIDIA is set to launch their flagship mobile GPU based on the Kepler architecture during Computex in Taipei next month. The NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680M is not a full GK104 Kepler GPU, nor does it even sport half of the CUDA cores of its desktop version.

The GEFORCE GTX 680M features just 744 CUDA cores, with some listings showing the GPU to have 768 cores, so this should be confirmed during Computex itself. Are you wearing socks? You mighr want to take them off in advance so they don't get blown off: the GPU has much higher GDDR5 memory capacity of.. 4096MB! 4GB of RAM on a notebook-based GPU!

It shares the desktop model's memory interface of 256-bit, and rumors swirling around put its power consumption at 100W. The chip is a second revision of N13E-GTX 680M chip - A2 silicon. The card will support SLI (!) and of course, DirectX 11.1. Performance numbers, that's what we all want, right? We're looking at it being 37-percent than the GEFORCE GTX 670M, with the first leaked benchmark coming from a Chinese website. The GPU hits 4,905 points in 3DMark 11's Performance Preset.

Microsoft is getting their hands dirty with Windows 8, and one of the things they're tweaking at the moment is the way the next-gen operating system manages multi-monitor setups, starting with the next major release of their OS.

Mark Yalovsky, a lead program manager on the User Experience team, had gone into detail explaining some of the features that have already been baked into the Consumer Preview, such as taskbar options for multiple displays, and some that will change like the ability to launch Metro apps on any display - but this post has been taken down.

Microsoft have collected data through the Windows Feedback Program, which points to 14-percent of desktop PCs and approximately 5-percent of laptop PCs sporting multiple monitors. Microsoft have taken this information, and made multi-monitor support better in Windows 8. They have set themselves a few goals: make the desktop a more personal experience, improve the efficiency of accessing apps across monitors, improve the efficiency of accessing system UI, and allow side-by-side Metro style and desktop apps.