NewsFactor Network

Users Less Satisfied with Windows 8 than with Windows 7

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:48:07 -0500

How satisfied are customers with Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system? According to a new survey from the University of Michigan, not as satisfied as with Windows 7.

The 2013 survey, called the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), was conducted by Michigan's Ross School of Business and released Tuesday. It found Windows 8 scored 74, down a point from last year's survey and down four points from the company's record high in 2011 for Windows 7, when it achieved a 78. The Windows 7 score had been a bump up, following the flop known as Vista.

David VanAmburg, ACSI's Director, told news media that Windows 8 "did not give Microsoft a significant bump, as the release of Windows 7 did," although it didn't cause the kind of drop that Vista showed. The lowest score was a 69 in 2008, the second year that Vista was available. VanAmburg pointed out that Windows 8 performance next year will indicate if the satisfaction level has stabilized.

'Microsoft Messed Up'

PCs in general are going through a slump in sales, as smartphones and tablets boom. PC shipments have declined four quarters in a row, with a 14 percent drop in Q1 of this year.

Laura DiDio, an analyst with industry research firm Information Technology Intelligence Consulting, said that her research among businesses indicates satisfaction with the underlying functions of Windows 8, but not with its touchscreen emphasis.

She quoted one unnamed IT administrator at a leading university who said that "Microsoft messed up the execution by forcing people into touchscreen." The tile-based interface is optimized for touchscreens, although users can switch to the classic UI.

Another factor in the satisfaction level is whether there had been some need, which is being filled, to switch from an existing OS. DiDio cited a survey conducted by her company last fall, in which...

A Terabyte's the Limit Now at Yahoo's Flickr

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:18:38 -0500

Yahoo is making big moves across the board. On the heels of the billion-dollar Tumblr acquisition, Yahoo is beefing up storage on Flickr, its photo-sharing service, to 1 terabyte.

The idea is to allow users to share images in full resolution. With a terabyte, you could upload a photo every hour for 40 years and not use up all the space.

Yahoo is also offering a new design for Flickr that puts photos at the heart of the experience. A new Activity Feed combines friends' recent uploads with activity on your photos. The goal is to drive more on-page interaction.

"We completely rebuilt the photo stream to show off your photos in a seamless layout, and gave you room to express yourself with a customizable cover photo and high-res profile picture," said Flickr's Markus Spiering. "Our new photo experience displays images in as many pixels as possible, with all the context you need to easily chime in on the conversation around every image."

A Big Statement

Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, said 1 terabyte is a big statement by Flickr, a bold attempt to get attention and reach new audiences. Flickr competes with several Web alternatives, including Google's Picasa, which increasingly is being integrated into Google+.

"The site has always been used by professional and amateur photographers but Yahoo is now trying to go after a much larger user base with the UI and storage changes," Sterling told us. By contrast, Google's Picasa Web Albums offer 1 GB of free storage for photos and videos.

The free upgrade also marks the ability to upload more video -- and longer video. Flickr now supports up to a full three minutes per video of 1080p HD quality.

Yahoo's Big Opportunity

On Monday, Yahoo pledged not to "screw up" Tumblr when it announced acquisition of the hip...

Mr. Cook, About Those Loopholes . . .

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:26:41 -0500

A Senate panel says Apple Inc. is avoiding billions of dollars in U.S. taxes by shifting profits to foreign affiliates and is prepared to question the company's chief executive Tuesday about the "loopholes."

Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to explain the company's tax strategy to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which released a detailed report Monday on the company's practices.

The world's most valuable company says it complies with the laws and pays "an extraordinary amount" in U.S. taxes.

Sen. Carl Levin, the panel's chairman, says Apple's use of loopholes in the U.S. tax code is unique among multinational corporations.

"Apple is exploiting an absurdity," Levin said at the start of the hearing.

The tone of the hearing turned tense before the Apple executives were scheduled to appear, as Sen. Rand Paul, an anti-tax hawk, insisted that the subcommittee apologize to Apple for unfair scapegoating.

"If anyone should be on trial here it should be Congress ... for creating a bizarre and byzantine tax code," said Paul. "If you want to assign blame, this committee needs to look in the mirror and see who created that mess."

Levin countered angrily that no such apology would be forthcoming. "Apple's a great company, but no company should be able to determine how much it's going to pay in taxes ..... by using gimmicks," he said.

The spotlight on Apple's tax strategy comes at a time of fevered debate in Washington over whether and how to raise revenues to help reduce the federal deficit. Many Democrats complain that the government is missing out on billions of dollars because companies are stashing profits abroad and avoiding taxes. Republicans want to cut the corporate tax rate of 35 percent and ease the tax burden on money that U.S. companies make abroad. They say the move would encourage companies to invest...

Teen Shows Battery-Charge Breakthrough at Intel Fair

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:10:32 -0500

How many times have you headed out the door in the morning and realized you forgot to plug your phone in to charge overnight? Or spent the day exchanging important texts or e-mails, only to have your phone die in the middle of a conversation?

Imagine being able to recharge your device's battery in just seconds. If an invention recognized in Intel's International Science and Engineering Fair reaches the mass market, it could soon be possible.

Could Power Cars, Too

Eesha Khare, 18, won a $50,000 scholarship from the chipmaking giant at last week's fair in Phoenix, Ariz., for a "supercapacitor" that can not only charge a cell phone battery in 20 to 30 seconds but can last 10 times longer than a traditional battery. The supercapacitor, which sounds like a device that would power the time-traveling car in "Back To The Future," has so far only lit up an LED test light, however.

"With the rapid adoption of portable electronics, Eesha Khare, 18, of Saratoga, Calif., recognized the crucial need for energy-efficient storage devices," Intel said in a statement announcing the winners. "She developed a tiny device that fits inside cell phone batteries, allowing them to fully charge within 20-30 seconds. Eesha's invention also has potential applications for car batteries."

Battery life is a key concern of consumers who are increasingly data hungry, gearing up with apps that not only raise their bill but drain their devices' batteries. Little progress has been made in drastically increasing energy storage, which has led manufacturers to focus their efforts instead on processors that better manage how the battery is used and which cores to shut down when not needed.

The ability to quickly recharge could be as useful as extending charge life and save heavy device users from having to carry spare batteries or even spare devices...

Microsoft Unveiling First Xbox Update in 8 Years

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:08:02 -0500

Monday, the drum roll. Tuesday, Microsoft is expected to reveal the next generation of the Xbox.

The event, beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time, will show the first new version of the popular home entertainment console after eight years and the sale of an estimated 77 million Xbox 360s. The new model is code-named Durango, although some players are calling it the Xbox 720.

Microsoft's next move could define not only video gaming, but home entertainment, since the company, like its main competitors Sony and Nintendo, has tried to move beyond gaming to offer a variety of entertainment that positions its boxes as home entertainment consoles. While Sony has sold about the same number of PlayStations, Nintendo has moved just under 100 million of its Wii. In recent years, Microsoft has been the leader in game sales.

Kinect 2

The Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant has been tight-lipped about the event, but rumors point to an AMD eight-core, 64-bit accelerated processing unit, or APU, running at 1.6 GHz and combining graphics with general processing on the same chip. The Xbox 360 features a three-core IBM Power chip. Sony's PlayStation 4 also has eight cores, using the Jaguar micro-architecture that the Xbox's APU is also expected to employ.

Microsoft-watchers are also expecting that the Kinect 2 will be unveiled, a more accurate version of the innovative motion-sensing controller that the company released in 2010, and which has driven an emerging industry of gesture-in-the-air interaction units for other kinds of devices, like computers.

The new Kinect is expected to enlarge the "sweet spot" about 10 feet from the device that players have had to occupy for the first generation Kinect. In addition to a wider sensing area and greater accuracy, observers are expecting Kinect 2 to provide better voice recognition and a better quality camera.

Skype? Broadcast TV?

Tuesday's event...

Chinese Hackers Resume Attacks on U.S. Targets

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:45:12 -0500

Hackers commissioned by a cyber unit of the People's Liberation Army in China have been quiet in recent months after evidence surfaced that the crooks had stolen data from U.S government agencies and companies. But The New York Times is reporting that the group is once again on the cyber warpath with new strategies.

The Times is citing American security experts and officials as its source. Mandiant, the firm that issued a report on Chinese hackers in February, is one of those security experts. Although the firm declined to identify the targets, the Times reports Mandiant saying the victims were many of the same ones Unit 61398 previously attacked.

"In interviews, Obama administration officials said they were not surprised by the resumption of the hacking activity," the Times reported. "One senior official said Friday that 'this is something we are going to have to come back at time and again with the Chinese leadership,' who, he said, 'have to be convinced there is a real cost to this kind of activity.' "

$873 Million in Damage

Security firms also have a close eye on the news. Jim Butterworth, chief security officer at HBGary, told us the fact that these hackers have resumed their attacks is not surprising.

"Every day we see adversaries adapt their attack methods to avoid detection and remain persistent in the networks," Butterworth says. "These attackers are highly motivated and well-funded and will not be easily deterred, which is why organizations need to consistently and effectively perform the five key phases of incident response: detection, validation, response, mitigation and adapt and prepare."

According to a report from the Financial Times, hackers who call China their home base did $873 million in damage to the Chinese economy in 2011. Financial Times writer Kathrin Hille says reports that the country "has no equivalent of...

Samsung Launches $800,000 App Development Challenge

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:23:36 -0500

Although it's unlikely that any mobile device maker will catch up with Apple's App Store in the short term, Samsung is taking another swing at it. The leading smartphone maker has launched a global contest that aims to woo mobile app developers to its cause.

The company introduced the $800,000 Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013, a competition aimed at finding new applications that make possible group communication functions on Android devices.

This is not the first time Samsung has turned to a contest to attract Android developers. Apparently, the company liked the results because it's willing to shell out big bucks in prize money to 10 winners, along with a variety of promotional benefits. This time around, Samsung Venture Investment will review the final winners for financial investment.

Focusing on Group Play Apps

"With Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013, Samsung is going to boost the mobile ecosystem," said Won-Pyo Hong, president and head of the Media Solutions Center at Samsung Electronics. "At Samsung we will continue to encourage mobile developers to develop new and innovative applications with newly launched features of Galaxy series."

Hong expects the Samsung Smart App Challenge to beef up the application choices for Galaxy S IV users. Here's how it works: The contest is open to all mobile application developers. Participating developers can sign up at SmartAppChallenge.com and register their apps from June 20 to Aug. 31.

The apps must make use of Samsung's Smart Chord software development kit. A panel of judges will decide the winning entries, which Samsung said would use group management functionality in "interesting and experiential ways." Apple Still Dominates

Michael Disabato, managing vice president of Network and Telecom at Gartner, told us contests like these attract developers who may need an economic incentive to create compelling apps up front.

"Instead of betting on an income stream in...

Yahoo Vows 'Not To Screw Up' Tumblr with $1.1B Purchase

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:55:16 -0500

Yahoo is making a mega-acquisition in social media. The search engine prince has agreed to buy the hip Tumblr blogging service for $1.1 billion, and is promising "not to screw it up."

In fact, Yahoo is so determined "not to screw it up" that it has agreed to allow Tumblr to operate independently as a separate business. Tumblr CEO David Karp will remain at the helm. Yahoo also said the product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with "the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators."

"Tumblr is redefining creative expression online," said Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. "On many levels, Tumblr and Yahoo couldn't be more different, but, at the same time, they couldn't be more complementary. Yahoo is the Internet's original media network. Tumblr is the Internet's fastest-growing media frenzy. Both companies are homes for brands -- established and emerging. And, fundamentally, Tumblr and Yahoo are both all about users, design, and finding surprise and inspiration amidst the everyday."

Staggering Numbers

Tumblr boasts more than 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 sign-ups every day. That makes it one of the fastest-growing media networks in the world. What's more, Tumblr sees 900 posts per second and users spend 24 billion minutes on site each month. Tumblr also has a strong mobile play. More than half of Tumblr's subscribers use the mobile app, with an average seven sessions per day.

As Yahoo sees it, Tumblr's popularity and engagement among content creators, curators and audiences of all ages brings a significant new community of users to its network. The combination of Tumblr and Yahoo is expected to grow Yahoo's audience by 50 percent to more than a billion monthly visitors, and to grow traffic by approximately 20 percent.

Tumblr brings 50 billion blog posts -- and 75 million more...

MeeGo-Based Sailfish Mobile OS Launches

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:20:37 -0500

Sailfish is sailing. Finland-based start-up Jolla is accepting pre-orders for its first smartphone product, which is also the first to use the Sailfish mobile operating system.

The Sailfish OS is derived from the Mer Project, which itself is an offshoot of the now-abandoned MeeGo OS that was jointly developed by Nokia and Intel. Jolla was founded by former Nokia employees. The Jolla device has a dual-core processor, 16 GB built-in storage, a microSD card slot, an 8-megapixel camera, LTE connectivity and a 4.5-inch display. The Jolla device, which currently goes only by the company's name, can run existing Android apps.

In its initial roll-out, the new phone will be available in fourth quarter in Finland, Denmark, Germany, France, the U.K., Spain and Italy, at 399 euros, or about U.S. $510, before carrier subsidies, although pre-orders come with a discount of 100 euros.

Unique Cover

One of the new device's differentiators is a smartphone cover that's embedded with a chip and available to pre-ordering buyers. Called the OtherHalf, the chip in the cover is intended to allow software customization, such as a key to unlock special content or a customized user experience provided by musicians or app developers, including limited editions. The back cover also comes in different colors, allowing for some partial color customization of the device.

Jolla has said that it will use the cover as part of a "co-creation" campaign, in which it will invite the user community to decide how the cover and the chip should be designed and used.

The screen interface shows thumbnails of opened apps on the home screen, with features accessible via side-to-side scrolling, and what the company described as "true multitasking," such as running a video in one portion of the screen while you're working on an app in another portion.

Symbian 'Moving Out'

Avi Greengart, an analyst with...

Salesforce.com Wants To Overhaul Corporate Marketing

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:53:55 -0500

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff built a technology company worth $27 billion on the back of a very simple slogan: "No Software."

Benioff's idea of selling business applications as a pay-as-you-go Internet service -- rather than shrink-wrapped bundles with hefty up-front fees -- helped Salesforce.com steal business from Microsoft, SAP and Oracle for nearly a decade.

Now the San Francisco-based company is hoping to find more growth in another big idea.

This week, Salesforce.com will release its quarterly results, and Wall Street is expecting revenue growth of 28%, to $888 million. For the full year, the company forecast a revenue target of almost $4 billion, a 27% annual rise.

To get there, the company is espousing a philosophy that could be called, "No Marketing," though that's not a phrase Benioff has used.

Like "No Software," it's a conceit, because Salesforce.com does sell software to corporate customers, just as those large businesses still market to their own consumers.

But it's an apt phrase, because just as the company changed how software is sold, it now wants to transform how Corporate America thinks about marketing.

As Benioff said about his customers in a February conference call, "In each and every case they are redefining how they connect their company with their customers."

The idea is to make a company so customer-focused that the traditional boundaries between advertising, marketing and customer service become obsolete.

However you describe it, investors have so far liked the sound of it.

Salesforce.com shares are up more than 30% in the past 12 months and have more than doubled during the last three years, far outpacing the gains of the broader market for tech stocks.

Salesforce.com's main focus has been selling products and tools that help businesses keep track of their customers, software known as customer relationship management, or CRM.

Large companies have embraced it, and Salesforce.com reported sales growth of...

Qualcomm CEO Eyes Smartphone Growth

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:40:06 -0500

Mobility is proving to be one of the biggest innovations this country has ever seen. The fact that we can access our data, entertainment, even health care from a mobile phone is changing lives everywhere.

With more than 6 billion mobile phones on the planet and population growth jumping in many corners of the world, I caught up with the maker of those fancy chips that go into the phones, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, to find out what's on the horizon for the devices we love, and the downside risks. Our interview follows, edited for clarity and length.

Q: Your company sits at the center of mobility, making chips for all our favorite devices. What's happened to Qualcomm in the last 10 years?

A: What we started to see was that the phone was more than just for communication; it has become used for computing and productivity and entertainment. We started to invest in that vision, putting more capabilities into the phone, whether it's more computing, graphics or sensors, like position-location and cameras. The iPhone really brought it about, and smartphones have taken off like crazy. All those functions that we put in became important to people.

Q: What are you expecting to happen next?

A: It will continue to grow pretty dramatically, both on the developed market with high-end phones and in emerging or developing markets, where there's at least as many people using mobile broadband systems. They don't have traditional fixed Internet. They don't have a lot of PCs. The way they will get on the Internet and access information is through smartphones. It's why we expect a 31% increase in revenues and roughly 19% increase in earnings this year.

Q: In less developed markets, are some people getting a plain phone, and will they eventually ramp up to a smartphone?

A: China is the...

A Year After IPO, Facebook Seeks 'Ad Colossus' Status

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:48:13 -0500

It was supposed to be our IPO, the people's public offering. Facebook, the brainchild of a young CEO who sauntered into Wall Street meetings in a hoodie, was going to be bigger than Amazon, bigger than McDonald's, bigger than Coca-Cola. And it was all made possible by our friendships, photos and family ties.

Then came the IPO, and it flopped. Facebook's stock finished its first day of trading just 23 cents higher than its $38 IPO price. It hasn't been that high since.

Even amid the hype and excitement surrounding Facebook's May 18 stock market debut a year ago, there were looming doubts. Investors wondered whether the social network could increase advertising revenue without alienating users, especially those using smartphones and tablet computers.

The worries intensified just days before the IPO when General Motors said it would stop paying for advertisements on the site. The symbolic exit cast a shroud over Facebook that still exists. Facebook's market value is $63 billion, some two-thirds of what it was the morning it first began trading. At around $27 per share, the company's stock is down roughly 30 percent from its IPO price. Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 27 percent over the same period.

Despite its disappointing stock market performance, the company has delivered strong financial results. Net income increased 7 percent to $219 million in the most recent quarter, compared with the previous year, and revenue was up 38 percent to $1.46 billion.

The world's biggest online social network has also kept growing to 1.1 billion users. Some 665 million people check in every day to share photos, comment on news articles and play games. Millions of people around the world who don't own a computer use Facebook, in Malawi, Malaysia and Martinique.

And much has changed at Facebook in a year. The company's...

Two Vegas Men Charged: Teen Was Killed for His iPad

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:47:15 -0500

Two men have been arrested in the killing of a teenage boy over an iPad in Las Vegas, police said Sunday. Jacob Dismont, 18, and Michael Solid, 21, were booked Saturday into the Clark County jail on charges of open murder, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.

According to investigators, Marcos Arenas, 15, was walking down a street with the iPad on Thursday when a passenger got out of a vehicle and tried to steal the device from him.

Dismont is accused of trying to wrest the tablet away and dragging Arenas toward the SUV when the youth wouldn't let go of the device. After Dismont re-entered the vehicle and Solid sped away, the teen was dragged until he fell. The vehicle ran over Arenas and he died at a hospital.

"I think both the public and police department share the same sentiment that this was a senseless act of violence," police spokesman Bill Cassell told The Associated Press.

The suspects succeeded in making off with the device, officers said, but it was not immediately recovered.

Ivan Arenas said he bought the iPad for his son less than two months ago. The family has never had a lot, the father said, and his son valued everything he had.

"For him to lose his life over an iPad, it's just not fair," Ivan Arenas told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Never in my life would I imagine that me buying my kid an iPad for his birthday would end up with him getting run over."

Similar thefts of iPads, IPhones and other Apple devices have become so widespread nationwide that the crime has earned the nickname, "Apple picking," Cassell said.

"This is a nationwide phenomenon where thieves are targeting individuals who are carrying them," he said.

Police urge victims of such crimes to always let go of the devices.

According to investigators,...

Supersized Takeout: Seamless and GrubHub Join Forces

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:46:05 -0500

Rival online takeout services Seamless North America and GrubHub on Monday announced plans to combine and create a new company covering more than 20,000 restaurants in 500 cities across the U.S.

Financial terms were not disclosed and it's unclear what the combined company will be called. GrubHub CEO Matt Maloney will become CEO, while Seamless CEO Jonathan Zabusky will serve as president, the companies said in a joint statement.

Brian McAndrews, an independent director on the Seamless board, will serve as chairman. Both New York-based Seamless and Chicago-based GrubHub will have significant representation on the new company's board.

The combined company's name and marketing brands will be determined following regulatory approval, the companies said.

Online takeout ordering services work by contracting with restaurants, mostly in large metropolitan areas, to list themselves on the Web sites. Diners can search the menus, along with reviews posted by diners, to find the food they want and then order and pay online. In addition to Web sites, both companies offer smartphone and tablet apps geared toward diners on the go.

"We are excited to combine the strengths of these two dynamic organizations in an industry that is rapidly gaining traction," Maloney said in a statement. "We believe the merger will enhance the products we are able to offer both our diners and restaurants."

Maloney, who co-founded GrubHub Inc. in 2004, said that by combining their complementary restaurant and diner networks the new company will be well positioned for continued growth in what's become a huge market.

The services appeal to diners by eliminating the need for a kitchen drawer of takeout menus, while also helping them discover new pickup and delivery options in their neighborhoods. Meanwhile, restaurants can benefit from new business and don't have to deal with as many phone orders, which can be labor intensive and prone to error.

Last...

What's in Store for Apple's iOS 7?

Sun, 19 May 2013 08:19:18 -0500

There's been talk recently that Apple's products are beginning to coast on their glorious past. So, with Apple's big Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) arriving in San Francisco in three weeks, the speculation mill has been heating up about what the company might offer when it decides to unveil the new iOS 7.

Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that manufacturing of a "refreshed iPhone" was beginning in second quarter, with a possible launch during the summer, and that a less expensive iPhone could be on the market as soon as the second half of this year. The newspaper also said that Apple's next version of its iOS would be shipped by the middle of this year.

Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, has told news media that his team "can't wait to get new versions of iOS and OS X" into developers hands. This might imply some minor updates to the current version will be released at WWDC, or it could mean the company will tease or unveil the full iOS 7 redesign that is said to be under way. Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Sir Jonathan "Jony" Ive, who is known for a more minimalist style, is said to be leading a complete overhaul of the OS's interface.

Flatter, Simpler?

However, there have also been reports on the Web, attributed to "people with knowledge of the matter," that the full-scale redo of iOS may not be ready for WWDC.

Rumors have suggested a less-textured direction for the new look, which some have described as "very, very flat," cleaner, simpler, losing any shine or gloss, and bearing new icons. Some observers have speculated that users might even have a choice between displaying the new flat design or keeping the old interface.

One possible pitfall to a simpler, flatter design,...