Software & Apps - Page 90

Last month I reported that digital comic book startup comiXology would be offering the entire Marvel first edition catalog for free to users of its app. Unfortunately that is where the good news began and ended.

Just minutes after going live, the site was inundated with overwhelming traffic and their servers began to melt down. The site was unreachable for several days even after the download links were taken down. This lead to the CEO sending a mass email to members stating that they would get their free downloads, but for the time being, the company had to upgrade the network.

I was one of those subscribers, I tried to download several comics and failed to do so every time. This morning I received an email from comiXology that said they will begin delivering on their promise of free first editions beginning this Thursday. It appears that the process will be rolled out to members in phases and will only be accessible via a custom link that will be emailed to you.

According to ZDNet's sources, Microsoft's upcoming Windows Blue will be known as Windows 8.1 to the public. As you can see in the screenshot below, the operating system is clearly labeled as "Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro." It looks like Windows Blue could be similar to the service packs of yesteryear.

The update appears to follow along the lines of Windows Phone 7 and 7.5. Windows RT is said to be known as "Windows RT 8.1." Microsoft envisions Windows 8 as a multiple selling season product meaning these refreshes every year or so, somewhat like how Apple updates Mac OS X in that they have 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8 each with their own codename.

It's not clear whether Microsoft intends to charge customers to update, though I would venture to guess they will charge a fee. If I had to guess a number, I'd guess $20.

Users on the Intel HD4000 GPU boat are about to get more performance. While at GDC, Intel announced a new version of their driver that will bring with it an up to 10 percent improvement in graphics performance. Also included in the new driver is support for OpenCL 1.2.

The new driver is said to have been built for Haswell processors, though the driver will also be compatible with Ivy Bridge. Different sources are reporting that it will be compatible with HD2500, though others are reporting that it won't be. The new driver will be released as early as this week.

Users can download the latest drivers from Intel's website.

Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system continues to be somewhat of a flop. Usage data from Net Applications show Windows 8 usage is still behind that of Microsoft's last flop, Windows Vista. Windows XP and Windows 7 continue to be top contenders, even though XP was initially released over 11 years ago.

Windows 8 is used on 3.17 percent of computers, up from 2.67 percent in February. Vista, on the other hand, is found on 4.99 percent of systems. Windows XP is still found on 38.73 percent of systems and Windows 7 is the largest used operating system, found on 44.73 percent of systems.

Mac OS X 10.6-10.8 combined is found on below 7 percent of systems. Windows 8 uptake is likely to increase and is predicted to eclipse that of Vista within the year.

Piriform have released CCleaner 4.0, which includes a bunch of new features and the usual improvements. Two new tools are available with version 4.0, the first 'Duplicate File Finder' and the second 'System and Browser Monitoring'.

CCleaner 4.0 includes improved graphics and icons, major performance increases and support for new applications. As for the two new features, here's a run down on what they can do for you:

Duplicate File Finder

China is notorious for trying to control every aspect of its citizen's computing lives. It regularly blocks websites, restricts software and cuts internet connection from its people. Surprisingly even with all of that control, the Chinese government seemingly loves Linux.

Most of you will be surprised to hear that China has had open source "Software Promotion Union" since 2004 and the union is teaming up with Canonical to create a better Linux distro just for China. Dubbed Kylin, this version of Linux is designed to replace "Red Flag", the current "Chinese only" Linux based OS.

Kylin will support Chinese characters and will link up with Chinese web services for banking, music streaming and local mapping. Reports have us seeing an official release of the distro as early as April. With Ubuntu Founder Mark Shuttleworth heading up the Software Promotion Union, we expect that estimate to be fairly accurate.

The latest leaked build of Windows Blue has floated out and onto the Internet, with build 9364 of the upcoming updated OS is available in both 32- and 64-bit, and will set you back around 2.63GB as an ISO file.

This is of course a leaked build, nothing official, so it's only available from the usual file-sharing websites. The latest build shows off some updated larger and smaller Live Tiles, some more Start screen customization as well as updated side-by-side app view which helps multi-tasking quite a bit as you can now display two applications with matching width.

There are some other things included with build 9364, such as a Play option under the Devices panel, a screenshot button on the Share sidebar, as well as Internet Explore 11 which comes included with Windows Blue.

With Tim Cook steering the Apple ship, we are seeing the company go in a new direction, something I'm guessing will help them gain more users, but not alienate others who like iOS. The latest news is that the Apple CEO has set Jony Ive with leadership of Apple's Human Interface teams, as well as his role as the head of Industrial Design.

This news has suggested that Apple's hardware and software user interfaces could be intertwined even more, with one executive in charge of everything you see and touch on an iOS device. The Wall Street Journal has chimed in, confirming that this is true, with mobile software teams being briefed about new hardware prototypes earlier in the design cycle. Ive is now sitting in on the human interface team's review sessions, where he can have more one-on-one time with the new designs.

Google have officially launched Keep, and if you haven't heard of it before now - like myself - it might actually become a tool you'll use on the daily. Google Keep is a note taking service, available online and through an app for Android.

Keep is aimed at users who need to quickly tap something into their device, where it is saved onto Google Drive. Those of you with Android 4.2.2-based devices get an even better way of taking notes, as there's a lock screen widget available for even quicker and easier access to jotting down notes. There's the trailer above explaining Keep, and if you're interested, check it out on the Play Store for your Android device.

With Samsung seeing so much success with their Android-based Galaxy range of devices, can you blame the company for digging on Microsoft's Windows Phone platform? Well, according to a new research note from Detwiler Fenton analyst Jeff Johnston, it looks like Samsung aren't interested in Windows Phone, the analyst says:

Quite a strong statement, but Samsung are seeing great success with Android, and are waiting in the wings with their Tizen platform, too. Johnston continues, saying that Samsung's "Windows Phone roadmap is limited to a small number of smartphones, none of which appear to be all that exciting."

Twitter have finally released an application for Windows 8, which includes the usual features loved by Twitter fans, and some new things to take advantage of Windows 8's unique features.

You can grab Twitter for Windows 8 from the Windows Store right here, or from your Windows 8-based device.

CNET is reporting that Twitter could release a standalone iOS music discovery app within the month. They say that Twitter is using their We Are Hunted acquisition from last year to power the new standalone music app. It's not clear why Twitter would want to join this crowded market.

CNET reporter Casey Newton:

Rovio has announced that the new Angry Birds Toons show will be available through Rovio games on smartphones and tablets. Not only are they using their wide distribution channel, they will also be making the series available from select video-on-demand channel providers, Smart TVs, and select TV networks around the globe.

The first episode of the series will be launching this upcoming weekend. CEO Mikael Hed said the following:

Comic books have made a comeback in recent years thanks to blockbuster movie releases such as Iron Man, X-Men and The Avengers. Marvel, looking to capitalize even more on this revolution, has released over 700 first in series issues through its Android / iPhone app ComiXology as well as its online store of the same name.

The free digital editions will cover mainstream favorites such as Spiderman, X-Men, Avengers, Thor, and the Punisher as well as other popular and obscure titles. The freebies are tied in with Marvel's appearance at the South by Southwest festival and are aimed at generating new customers who may not yet be into comic books.

The free comic book deal only last until Tuesday at 11pm ET. As of the time of this writing, the ComiXology site (Source #2) is getting slammed with traffic and I have only been able to connect every three or so tries. I am sure the traffic will taper off as the day progresses. If you are unable to reach the site, keep trying.

It looks like Facebook hasn't been able to dominate the destructible communication market. New active usage data suggests that Facebook's Poke app hasn't had much, if any, impact on the usage of Snapchat, the app that came onto the scene around a year ago.

According to active user data from Onavo, Snapchat's market share grew after the launch of Poke. In February, the data shows that roughly 12 percent of iPhone users in the United States opened Snapchat. This is compared to Poke, which the data shows was only opened by about 0.25 percent of users in February.

It just goes to show that Facebook can't be the best at everything. Sometimes it's better for a company to focus on just one or two main products. For Facebook, this is social networking.

CCleaner has been a staple in the PC file clean up game for years. In fact, I have been using the program since it first hit the market. Now the company behind CCleaner is gearing up to release it in Android form.

A post on CCleaner's blog stated:

Ubuntu, the user-friendly Linux distro, has seen a multitude of changes and transformations over the last few months. It has sprouted wings and became a fully functional multi-platform operating system. With these changes Canonical has taken a lot of flak and now founder Mark Shuttleworth is speaking out about how he feels.

Shuttleworth on his personal blog said that he has no interest in keeping Ubuntu "hard" for the "elite" crowd. He said that in the grand scheme of things unity, mobile processing and cloud applications are being focused on because that is where the common PC user wants things to go.

According to F-Secure, a security firm, Android accounted for 79% of all mobile malware in 2012. This is an increase of 66.7% and 11.25% for 2011 and 2010, respectively. Apple's iOS doesn't even attempt to come close to these numbers, and only accounted for 0.7% of mobile malware in 2012.

Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Symbian all entered the pie with much less than Android, with 0.3%, 0.3% and 19%, for Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Symbian, respectively. The security firm also discovered that Android saw a surge in malware at the end of the year, but most of the malware is found in emerging markets. This means that most, not all, people in Europe and the US won't be affected, but everyone should always play it safe when opening up messages, links and emails.

Appthority has released a new study that looks at risky behavior exhibited by the top 50 iOS and top 50 Android apps. The data suggests that despite the appearance of more security in iOS, more iOS apps tend to engage in risky behaviors, such as sending and receiving unencrypted data, than Android apps do.

As you can see in the chart above, every single one of the iOS apps tested sent or received data without using encryption. This exposes user data to being sniffed while traveling over the internet. Only 46 of the 50 Android apps tested exhibited this behavior.

Furthermore, a higher percentage of tested iOS apps used ad networks or analytics. Far more iOS apps tracked the user's location. Finally, over half of the iOS apps tested had access to the user's contacts, while only 20 percent of the Android apps tested were allowed to access a user's contacts.

Google has released an update to its Google Maps for iPhone app. The new update brings with it several improvements, with the most important one probably being the improved local search. The new version of the app is promising faster local search through new search icons and integration with Google Contacts.

Other minor improvements include the addition of an English language version for Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE. As part of this globalization, the app now allows you to select between miles and kilometers in the settings menu. This way you can use the units most familiar to you.