Software & Apps - Page 92

If you haven't picked up Windows 8 Pro quite yet, you should really consider doing it before the end of January. The upgrade is currently available for $39.99 online, but that price will soon be going up. Students won't be left completely in the woods, though, as starting February 1, they will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $69.99.

While that price isn't quite as good as the current $39.99, it will be better than the regular price of $199.99. If you can afford to buy the upgrade now, you should, even if you qualify for the student price. You don't have to install the update before February 1, you just have to have purchased it.

Epic has released Epic Citadel for Android. The Epic Citadel demo was originally released on iOS devices over two years ago, but it still highlights what Unreal Engine 3 is capable of. Epic has also added in a feature that will allow Epic Citadel to be used as a benchmark on Android devices, so reviews and users can gather data across a wide variety of devices.

Epic would like to see developers use Unreal Engine 3 to develop games for Android, and so would I. This demo shows what is capable of being produced using the engine on Android and I am impressed. While Epic won't be bringing Infinity Blade to Android, hopefully other developers will fill in the gap and produce awesome games using UE3.

The previous beta of SwiftKey Flow hasn't allowed you to 'flow' in all text fields, but it looks like this has been fixed up in the latest betas to hit the SwiftKey website.

The new beta looks much more refined and sports less features this time around, where it includes easier corrections, new languages, a new theme and more. The full changelog is quite hefty:

Changes in this version:

Are you an NVIDIA GPU user? Planning on checking out the Crysis 3 multiplayer beta that starts tomorrow? If so, you should really consider picking up the new 313.95 beta driver that NVIDIA has released as they are touting Crysis 3 improvements of up to 65 percent, which should really help you get your game on.

Crysis 3 is said to be another machine crusher, so any boost in performance is definitely appreciated--and needed. The 65 percent boost is specifically for the GTX 690, which I don't think most of you are using. However, some performance increase can be seen all the way down to the GTX 560.

The driver also includes SLI profiles for Crysis 3, DmC: Devil May Cry and Warframe. If you use multiple GPUs in your system, this is also an important driver update. GTX 670 owners can expect the following performance increases:

Last July, Samsung launched their Music Hub streaming service to their own branded devices, but at the time never said they wouldn't release the service to non-Samsung devices sometime in the future.

Well, it looks like those days are nearly upon us according to The Next Web, where they talked to Samsung's SVP for Media Services, TJ Kang, who confirmed that Samsung's goal is to eventually bring Music Hub to non-Samsung hardware, but didn't go as far as giving an ETA on when this might happen, or which devices would see the streaming service.

Kang explained that they want to get the service on more Samsung devices, including their smartphone and tablet range, as well as their Smart TVs. Samsung have only given US consumers access to the Music Hub on their Galaxy S III and Note II devices, so we should see more Samsung devices receive Music Hub before we see it spread out to non-Samsung devices.

The Register is reporting that Redmond-based software giant, Microsoft, is blaming OEMs for the slow sales of their Windows 8 operating system. Microsoft believes that vendors didn't adhere closely enough to their hardware recommendations, with manufacturers producing mostly non-touchscreen computers that didn't show off Windows 8's touchscreen side.

This information, as usual, comes from a "well-placed" source "familiar with the matter". Since Windows 8's launch on October 28, and the end of 2012, Microsoft claim to have sold around 60 million copies of Windows 8. Windows Vista took around six months to reach the same number, but statistics are only one side of the story.

Official numbers on Microsoft's sales of their tablet, Surface, have not been unveiled by the Redmond-based company. OEMs aren't sitting back taking all the heat, either, with some OEMs coming out and saying that Microsoft is to blame for the slow Windows 8 sales. The biggest reasons computer manufacturers didn't follow Microsoft's internal guidelines is that few companies were willing to spend the money on expensive, high-end devices that consumers weren't guaranteed to purchase - not every item can be an iPad, after all.

Back in August we reported that MPEG had released a new draft for a video codec, H.265 - now, the video format has been approved by the ITU. This approval could eventually see Ultra HD 4K video to future networks, as well as making streaming HD video on low bandwidth mobile networks.

H.265 is known as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) and is designed for high-quality streaming, even if it's on a low-bandwidth network. With all of the online streaming users do these days from their smart devices, this has been a long time coming. The new approved standard will give publishers the ability to stream 1080p video with around half of the required bits that is required today thanks to its improved compression abilities.

This should make HD streaming a reality for households, like mine, where you don't have an ultra-fast Internet connection. Better yet, on mobile connections it'll be a godsend. Being able to stream HD or Full HD video over your mobile network in better quality, while using less bandwidth (and hence, data) will be great.

Google have some amazing services, such as Maps, Search, Gmail, YouTube and more - but how do this translate into power? Or something to brag about? Well, according to ComScore's latest data, Google take out 5 of the top 6 mobile apps in the US.

ComScore's data is from their most recent monthly review of the top iOS and Android apps in the US, which is ranked by unique visitors and has shown the above table where Google completely dominate it. Apple's iTunes is placed 8th, behind five Google mobile apps. Facebook of course is numero uno, and was the only non-Google app to enter the top six.

Apple's iTunes app was the one and only from the company to even enter the top ten, and it was ranked 8th with 46 million unique visitors per month.

Microsoft is looking to bring back users by toying with their emotions in this latest appeal:

The video clearly plays upon the current generation's nostalgia for the '90s. I've seen plenty of posts from my friends on Facebook saying "Like this if you're a '90s kid" and the like, so I have a feeling this appeal may actually work well for Microsoft. What are your thoughts on the ad? Will it bring you back to Internet Explorer?

Microsoft announced the ad on their blog:

If you have been putting off upgrading to Windows 8 cheaply, your time is running out. At the beginning of February the price of an upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 Pro will cost you $200 instead of the introductory offer of $40.

Redmond is claiming that it has already sold a whopping 60 million copies of Windows 8, but there is no word on how many of those licenses have actually been activated.

Like Windows 7 there are several editions of Windows 8 which will be priced as follows: Pro will be the top dog at $199.99, Windows 8 upgrade edition at $119.99, and Windows 8 Pro Pack at $99.99. If you have any interest in upgrading to Windows 8, I highly suggest you jump on the current $40 offer.

If you are a media junkie and a computer geek like me, you have most likely heard of XBMC, the Xbox-born open source media center software. Also if you are like me, you have used XBMC for years to shuttle your digital media from servers to televisions. Then like me, you will be glad to hear that XBMC has released a "user friendly" version of the XBMC app for Android.

While we have had access to the official app for a while now, it has been complicated to get working properly on most Android devices, leading to hours of frustration for not so tech savvy users. XBMC has announced that a stable, user friendly version of the app is now available for download. Details on how to get everything up and running can be found here.

This is especially exciting news for Android based set to box owners because it completely negates the need for a dedicated HTPC at each TV if you want to run XBMC. I own a Pivos XIOS DS Android box and have been using the PLEX app while a more stable release of XBMC for Android comes out. Making things even cooler is that XBMC will now sync up with my existing PLEX server and populate all of my media content into the XBMC interface.

Now that the Chrome Beta channel app has opened its doors for business in the Google Play Store, we're finally getting some constant updates. The latest update includes a new icon that has a black and white "BETA" tag on it.

This may not sound like world changing news for most, but usually the BETA tag has a grey and white color scheme. The new update brings some small fixes:

As with most Beta releases, there are still some bugs hanging around - such as the yahoo.com page links not working as well as some graphical glitches on some devices. You can get the Chrome Beta right here.

AMD's first major driver release for 2013 is here in the form of the just-released AMD Catalyst 13.1 WHQL drivers. These drivers are similar to the company's 12.11 "Never Settle" driver, with the new 13.1 WHQL drivers delivering performance enhancements for a huge amount of games.

They mainly aim for the Radeon HD 7000 series GPUs, and AMD have also included some new 3D settings and profile management user interface within the Catalyst Control Center (CCC). This is on top of the performance enhancements and various fixes. From the changelog, we can expect:

There is a huge list of resolved problems within Windows 8 and Windows 7, which includes:

AT&T has been slowly reducing restrictions on Apple's FaceTime. The latest reduction in regulation comes in the form of AT&T allowing iPhone 4S users on a tiered data to use FaceTime over their cellular data. Previously, AT&T would not let non-LTE devices use FaceTime over the network. This change also means that other smartphone devices that don't feature LTE will be able to video chat over cellular data, again, provided that they are on a tiered data plan.

AT&T Mobility VP Mark Collins:

Interested Americans, historians, or really anybody who owns a smartphone will be able to live stream the Presidential Inauguration straight to their device, thanks to a new app released for iOS and Android. Released Monday morning, the official Inaugural 2013 app features photos, videos, and a livestream that will go live January 21 and stream footage of the ceremony.

It features numerous other features, such as a map if you will be in DC for the inauguration, and information about volunteering opportunities for the Inaugural Committee's National Day of Service on January 19.

The app was produced by AT&T and is a free download for both iOS and Android devices.

Instagram, the photo-sharing social network owned by Facebook, had a bit of a screw up with its terms of service when it went to update them in December. The changes included clauses that seemingly give Instagram permission to use users' photos, likeness, and username in paid advertising without any sort of compensation, or even permission.

After an outcry by users, Instagram backpedaled the proposed changes, saying that they were unclear and misunderstood by the public. According to data by AppStats, the number of daily users has decreased by roughly 50 percent since the terms of service fiasco. Prior to the change, 16.35 million people were using it daily. On the day of the change, only 5.2 million used the app.

We're now about a month since the change, and AppStats says that on January 12, only 7.81 million people used the app. In other words, roughly half of the daily users are no longer using the app. Of course, these numbers are approximations as it is very hard to get an accurate accounting for apps. But, it does appear that things aren't so good for Instagram. I wonder if Facebook is regretting their decision to purchase the photo-sharing network.

Google unveiled Chrome 25 beta today, with some notable improvements, such as voice search. Other changes include the disabling of silent extension installs, the inclusion of Web Speech API, and a new tab page that includes a search box.

Google's blog post announcing the new beta:

About a week ago, reports surfaced of a workaround that allowed unsigned ARM-based applications to run on Windows RT, and now a member at the XDA-Developers forum has created a jailbreak tool that automates the process, making it easy for non-tech savvy users to run unsigned apps.

The jailbreak tool is based on the same tethered technique shown by the hacker "clrokr", meaning that the jailbreak will have to be applied each time the device is rebooted. While not ideal, this saves you from having to modify the Windows kernel.

x86 programs cannot simply be installed using this technique, they still must be recompiled for the ARM architecture. Still, this hack opens up huge doors of opportunity for the home-brew crowd, as well as developers and hackers alike. It is still up in the air if Redmond will issue a patch, effectively blocking the crack, or if they will embrace the DIY community and leave sleeping lions lying.

CES 2013 - Canonical was in attendance of CES 2013 and at the show they had Galaxy Nexus devices running its new Ubuntu mobile OS. I got a chance to take some video of the device, though I was not allowed to touch it at all. A Canonical employee walked me through the device in the video embedded below.

To be quite blunt, I'm ready to buy the device. I'll toss my iPhone in the trash and buy this thing tomorrow, if it were available. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait until the end of the year for devices running the operating system to be available, but until then, the operating system should continue to be polished even further than it already is at this stage of its development.

The video is definitely worth watching as it demonstrates the interface of the operating system, which is quite a bit different from the other operating systems available. Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments below.

Thanks to Beats Audio's acquisition of music subscription service MOG, we should expect an iTunes-like music service to be launched from the company. Currently going under the codename of Daisy, the company announced the service on Thursday and have chosen Ian Rogers to oversee "the direction, vision and strategy for project 'Daisy' and the talented team developing the service.

Beats Audio have also announced that Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails fame, has been appointed Chief Creative Officer. CEO and co-founder of Beats Audio, Jimmy Iovine, has said: