Google gets time to remedy EU competition concerns
The European Union has given Google a matter of weeks to iron out its antitrust issues rather than heading straight to court.
The investigation into Google began some time ago as competitors complained that Google favoured its own products in search results.
The EU recently said it will take its time deciding what to do about Google and whether there are any charges to bring against the search giant in Europe.
Competition
Now EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia is keen to remedy as much of the problems outside of court as possible.He said, "I believe that these fast-moving markets would particularly benefit from a quick resolution of the competition issues identified.
"Restoring competition swiftly to the benefit of users at an early stage is always better than lengthy proceedings.
"Google has repeatedly expressed to me its willingness to discuss any concerns that the Commission might have without having to engage in adversarial proceedings, this is why today I'm giving Google an opportunity to offer remedies to address concerns that we have identified."
The first step is to acknowledge the problems and come up with some solutions, he added:
"In this letter, I offer Google the possibility to come up in a matter of weeks with first proposals of remedies to address each of these points."
After that, the EU may be able to drop its investigation without levying any fines or racking up any court hours.
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ESPN: Our mobile site is UK's most popular for sport
ESPN is claiming that its mobile site is the most popular sports destination for fans on the go in the UK, beating the likes of Sky Sports.
According to the sports channel, in 2011 users spent on average 158 minutes per month on its mobile sites, compared to just 17 minutes per month on Sky Sports' mobile sites.
The ESPN mobile sites also clocked up over 63.4 million page views on mobile devices in 2011, which it states is more than any other commercially-funded sporting site.
Inferior app selection?
However, these superior figures may be a reflection on the smaller app selection ESPN has, which could be losing traffic in the application war against other companies such as Sky Sports, which has plugged large volumes of cash into its UK-focused sports apps.It looks like ESPN is already addressing this though, as it prepares to launch its Cricinfo iPad app in June/July, roll out is new ESPNFC channel, including a mobile app, for the start of the Euro 2012 competition and refreshes its ESPN Goals app for the start of the new football season.
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Small businesses waiting on £35bn in late payment
Unpaid bills to small businesses are now at the highest level (£35.3 billion) in almost five years, according to Bacs, with combined debts up by almost £2 billion compared to the first half of last year.
Bacs, which runs Direct Debit, found that the average amount owed to small businesses stood at £45,000 at the end of 2011, up from £39,000 earlier in the year. The only good news in the report was the proportion of businesses experiencing late payment has fallen down to 785,000 from 861,000 however because of the increase in money owed their combined debt is now bigger than ever.
Additionally the average company is waiting 29.5 days longer than agreed payment terms to have their invoices settled, and that figure is also up, rising from 28 days reported in the first half of 2011.
With large businesses insisting on payment terms of as much as 120 days, many suppliers could be waiting up to five months to be paid for work.
Big businesses worst offenders
The facts show that big businesses are still, in the main, those least likely to pay on time as more small businesses (41 percent) say they are the 'worst offenders' compared to private companies, individuals, other small businesses and government departments.Mike Hutchinson from Bacs says the increasing value of late payments and the extended terms that many SMEs are now experiencing, highlights the important role that automated payments can play in maintaining a smooth cash flow.
"Our research highlights the challenges faced by many thousands of SMEs in chasing payments from customers and maintaining a healthy cash flow which is the life blood of any successful business," said Hutchinson.
"We would always recommend that anybody running a business ensures that as many regular payments as possible are automated in order to maintain financial control. This will reduce the stress and financial cost of chasing payments for business owners.
"Ultimately it is an issue for businesses of all sizes to address as prompt payment is not only good for the individual businesses involved in any given transaction, but throughout the whole supply chain."
Philip King, chief executive of the Institute of Credit Management, says: "Although disappointing it is no surprise that the volume and value of late payments is rising and shows that the Government (through the department of Business, Innovation and Skills - BIS) is right to be prioritising 'late payment' as a key focus of resource.
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News in Brief: One More Thing: The humble animated GIF hits 25
Birthday GIFt – The animated GIF turns 25 today. There's no finer way to celebrate than by watching this excellent racoon dance his way across a road. [Kotaku]
TOTALLY NEW INFORMATION ALERT - Mark Zuckerberg surprise married Priscilla Chan on Saturday. Presumably she was in on it in advance. Over 1 million people 'like' this fact on M-Zuck's Facebook page, which means there are still 13 million people who subscribe to Zuck's Facebook updates who don't care. High five, you guys. [TNW]
Stayin' alive - If you're a fan of games that are like real life only slower and more boring, then good news for you! An unofficial port of Theme Hospital is now available on Android. Apparently you get to run a hospital. You know, some people get to do that in real life and get paid for their trouble. People are weird. [Android Central]
BookAR prize - Because ebooks aren't enough technology for the sake of it, you can now enjoy perusing some interactive book covers on special Penguin English Library editions of Moby Dick and Lady Audley's Secret. All you'll need is the Zappar app and enough motivation to bother. One day someone will create something AR-related that isn't just marketing. We dream of that day. [Into Mobile]
Never forget - If you've ever found yourself needing a robotic elephant trunk capable of gripping what looks like a lump of butter then we have some excellent news: MIT has created a robotic elephant trunk capable of gripping what looks like a lump of butter. [Gizmag]
Square eyes – Google co-founder Eric Schmidt has advised graduates at Boston University to "Take one hour a day and turn that thing off". No, not that thing. He means your computer/smartphone/tablet/other be-screened device. "Take your eyes off that screen and look into the eyes of the person you love. Have a conversation. A real conversation." What are you saying about our Google+ hangouts Schmidt? [Reuters]
Charger charges - Why is the iPhone charger so expensive? Because it's the best of the best, of course. What did you expect? That's the TLDR version, check out the source link for the actual reasons. [ARCFN.com]
The hero Gotham deserves - The ISPA wants to know who the web heroes and villains of the last year are. If anyone's really ground your gears or given you the warm fuzzies, you can nominate them by tweeting @ISPAUK by May 31. [ISPA]
Overachiever of the day - Adam Munich invented and built this low-cost portable x-ray machine in his spare time during high school. Yeah. We were going to do that too but then Byker Grove was on and after that it was Neighbours… [PopSci]
Clever girl – Google Chrome is now able to sync your open tabs across devices, provided you're signed in to your Google account of course. So whatever you've got open on your work computer, you can rifle through on your Android phone, tablet or home PC, as well as having your bookmarks, apps, extensions and themes synced too. Handy. [Google]
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Business look beyond cost for moving to the cloud
The number of cloud-ready devices is growing exponentially and it's the ability to access the cloud from wherever you are worldwide, that's driving a move to the cloud, not cost, according to YouGov research.
Lower cost is no longer the major reason for adopting the cloud for businesses, with them instead focusing on improving business outcomes and bringing strategic value, says the research.
Two-thirds (67 percent) of the businesses surveyed had either already implemented cloud services or anticipated they would do so in the future, with 30 percent looking to do so within the next two years.
The increased ability for employees to work with greater mobility and flexibility was identified as the most popular reason to implement cloud services (39 percent), with cost efficiencies named as the second most popular reason (33 percent).
Of those who had not yet moved towards the cloud, the main reason given for the delay was "lack of time" (38 percent). With smaller businesses respondents felt unable to devote sufficient time to fully investigate the technical and business implications of moving to a cloud-based work model.
One trillion cloud-ready devices by 2015
The survey was sponsored by IBM, which predicted last year that by 2015 there will be one trillion cloud-ready devices globally. Simon Porter, vice president for mid-market sales at IBM, said: "Businesses are beginning to realise that the full potential of cloud goes far beyond a cost-focused ROI model."They are also increasingly looking at how the cloud can help expedite the move to a more mobile way of working for their employees, using smartphone and tablets to access key applications while creating a more flexible work/life balance."
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Gary Marshall: Swallowed by Amazon: is selling the Kindle a good idea for Waterstones?
Imagine there's a serial killer at the door. He's already killed and eaten the rest of the street, and now he fancies getting his gums on your bum. Do you (a) grab as many sharp things as you can to fight him off, or (b) invite him in but make him promise he'll only eat one toe?
If you're Waterstones, the answer appears to be (b).
To fight off the Kindle, the venerable bookseller is going to be, er, selling Kindles.
Waterstones promises that you will get "the singular pleasures of browsing a curated bookshop". That sounds awfully like a Waterstones-branded Kindle Store, which would be little more than glorified affiliate marketing. Or maybe there'll be a wee chair in every Waterstones that you can sit in with your Kindle as you order a copy directly from Amazon, with Waterstones getting a tiny wee cut of the purchase price in exchange for providing the chair and the Wi-Fi. Maybe, as @missdaisyfrost says on Twitter, "Waterstones will be offering 3 Kindles for the price of 2".
Waterstones' original plan was to make its own ereader, something many of us thought would be a rebranded Barnes & Noble Nook. That plan has been shelved, probably because Waterstones has left it too late and stuck with Sony for too long. The Kindle Store is the iTunes of digital reading, accounting for the lion's share of the market while a handful of rivals fight over scraps, and it's hard to imagine Waterstones making any kind of dent in that market dominance now.
A rival ereader, then, was probably a dumb move. But Kindles?
Short-term profit over long-term sense
I suspect Waterstones' take goes something like this: Amazon's currently selling loads of ebooks, and Waterstones isn't. Getting some Kindle money would be better than nothing.I'm sure that's true - in the short term. But in the long term it's effectively handing over Waterstones' ebook business to Amazon — a firm Waterstones boss James Daunt called "a ruthless, money-making devil, the consumer's enemy" just six months ago — by turning its branches into Amazon showrooms.
The last bookselling chain that climbed into bed with Amazon was Borders. You know, Borders. Big shops? Went bust?
I hope I'm wrong, but I fear this story won't have a happy ending.
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Parents to get full control of child's phone
Parents are about to get a scary amount of control over their kid's mobile phone, thanks to a new parental control system.
The system has been developed by Bemilo, and will allow parents to read every text message, filter friends before adding them as a contact and set up timers for the phone to be turned on and off.
It's linked to the SIM card and controlled via a website. It's being offered by Vodafone, with the service setting concerned parents back £2.95 per month.
You gotta fight, for your right, to… send a text
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."The service is intended to help protect children between the ages of 8 and 16, shielding them from unsuitable material and unsavoury characters.
However, it does raise the debate over the acceptable level of parental control on a child's technology - this move may cause consternation from pro-privacy groups, even though child protection is of paramount importance.
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Exclusive: Nikon: We won't compromise on autofocus accuracy
Nikon has said that it views the accuracy of its AF points as more important than having more points towards the edge of the frame.
Although both the Nikon D800 and Nikon D4 utilise a 51 point autofocus system, all of these are clustered together in the centre of the frame, within the DX cropping frame.
Other cameras, including DX (APS-C format) SLRs, but particularly compact system cameras, have autofocus points available right up to the edge of the frame.
Speaking to TechRadar, James Banfield of Nikon UK said, "The accuracy of the focusing is really sacred. People look at images at 100% to see if they are pin sharp. The most accurate area of the optic is the central area, and there's not a great deal you can do about that."
Banfield said that the company conducts research with professional photographers to find out how the cameras are being used in the real world.
"As a manufacturer, we love to assume that professional photographers are using all the different points, but actually the research tells us that they don't necessarily use them all," he said.
"What people are saying is most of the time is that they just want them to be sharp. We won't compromise on accuracy.
Pros
"The best images tend to have been captured with the subject at the centre, or just off the centre of the frame and later cropped - that's how most [pro] sports photographers shoot."The digital generation may come to rely on customising the camera, but most pros aren't working that way at the moment," he continued.
It seems, for the moment at least, those wanting to capture something at the edge of the frame will need to use the time honoured method of focusing and recomposing.
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Exclusive: Nikon: We won't compromise on AF accuracy
Nikon has said that it views the accuracy of its AF points as more important than having more points towards the edge of the frame.
Although both the Nikon D800 and Nikon D4 utilise a 51 point autofocus system, all of these are clustered together in the centre of the frame, within the DX cropping frame.
Other cameras, including DX (APS-C format) SLRs, but particularly compact system cameras, have autofocus points available right up to the edge of the frame.
Speaking to TechRadar, James Banfield of Nikon UK said, "The accuracy of the focusing is really sacred. People look at images at 100% to see if they are pin sharp. The most accurate area of the optic is the central area, and there's not a great deal you can do about that."
Banfield said that the company conducts research with professional photographers to find out how the cameras are being used in the real world.
"As a manufacturer, we love to assume that professional photographers are using all the different points, but actually the research tells us that they don't necessarily use them all," he said.
"What people are saying is most of the time is that they just want them to be sharp. We won't compromise on accuracy.
Pros
"The best images tend to have been captured with the subject at the centre, or just off the centre of the frame and later cropped - that's how most [pro] sports photographers shoot."The digital generation may come to rely on customising the camera, but most pros aren't working that way at the moment," he continued.
It seems, for the moment at least, those wanting to capture something at the edge of the frame will need to use the time honoured method of focusing and recomposing.
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Chrome overtakes Internet Explorer as web's top browser
It looks as though Google Chrome has finally pipped Microsoft's Internet Explorer to the most-used web browser post according to Stat Counter's figures.
Last we heard from Stat Counter, Chrome had zipped past Firefox in the global web use stakes but was still nipping at IE's heels.
But that was December 2011 and in the intervening months Chrome has gone from strength to strength despite IE9's intervening launch and mega-bucks marketing campaign.
Friar fox
The crossover point came just weeks ago in early May as Chrome just poked past IE in global usage but there's no guarantee that this is now a permanent situation.And, of course, it's worth bearing in mind that measuring browser stats is no exact science and the figures are pretty darn close – Chrome comes in at 32.5 per cent and IE at 32.1 per cent for the last two weeks globally.
Chrome IE O
But if you look at the line graph below you'll see that Chrome is trending towards the upwards and IE generally slipping downhill.
Worldwide is one story but looking into separate territories tells another. Both the UK and the US remain quite IE-biased with Chrome lagging fairly far behind.
But in Asia, Chrome is far and away the most popular browser despite a sharp downturn in recent weeks.
All this proves is that it's a turbulent time in web browser loyalty. One to watch.
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ViewSonic Pro8300 projector lands for under a grand
ViewSonic has announced the latest addition to its projector family – the ViewSonic Pro8300.
Made with business heads in mind but with enough home entertainment features for the machine to moonlight as a home cinema on weekends, the Pro8300 has been given a brightness of 3000 lumens, offers up a 4000:1 contrast ratio and has a 1.5X optical zoom lens.
The technology used by ViewSonic to give the projector's images a little bit of a kick is called BrilliantColor and this is all pushed through the ViewSonic's Pixelwork PW980 10-bit image processor.
Pro specs
When it comes to connectivity, there are dual HDMI inputs so you can connect it to a laptop, Blu-ray player or if you are feeling a little bit fancy, a tablet and smartphone.The projector is surprisingly 'short throw' as well, able to project 100-inch 16:9 images from a distance as low as 3.16 metres.
And for those who don't mind listening to their audio through a projector's speakers and not a surround sound setup, there are two 10 watt speakers on board – which are decent enough for your average meeting room.
The ViewSonic Pro8300 is shipping now and is priced at £999.
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Sony Xperia U UK release date and prices confirmed
The Sony Xperia U will be arriving on doorsteps from May 22 in the UK, via mobile network Three.
Mobile site Omio revealed that the Xperia U is available to pre-order from Three and Dial-a-phone, with contracts starting from as little as £10.50 per month.
Dial-a-phone is predicting the Xperia U to arrive with customers on May 25, with Three touting a date three days earlier.
Impressive handset
The baby of Sony's new range, the Xperia U offers up a 3.5-inch display, 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, 5MP camera with LED flash and 720p video recording and a front facing camera.The Xperia U will ship running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but Sony has confirmed it will receive an update to Ice Cream Sandwich later in the year.
We were impressed in our hands on Sony Xperia U review, and we reckon this budget Android offering will be a strong contender in the low-priced market.
Look out for our full in-depth review soon, which will offer you everything you need to know about the Sony Xperia U.
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In Depth: How future tablets can run high-end desktop apps
You can already get a version of Photoshop for Android and iPad, but it only has a fraction of the features in the Windows and Mac versions.
Partly that's because a touch screen doesn't give you the fine control you need for complex editing, but it's also because the ARM processor isn't powerful enough to run all the processing intensive filters. On a Mac or PC, those features use both the CPU and the GPU to run faster.
Now that Nvidia has the VGX technology that lets multiple virtual machines use one Nvidia graphics card both for displaying the screen and running GPU calculations (like hardware accelerating a browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer), running a whole Windows desktop is only the first step. Why not just run part of the application in the cloud, inside a native Android or iOS application?
That's called a 'viewport application' and Nvidia VGX product manager Will Wade explained to TechRadar how these applications would work.
First you have an iOS or Android application that has the familiar interface with menus and toolbars. "Rendering this piece is easy," so you can do that using the graphics processor on the tablet. But the main screen of the program, where you use the features that need more processing and graphics power runs in the cloud, on a virtual machine with a virtual GPU that's more powerful than the tablet; what you see in the app is a like a porthole (or a viewport) showing something running elsewhere.
"If you have a high end application like AutoCAD or Autodesk or Adobe, you just remote that part of the app. If you're running on a server then you're really running the exact right computer function on the exact right hardware. You only remote the viewport because that's what the GPU does really well."
Obviously there are drawbacks; you can only use a viewport application when you're online, and you have to have a fairly fast connection. Nvidia is recommending around one megabyte/second for streaming a Windows desktop, although one of the engineers is getting a good enough connection by tethering his iPhone as a modem.
The Kepler-powered VGX cards are faster at getting information from the frame buffer ready to send to a remote system than the graphics cards in a server today; add the time it takes to get across the network and Nvidia says it's about the same time as the graphics processor in a console putting images up on screen).
But the cloud will have to be fast as well; it's one thing to wait for an image to display but if you're tweaking an effect pixel by pixel you need the app to respond quickly. The GeForce GRID-powered gaming clouds like Gaikai that stream games to tablets claim to have only 5 milliseconds of latency, but that's expensive to build.
Because you're using GPU and CPU time on the cloud every time you run the application (and storage and power), you'd probably have to pay a monthly fee rather than buying the application the way you do today. And it's a lot of work to change the application so that it runs on a server but responds to taps on the interface on your tablet.
Even so, Nvidia VP Jeff Brows told TechRadar that software companies like Adobe are keen to create these combined applications using virtual GPUs in the cloud.
"There are a number of software vendors like Adobe that have talked about providing hosted applications or services via the cloud and they're going to need GPU behind them. This technology is going to be key for them to get the economics to where they need to be."
Pushing the idea of cloud apps, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said this week that "The idea of buying an application in a box is weird to me. Tomorrow, it's just wrong." Maybe in a few years the idea of running an application all on the same device will seem odd too.
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More than a third of consumers read email on mobile
More than a third of marketing emails are being read on mobile devices, according to a new report from digital agency Steel London, who recommend that marketers need to now consider when and where their messages are opened to maximise opens and engagement.
The report "Are your emails ready for mobile devices?" found overall, over a third (36%) of consumers in the UK now read emails on their mobile devices. Among 18-34 year olds this number rises significantly to over half (55%).
Furthermore, those that read emails on their mobile take action - two-thirds act on mobile emails with most (42%) clicking through to a website or making a purchase (30%).
Steel's report found that 38% of those who read emails on their mobile device did so because the subject line sounded interesting. Steel recommends that marketers need to adapt their email marketing for mobile to ensure their marketing messages are easily read across a multitude of devices, but to also remember traditional email marketing rules still apply.
Complaints from consumers about full-size emails read on mobile devices include;
- Overall, 42% complain of too much scrolling;
- 89% of consumers age 55+ complain of too much scrolling;
- Overall, 29% complain of emails being in the wrong layout for their mobile;
- 45% of 18-34 year olds complain of emails being in the wrong layout for their device;
- 27% complain there is too much content in emails, and;
- 20% complain that links are not easy to use.
Read our Beginner's guide to marketing to an email audience for more advice on getting through to a mobile audience
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HTC devices begin making it through US customs
HTC has confirmed that some of its handsets have successfully made it through US customs, as Apple presses for them to be banned should they be found to infringe patents.
Last week we reported that the HTC One X and Evo 4G LTE had been delayed in America, as US customs investigated claims by Apple that the handsets infringed on its patents.
This news was followed a couple of days later by retailer Best Buy telling customers they won't get the Evo 4G LTE any time soon, but that may not be the case.
Confident issue will be resolved soon
HTC posted an update on its investor site saying; "Each imported HTC model must be reviewed by Customs and will be released once Customs officials have completed the inspection."Some models have gone through inspection and been released to our carriers customers.
"We don't have the status of each specific device model at this time, but we are working closely with Customs. We remain confident that this issue will be resolved soon."
It's still unclear which handsets, and in what quantity, have made it into stores, but there's now light at the end of the tunnel for anyone waiting for their fancy new HTC One X to turn up.
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Alibaba buys back shares from Yahoo
Chinese e-commerce giant and parent company of small business B2B portal alibaba.com used by over one million UK businesses, has agreed to buy back about 20 percent of its own company stake from Yahoo, giving the Chinese e-commerce giant greater control over its own operations, and boosting Yahoo's fortunes by over $6 billion.
The agreement also allows Yahoo to cash in on its remaining stake, once Alibaba decides to go public in the future. Alibaba will be required to buy one quarter of Yahoo's current stake at the initial public offering price, or allow Yahoo to sell off those shares.
Yahoo acquired about a 40 percent stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant as part of $1 billion deal made in 2005 that set the companies up as strategic partners, however the partnership never really flowered, and the two companies have been in discussions about Alibaba buying back its stake from Yahoo for some time.
In addition to the share repurchase, the companies have also agreed to amend their existing technology and intellectual property licensing agreement, so Alibaba will continue to operate Yahoo China for Yahoo for the next four years paying $550 million upfront, plus yearly royalties, and Yahoo will licence some of Alibaba's patents, but neither Yahoo or Alibaba say which patents.
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Motorola gets selective over Ice Cream Sandwich Update
Motorola has released more details regarding its plans for the Ice Cream Sandwich update, and some devices are set to miss out.
A recent blog post by Motorola confirmed that it's starting to roll out the Android 4.0 update to certain devices, but highlights that it won't be bringing it to every handset.
Motorola states: "we want the new release to improve our devices. If we determine that can't be done - well then, we're not able to upgrade that particular device."
Update must improve device
Motorola will be rolling out the update to its top end devices, including the Motorola Xoom, Motorola Xoom 2 and Xoom 2 Media Edition tablets, Motorola Razr (Droid Razr in US) and Razr Maxx (Droid Razr Maxx in US).The Motorola Defy+, Defy Mini, Motoluxe and Milestone 2 are all part of the gang who will be stuck with Android Gingerbread.
This may be a bitter pill to swallow for those who own a handset which is going to be shunned by Motorola. If you want to check the status of your Motorola device, a full run down of ICS updates can be found on the Motorola blog.
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Apple, Samsung patent war 'peace talks' begin today
Later today, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung head Choi Gee-sung will sit down together for the first of two days of court-ordered mediation.
Like a couple of warring parents, the US courts have decided it's time to lock the two together in a room and make them address their differences because, well, won't somebody think of the children?
Oh to be a fly on the wall in that meeting, which is just the latest episode of the great tech soap opera that is the patent war between the two tech giants being fought in courts around the globe.
Trade it in for a younger model
Both Apple and Samsung insist that the other has infringed on their patents, while each insists that they haven't infringed on the other's patents at all.We have no evidence to suggest that either company has come out with "I know you are but what am I?", but at this point we really wouldn't be surprised.
The US case is heading to trial at the end of July, when courts will decide if Apple's iPad and iPhone or Samsung's Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S line up are indeed the intellectual property of the other.
It will be a big win for whoever comes out on top, as the States is one of the biggest mobile devices markets and could lead to a sales ban and hefty fines for the loser.
Since it's unlikely that this level-headed mediation plan will actually offer any tangible results, gadget fans will be forced to come together to concoct a scheme to get Apple and Samsung to resolve their differences, possibly involving twins.
No! Wait! Identical products? That's the last thing we need...
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Samsung Galaxy S3 ROM leaked, now available
Android modders of the world are feeling pretty chipper after the ROM from the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S3 leaked and is up for download now.
So if you want to try out S Voice, Pop-up Play, and Smart Stay on your Android handset (and have rooted your phone already/are willing to give it a crack) head over to the link and give it a whirl.
It's not an official release, so you try it at your own risk - and most people will need to wait for the custom ROM for their own device to land before getting it to work.
The full ROM comes in at a hefty 800MB download, so you might need to clear some space on your mobile. And make sure you're connected via Wi-Fi, unless you want to use most of your data allowance.
S Voice, Samsung's own Siri-style voice-activated personal assistant is available as a separate download, if you don't want the full-fat version. Though from the looks of things it might only play nice with Samsung Galaxy handsets.
The ROM should work on any Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Android device eventually though.
Floating video
Pop-up Play lets you watch a floating video on top of the browser, while Smart Stay uses the S3's 2-megapixel front camera to know when you're looking at it, and ensure the screen stays on until you avert your gaze.All these features are new for the Samsung Galaxy S3, so you won't find them on any other handset (although other apps have simulated some functionality, such as Stick It! that allows videos in floating panes). Unless someone's downloaded this ROM, that is.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 was unveiled at an event in London on May 3. It features a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED screen, 1.4GHz quad-core processor, and 8-megapixel camera. It'll go on sale next week.
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Amazon Kindle to be sold in Waterstones
The Amazon Kindle is coming to a high street near you. Book chain Waterstones has announced it'll sell the ebook reader alongside its old-fashioned paper books, as well as let you browse ebooks in-store.
The news comes a few months after James Daunt, managing director at Waterstones, said the bookseller would launch its own rival to the Kindle.
Back in September, he told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme: "We in Waterstones need to offer you a digital reader which is at least as good, and preferably substantially better, than that of our internet rival. And you will have a much better buying experience purchasing your books through us."
Kindle family
The chain's ebook reader project was "well down the planning line" according to Daunt, who'd been at the helm only a few months at the time.Now, hastily backtracking, Daunt said in a statement: "The best digital readers, the Kindle family, will be married to the singular pleasures of browsing a curated bookshop."
While Jeff Bezos, Amazon chief executive, added: "Waterstones is the premier High Street bookseller and is passionate about books and readers - a dedication that we share deeply."
Amazon has delayed launching some varieties of its Kindle ebook readers in the UK, with the Kindle Touch only reaching these shores last month. And we're still waiting for the Kindle Fire, Amazon's Android-powered tablet.
The announcement to sell the Kindle ties in with a store refurbishment scheme for Waterstones, which includes dedicated areas for digital books, free Wi-Fi, and coffee shops.
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Wasted time in meetings costs businesses £26 billion
New research from Epson and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) has found workers waste two hours and 39 minutes in meetings every week, and it's costing businesses an estimated £26 billion a year.
The report found that if these wasted hours had been spent productively this would equate to roughly 13 million more productive hours per week and an annual increase in gross domestic product (GDP) of approximately 1.7 percent.
The results found that UK office workers think that over half their time in meetings is wasted, as they estimate spending 4 hours in meetings per week and believe that 2 hours 39 minutes of this time is wasted. However, respondents make up an average of 1 hour and 50 minutes of that wasted time later on. This means that the average office worker wastes 49 minutes per week, equating to the loss of roughly £26 billion to the UK economy estimated by Cebr.
Daniel Solomon, Economist for Cebr, said that despite it seeming a relatively short time, 49 minutes a week wasted is significant.
"Even though office workers are only about 60% of all people in employment, the average office worker contributes more to GDP than the average non-office worker," he said.
"Hence, the 49 minutes wasted in meetings per week has a substantial impact on GDP. With the UK experiencing the first double dip recession since the 1970s, it is vital that UK businesses look to address their policies on meetings and consider ways that these meetings could become more effective. This research suggests that if meetings became more efficient, GDP could be increased without anyone having to spend any more of their day at the office."
technology failures in meetings waste time
Repetition of information, lack of focus amongst attendees and unstructured agendas were seen as the top time-wasters in meetings closely followed by technology, with 16 percent of respondents citing technology failure as a main cause for wasted time in meetings. Sixty eight percent admitted to finding it distracting when others use tablets, smartphones or laptops during meetings and nearly half (41 percent) admit to using a tablet, laptop or smartphone in meetings for non-work-related purposes. However, over a third (36 percent) stated that their personal device slightly improves their productivity during meetings.Neil Colquhoun, Business Sales Director from Epson UK comments, "Wasted time in meetings is something which most of us can identify with but when this is seen in the context of UK GDP, the drain on productivity that ineffective meetings have is really put in perspective. The good thing is there are lots of things which businesses can do to address time wasted, starting by asking staff about their main bug bears in company meetings. Senior managers can then use this feedback to identify appropriate practical steps such as introducing structured agendas, supplying more appropriate AV technology or even providing more refreshments to set their staff on course for a more productive use of their time in meetings."
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Review: Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt Duo 4TB
The My Book Thunderbolt Duo is Western Digital's first desktop drive to use an ultra-fast Thunderbolt interface. In fact, it has two such ports, so the drive and an external display can be connected to a Mac with just one by daisy-chaining the display from the drive.
There are two disks inside, and WD has improved the marking and releasing of the mechanism that lets you in, should a disk need replacing.
They're configured as a striped array by default, for the full capacity of 4TB in a single volume, with the risk that everything is lost if one disk expires. However, it has tremendous speed benefits. With files of 2MB and larger, it averaged 298.4MB/second when reading, and 266.1MB/second when writing, but with large variation in write speeds, between 353.1MB/second down to a low of 217.2MB/second.
Fortunately, the supplied software enables you to easily reconfigure the hard disks as a mirrored array, halving the usable capacity and slowing transfer rates, but with the insurance of having two copies of your data. In this mode, read speeds averaged 189.1MB/second, and 126.4MB when writing. We found less variation in write speed in this mode. It peaked at 176.8MB/second, and hit a low of 111.7MB/second with a 100MB file.
The Thunderbolt Duo delivers speeds in excess of the equivalent FireWire 800-equipped Studio II drive, and it can be bought for £400, which isn't a huge premium.
However, its performance is inconsistent compared to some other Thunderbolt RAID arrays, such as LaCie's Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series 240GB SSD, which are a better option when sustained high speed is essential.
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Competition: WIN! £600 worth of Sony audio and video software
Here's your chance to win professional video and audio software courtesy of Sony Creative Software. Up for grabs are the great Sony Vegas Pro 11 and Sony ACID Pro 7 software packages, a prize pack worth over £600!
Sony ACID Pro 7
Includes £300 of software plug-ins
- Garritan ARIA for ACID Pro Player
- ACID Pro Effects Rack powered by iZotope
- Native Instruments Guitar Combos
- Submerisble Music KitCore
ACID Pro 7 software is a DAW (digital audio workstation) powerhouse that combines full multitrack recording and mixing, MIDI sequencing, and legendary ACID looping functionality for a seamless music creation and post-production environment.- Garritan ARIA for ACID Pro Player
- ACID Pro Effects Rack powered by iZotope
- Native Instruments Guitar Combos
- Submerisble Music KitCore
Get up and running quickly with new interactive tutorials. Other new features include a dedicated mixing console, MIDI track freeze, input busses, tempo curves, and enhanced format support.
For more information on Sony ACID Pro 7, pay a visit to www.sonycreativesoftware.com/acidpro.
Sony Vegas Pro 11
Also includes...
Titler Pro
Advanced 3D Titling from NewBlueFX (worth £190)
The Vegas Pro 11 collection - Vegas Pro 11, DVD Architect Pro 5.2, and Dolby Digital Professional Encoder - provides an efficient, intuitive and integrated content creation environment for video and broadcast professionals.Titler Pro
Advanced 3D Titling from NewBlueFX (worth £190)
For more information on Sony Vegas Pro 11, pay a visit to www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro.
One lucky winner will receive a pack containing a copy of Acid Pro 7 and Vegas Pro 11. Good luck!
Click here to enter this great competition
Please note that this competition is only open to UK residents over 18 years of age.
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Panasonic officially reveals 12-35mm X lens
Panasonic has finally confirmed the official release of the much talked about 12-35mm f/2.8 X lens, which will cost around £1,000.
After announcing the development of the lens, earlier in the year, much excitement surrounded the optic - which is the first Micro Four Thirds zoom lens to offer a constant aperture of f/2.8.
Compatible with Panasonic's G range of cameras - as well as the Olympus PEN and OM-D range - it offers an equivalent of 24-70mm in 35mm terms, a classic zoom lens choice for full frame users.
Constructed from metal, the lens is manufactured in Panasonic's Yamagata factory in Japan, which is intended to reflect the firm's commitment to the quality of the lens.
Zoom
Although it bears the name X, as the 12-42mm power zoom lens, it features a standard zoom function - as in by twisting a central lens ring - it does feature Power Optical Image Stablisation though. It's water and dustproof, with Panasonic expecting that the majority of sales will come from G3, GH and GX users.As it doesn't use a power zoom, Panasonic says that the lens is aimed at stills photographers, more than videographers.
The new addition brings the total of Panasonic Micro Four Thirds (MTF) lenses available to 16 - giving MFT a much larger range than its rivals from Sony, Nikon, Pentax and Fuji.
The Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 'X' lens price will be around £1,000 and it will be available from the end of June.
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Samsung open to cross-licensing accord with Apple
Samsung appears to have softened its stance ahead of court-enforced peace talks with Apple, raising hope that this week's summit could see the beginning of the end of the patent wars.
The head of Samsung Mobile JK Shin and CEO Choi Gee-sung are heading to the United States ahead of the meeting with Apple boss Tim Cook on Monday.
Shin had previously indicated he would offer "no compromise" with Apple in the battle that has seen the companies file suit against each other in nice countries around the world.
However, he told reporters on Sunday: "There is still a big gap in the patent war with Apple but we still have several negotiation options including cross-licensing."
End in sight?
If Apple is agreeable, it could mean the two companies could possibility reach an accord on allowing each other access to the intellectual property being debated.However, it's difficult to see Tim Cook's charges sacrificing their long-held believe that Samsung "blatantly copied" the iPhone and iPad for its Galaxy Tab slates and Galaxy smartphones.
The respective parties are meeting following orders from a California judge, who is seemingly as bored with these two brands going at each other as the rest of the world.
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