In-depth: 10 things to know about the iPhone OS 4.0

Steve Jobs took to the stage in Cupertino to finally unveil the new iPhone 4.0 OS, offering some expected treats and some surprises.

Along with his so-called seven 'tent-pole' services, there were a number of other elements that promise to keep the iPhone at the sharp end of the smartphone game, so let us tell you all you need to know about the new OS:

1. Multi-tasking

Any iPhone user will have been enraged for years that they can only perform one task at a time on their device (and this now includes iPad users as well).

Thankfully, that has changed, and in true Apple form it's been done with a slick overlay.

Basically, rather than an ugly task manager, double-tapping the home button will bring up a dock of (admittedly, only four) running applications you can switch to while staying in another app.

While this is cool in itself, Apple is taking it up a notch by using the multi-tasking element to add in some new functionality.

Location-based services and VoIP are all now included and can stay running even when you're on the move and not using them - great news for the likes of Skype.

And push just got that much bigger for Apple - while push notifications have hit 10 billion since launch last year, new 'local' notifications won't need to parse the Apple servers, thus saving batteries.

2. Apple's new Game Center

Apple has been banging on about how great its iPhone platform is for gaming, and its launched the Game Center to back it up.

Basically, it's a way of taking gaming for the iPhone from the device and into the cloud, with the launch of social networking for gaming.

This means that you can invite friends to join you in a game, or if you're up too late/a complete Billy-No-Mates then you can use the MatchMaking option to find you a gaming partner.

Additional functionality comes in the form of integrated leader boards and achievements - ways to boast about how good you are at games is kind of the reason we all play them in the first place.

Apple hinted that points might come into the achievements soon, jumping on the bandwagon Microsoft put in motion with Windows Phone 7.

3. Revolutionising the world of mobile advertising

We all wondered what Apple was doing when it quietly bought Quattro last year, a mobile advertising firm.

Well, it's become clear - it was launching iAd, to help it change the way we think about mobile advertising.

Say what you like about Jobs' lot, its made a huge success of the mobile apps market, and its taken that know-how and used it to actually make in-app advertising compelling.

Imagine you're in a general movie showtimes app, and then suddenly you see Woody from Toy Story poking his head out the bottom. 'Peel' the bottom layer up and you get an app within an app, offering you all kinds of cool things.

App developers can add in things like maps, video and e-commerce stores from these iAds, meaning a rich source of revenue that is a lot more entertaining than simply seeing boring words served against your App.

Apple has realised the potential here too - it's taking a massive 40% of the revenue for 'serving the iAds', which could be a very tidy extra income indeed.

4. Folders for your icons

Ever been left frustrated by the fact that you can 'only' have 180 icons on your home screen? Well, Folders is here to save you from that fate, giving you the ability to hoard up to 2,000 apps on your device.

It's more about organisation than anything else - making it easier to group your applications into elements like gaming, sports apps, utilities etc.

The folders themselves will auto-name, or you can call them what you like. If you don't want your partner to find your more dodgy apps, we don't recommend calling the folder 'System32' - not only is it not very Apple-like, apparently they know that it's not a real OS subfolder...

And for Jobs' final folder trick, it was shown that you can now change the background wallpaper on the iPhone. You know, like you've been able to do on phones since the dark ages.

5. The unified inbox

The iPhone has evolved slowly - too slowly, some might say, with Apple seemingly dragging its heels to make sure it has stuff to update.

But one of the problems to come out of these slow updates is the existence of so many email inboxes on people's iPhones, meaning you have to jump in and out of them to see all your mail - tricky if you're a freelancer or just an @ enthusiast.

So Apple has unified them all into one place - thankfully coinciding with the announcement you can have more than one Exchange account on its devices.

Not only will the messages appear in one central place, the conversations will now also be threaded, meaning you won't have to hop in and out of emails to see what's been said.

Attachments via Apps are also included as well - meaning you can open and manipulate elements included on email the way you want to.

6. iBooks comes to the iPhone

While we in the UK were slightly underwhelmed by the iPad announcements of the iBookstore (not least because we're not getting it over here yet) it doesn't mean it's not a good thing that Apple is expanding the functionality of the service to the iPhone.

In true Apple style, users will be able to buy an iBook from one place, be it the iPad, iPhone or somewhere else, and see it across platforms without needing to buy it again.

You'll also get full cloud-based synchronisation, meaning you don't need to lose your place should you leave the iPhone and want to continue reading on the iPad.

We're still not totally sold on the idea of eBook readers, but if they are to succeed, it's elements like this that will give them the boost they need - cross platform synchronisation is key.

You also get a free copy of Winnie the Pooh with the new iPhone iBookstore - we know, we don't really care either.

7. Guess what? No flash still

Those of you waiting patiently for Flash to appear on the iPhone/iPad shouldn't hold your breath - Steve Jobs still seems dead against it.

Despite the increasing clamour for Flash (and Java) integration into the platform since the launch of the iPad, when questioned about the possible addition Jobs was pretty terse.

Asked whether Apple's position on Flash or Java would change, Jobs replied a flat: 'No', showing that it seems there's no thaw in sight for that frozen spat.

8. iPad widgets on the way?

It was a brief mention in the Q&A at the end, but it seems we might be getting widgets to fill that vast expanse of screen real estate on the iPad.

When questioned about why Apple decided against widgets on the iPad interface, the reply was pretty comical: 'We shipped it on the Saturday, and we rested on the Sunday'.

When pushed further on whether this meant widgets could appear in the future, the retort was 'Everything is possible.'

Given the high-powered abilities offered with the new iPhone 4 OS upgrade, also coming to the iPad, we can't help but feel widgets would be a great differentiator for the iPhone's bigger brother.

9. More love for enterprises

It's probably the least sexy element of the release, but hey, it's still very important given the amount of businesses out there using iPhones.

Apple will be offering increased data protection, wireless app distribution (so IT guys can decide what you should be using and multiple Exchange accounts to make all your business suit people out there more efficient.

Add into that SSL VPN support (crucial for a number of users and sorely missed so far) and an upgrade to Exchange Server 2010 mean that the iPhone is now that little bit more relevant in the boardroom.

10. A later iPhone launch than usual?

Jobs sprang a possible surprise on us with the announcement of the release date for the iPhone 4 firmware - it will be coming in the 'summer'.

Looking at last year's timings, the 3.0 firmware was announced in mid-March, the iPhone 3GS unveiled on 8 June and the firmware launched on 17 June, two days ahead of the iPhone 3GS launch.

We're a month later than that already this year, and while a mid-June launch for the new iPhone (if we're getting one at all) would still be technically summer, we're starting to wonder if Apple is looking more at July or even August for a possible launch.

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Farm Frenzy 3: Ice Age

Chill out with an all-new Farm Frenzy adventure!

Join Scarlett as she travels to the North Pole to check out a farm she purchased through a newspaper ad. When she arrives, she not only finds the property in a state of disrepair, she also meets two brothers who could use her help making ice cream.

While whipping up chilly treats in 90 levels of frosty fun, you’ll breed and care for penguins and other arctic animals, manufacture new products and enjoy a parade of visual gags!

[Download free trial of Farm Frenzy 3: Ice Age]

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Carter’s Encyclopaedia Of Health and Medicine IPAD

While nearly every site has certain tales of whimsy today, including Google renaming itself for the day to Topeka (I love that one!), the one story I really enjoyed was one at the GeekSmack site, telling a story we all, at one time or another wished was true.

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Carter’s Encyclopaedia Of Health and Medicine

Carter’s Encyclopaedia of Health and Medicine is an extremely comprehensive iPad application specifically written for the general public.

This 1,800 page encyclopedia containing 12,000 entries is being published first on iPad. The app’s design resembles that of an authoritative hardback encyclopedia complete with bookmarks and page creases. The app moves beyond the limits of a physical book with a full text search, an interactive body diagram, browsing history, and adjustable font size.



Find out more here.

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New Virus Hypnotizing Its Victims With Malware

Clearly this has been a month for security threats. Just learned a short time ago today that the latest threat to Windows users has been dubbed W32.Hypnotoad.2000. The payload for this nasty bit of malware remains a mystery, however the know affect of the virus has been fairly clear early on. Here is what we know.

1. W32.Hypnotoad.2000 is generally found through phishing schemes and email forwards.
2. Microsoft has no patch for it yet.
3. Apple and Linux machines remain unaffected and unwilling to feel any sympathy for Windows users.
4. Apple’s CEO/Grand Poompa Steve Jobs was quoted as saying; “Just get a Mac, you’ll be fine.”

Security experts are still working to sift through what all of this is about, but it looks like we will be seeing a lot of more of the Hypnotoad as the days turn into weeks.

Written for April Fools Day.

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Google In-Home Indexing For Nexus One Phones

Well it’s about time. Seems that Google is taking their real world efforts to the next level. Apparently Google feels that their broadband efforts are not going far enough, thus feel that if home users are interested in receiving Google Broadband, it be worthwhile to have their users allow Google to “index” their homes.

I know, this sounds nuts. But if you think about it, what a convenience it would be to have a user’s home contents available online and accessible for insurance purposes! Sounds like a great idea, except for possible privacy headaches.

Should we be concerned over this Google Home Indexing trend? I think we should be, although at this point it seems to be completely voluntary. And this is a good thing. Do we really want Google in our homes like this? Well, that is something that is going to decided by each person out there. For myself and my family, Google is welcome to index my home’s contents so long as they remember to remove their shoes and bring cookies for the dogs. It’s all I ask.

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5 Reasons Not To Buy An iPad

While many Apple enthusiasts can’t wait to be in line to own their newest creation, the iPad, this weekend, others are taking note of some of the reasons why it may not be worth its weight in hype. While the iPad certainly sounds and looks cool, making it seem as though Apple is yet again leading a technological revolution, it may not be all its cracked up to be.

Ana Livia Coelho, in behalf of TechStartUps.com, has sent us this list of reasons that will force even the most avid Apple junkie to think twice before making the leap of purchase.

• No multitasking. No searching the Web as you chat on AIM, no listening to Pandora as you read an eBook. Sure, the iPad is faster than your smartphone, but what good is added speed when you will have to be constantly going in and out of apps instead of being efficiently able to do them all at once?
• No Flash. An understandable limitation in the world of cell phones, but this is unacceptable in a product trying to position itself in the world of notebooks. Not only do many Web sites require Flash to view certain content, but some require it for simple Web site access.
• Limited software. Like the iPhone, it only runs apps from Apple’s App Store. Although there are tons of apps at Apple’s store, it still bans certain apps, such as Google Voice. Your notebook does not.
• What will you use it for? The iPad is not going to replace any of your existing technology. Your smartphone may have a smaller screen, but it does just about everything the iPad does (not to mention that it makes phone calls). The iPad’s clumsy touch screen keyboard and limited capabilities make it incapable of replacing your laptop, and even a Kindle is a more practical alternative to the iPad as an eReader.
• It is sure to get better. If you still feel like you really need an iPad, at least wait until the next model comes out. By then Apple will have heard all the above complaints and it will be greatly improved, and probably cheaper. Case in point: the iPhone.

• http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B002VBJXPY/lockergnome Purple and Pink Pin Carrying Case with Optional Shoulder Strap For Archos 9 PC Tablet Style Portable PC Now with More Space, More Durable, Looks CooL + Includes a 4-inch Determination Hand Strap

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Twitepad Launch Delayed?

thomashk from InfoXenter and Twitepad writes:

Twitepad is an iPad Twitter client [that we were hoping would be] available at the iPad launch, but we had some bad news from Apple yesterday.

They rejected the build that was compiled with the final iPad SDK. We submitted a version to Apple for its review, But currently it’s hard to say if it will available for the grad opening of the iPad Store.

Background: Apple approved the Twitepad version that was compiled with the Beta5 SDK and we were under the impression that submitting a new binary compiled with the final SDK was just a formality.

Well, seems we were wrong. Sorry! Still, here’s the video so you can see what it looks like in action:



Follow Twitepad on Twitter for news about Twitepad, only.

Follow thomashk on Twitter for news about Twitepad, iPad, Apple, iPhone, and more!

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iMockups For The iPad

Developers are going to want this app for their iPad. If you weren’t planning to buy an iPad, this app alone could very well change your mind. You already carry around some type of notebook to sketch out your ideas for the next must-have iPhone or iPad app, right? Using this app on your shiny new iPad will make your life easier, methinks.



iMockups is going to make it much easier for you to create wireframes and layouts for the iPad or iPhone — and for Web apps. Any project can have multiple sketchbook pages associated with it, and developers can quickly add elements from a pad at the side of the screen. If arms hurt from carrying around a clunky machine, this app (combined with the iPad itself) could be exactly what your chiropractor ordered.

Credit to TUAW for discovering this app first.

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Only Some Like It Hot

As anyone who has suffered from a cold or flu knows, a high temperature is an unpleasant but important side effect of the body’s immune reaction when fighting off pathogens. Laboratory studies, in which the immune responses of animals could be observed in detail, have shown that these responses display significant variations. Why doesn’t every organism defend its body at the maximum possible level of intensity? New immunological theories presume that immune responses are “costly”, that is they compete with other energy-consuming processes such as partner selection, territorial behaviour and reproduction. Each individual has limited resources and must, therefore, enter into compromises, so-called trade-offs. This could explain why different species with different living conditions also display variations in their immune responses.

Laboratory tests can only simulate the conditions that prevail in nature to a very limited extent. In captivity, animals have unlimited access to food, enjoy pleasant climatic conditions and are not vulnerable to predators. These conveniences can result in the absence of any need to compromise when it comes to the distribution of their energy reserves.

Jim Adelman, a doctoral student at the University of Princeton, and a staff working with Michaela Hau and Martin Wikelski at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell have now succeeded in measuring fever and illness-related behavioural changes in various populations of a North American bird species living in the wild, the song sparrow (Melospiza melodia). For the tests, individual sparrows were caught in South California and in the northern state of Washington. To stimulate the immune response in a standardised way, both groups were administered a small dose of bacterial cell walls which causes fever for a limited period of around one day. A control group was left untreated. Following the administration of the injection, a small transmitter weighing approximately 0.5 grams was attached to the birds’ backs and transmitted data on both their temperatures and activities over a 20-hour period.

Interestingly enough, the “injected” sparrows showed barely any increase in temperature during the day. However, during the night when, based on their natural biorhythms, birds reduce their metabolism and their temperatures by three to four degrees, clear differences emerged between the two populations: the Californian sparrows recorded a body temperature of over two degrees Celsius higher than the animals in the untreated control group of this population. As opposed to this, the temperatures of the more northern population increased by at most one degree and only during the first half of the night.

The song sparrows from Washington only have a very short breeding season of around 100 days. For this reason, they probably have to invest all of their resources in reproduction; the investment of time and energy in the immune response could reduce their breeding success. In contrast, due to their longer breeding period of 150 days, the sparrows in sunny California have greater scope for compensation and can give priority to the immune reaction.

“These results prove to us that limitations in the resources at the disposal of the organism and environmental conditions play a significant role in the strength of the immune response and, therefore, the capacity to fight infectious diseases,” says Jim Adelman. “With this study, we were also able to show that populations of the same species living in the wild display different immune reactions.” The study also represents an advance in terms of the possibilities available to scientists to study the processes and effects of the immune system under natural environmental conditions with the help of radio telemetry.

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Apple unveils thousands of apps for iPad

Applications for Apple's iPad can be viewed in the iTunes App Store ahead of the highly anticipated release of the tablet-style computer Saturday.

The batch offers a sneak peek of what's to come for the iPad and how users will be able to utilize the device, which Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled in January.

The iTunes store currently offers more than 2,500 iPad apps, such as Twitterific, AIM and Pandora, many of which will be familiar to iPhone and iPod Touch users.

The available apps cover a wide variety of categories, from entertainment and education to news and sports that, much like apps for other Apple products, range from useful to random.

How will you use the iPad?
Video: Apple iPad vs. Amazon Kindle
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* Apple iPad
* Apple Inc.
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Chatter from the blogosphere took aim at Apple's apparent change of heart over embargoing all things iPad-related until the device goes on sale Saturday.

"Apple, we hate embargoes too, so we think your undermining them is just great," a writer for TechCrunch said.

Comments also focused on the cost of the applications, which tend to run higher than those for the iPhone and iTouch.

The Lonely Planet Publications' "1,000 Ultimate Experiences" costs $19.99, MLB At Bat is priced at $14.99 and the diagramming program OmniGraffle goes for $49.99.

Most prices hover between 99 cents and $9.99 for programs such as Thesaurus XL, Hanoi Street Maps, Aki Mahjong, Stickies, Sex Offenders Search and ESPN Pinball. Familiar apps such as USA Today, AP and NPR are still free, so are apps for Netflix, eBay, and Yellow Pages, to name a few.

The iPad works with most of the 150,000 apps in the App Store, Apple says on its site.

"If you already have apps for your iPhone or iPod Touch, just sync them to iPad from your Mac or PC. They run in their original size or you can expand them to fill the iPad screen," the site says.

The product's unveiling in January was met with a mix of skepticism and fanfare from tech observers and Apple devotees, who have been waiting years for the next generation of Apple devices.

The half-inch thick, 1.5-lb. computer has a 1 GHz processor and is available in 16-gigabyte, 32-gigabyte and 64-gigabyte versions, Jobs said in January.

Pricing will start at $499 for the 16-gigabyte version, $599 for the 32-gig version and $699 for the 64, he said.

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AMD Bringing 3 Cores To The Laptop

For ostensibly the same reasons that someone would pick a three core processor for the desk, better performance than two cores, not as much power consumption as four cores, AMD now is giving the user that choice in the laptop form.

Most people will never fully use a four core processor on a laptop, both due to the peripherals attached, with their lack of speed, and because most laptop users always have a careful eye on the battery life. However, those same users might really look forward to a bit more than a dual core processor almost constantly pegged at 100% CPU usage.

AMD says they have chips for that, and InfoWorld tells about it -

Advanced Micro Devices will put triple-core processors into laptops to fill a power and performance gap, the company said.

Laptops today contain either dual-core or quad-core processors, and offering a triple-core CPU could bring laptops that are faster than the dual-core chips but more power-efficient than quad-core processors, said Bob Grim, director of client product marketing, at an AMD event during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The chips will ship by the end of the first half.

AMD’s offering would be the first triple-core processors available for laptops. AMD has been offering triple-core processors for desktops and offers only dual-core chips for laptops. Intel offers dual-core and quad-core chips for its laptops and desktops.

Laptops with dual-core processors offer good performance, but adding an extra core helps boost application performance, Grim said. For example, the third core can take on resource-heavy tasks like antivirus scanning while freeing up the other two cores. The chip could also be a power-efficient option to Intel’s quad-core chips, which usually go into power-hungry enthusiast systems.

AMD is also offering triple-core processors to PC makers as a way to differentiate from the usual dual-and quad-core offerings, Grim said.

The chips will be offered as part of the next-generation laptop platform code-named Danube and manufactured using the 45-nanometer process, which helps the company achieve higher levels of integration. The platform will also include dual-core and quad-core chips.

Danube processors are designed to boost laptop battery life by more than an hour, Grim said. The company is also launching a new platform for ultrathin laptops called Nile. Danube chips will support the faster DDR3 form of memory.

The company displayed the first laptop with a Danube chip at the event. The chip offers an improvement in speed and graphics compared to the current Dragon platform, Grim said. AMD is upgrading the integrated graphics capabilities in the platform.

AMD also displayed a desktop running on the next-generation Leo platform. The platform, which is based on processors with up to six cores, will include new integrated graphics and a chipset.

So, while breaking no new ground, these three core processors will make life easier for many who must live a life on the road with a laptop, or make things nicer for that person used to a fast machine at home, and wanting most of the performance when not there. These chips and the machines built around them should do that nicely, and after all, isn’t that what computers are supposed to do?

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Homebrew Science – Using Paint to Limit Wi-Fi Range

Homebrew Science – Using Paint to Limit Wi-Fi Range

the oracle

Nearly everyone has heard of the coating used by the stealth planes to absorb microwave radiation (radar), and thereby reduce or eliminate the image on a screen. In a similar vein, people in the United Kingdom, trying to focus and direct the radiation emitted by wi-fi transmitters have begun to use paint with aluminum oxide, to absorb the excess radiation. from slashdot “The BBC reports on people using aluminum oxide in their paint to block Wi-Fi signals from leaving their home or business. Aluminum oxide resonates at the same frequency as Wi-Fi signals and other radio waves, blocking data from going outside a building. It’s not a flawless solution, as it may also block AM/FM signals. You or your neighbors may be unwittingly using this already, as most pre-finished wood flooring uses aluminum oxide as a protective coating.” Between the selective painting of walls, floors, and ceilings, and the judicious use of Pringles can antennas, the enterprising ‘radio engineer’ can get great performance out of his home network, not imagined by the designers of the ’stock’ equipment. §

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Google’s Chrome Frame Comes Under Fire From All Sides

Google’s Chrome Frame Comes Under Fire From All Sides

Ron Schenone

I recall that when I first read about Google’s Chrome Frame my first thought was why. Why does Google care if Internet Explorer users can render a web page correctly or not? Shouldn’t this be a concern of Microsoft and not Google? What impact will adding Chrome Frame pose if it were added to Internet Explorer? It didn’t take long before others were asking the same question, especially the folks over at Mozilla who have developed the Firefox browser. In a recent article it states the following: Mitchell Baker, former Mozilla CEO and current chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation, and Mike Shaver, Mozilla’s vice president of engineering, both lamented Google’s release of Chrome Frame in blog posts. The browser experts, who helped Mozilla’s Firefox browser reach 23.8 percent market share largely at the expense of IE, are concerned Chrome Frame will further muddy the already cloudy waters of a fragmented browser market. Baker worried that once a Web browser has fragmented into multiple rendering engines, it’s very hard to manage information across Websites. Chrome Frame, she said, will make the Web even more unknowable and confusing. Baker noted: “Image you download Chrome Frame. You go to a website. What rendering engine do you end up using? That depends on the website now, not on you. And if you end up at a website that makes use of the Chrome Frame, the treatment of your passwords, security settings, personalization, all the other things one sets in a browser is suddenly unknown. Will sites you tag or bookmark while browsing with one rendering engine show up in the other? Because the various parts of the browser are no longer connected, actions that have one result in the browser you think you’re using won’t have the same result in the Chrome browser-within-a-browser. “At first glance this looks like it might be a useful option, offering immediate convenience to website developers in alleviating a very real pain. But a deeper look reveals significant negative repercussions.” Shaver echoed Microsoft when he noted running Chrome Frame within IE bogs down private browsing mode or Microsoft’s other security controls. It would appear that this is Google’s way to gain more market share and not actually help Internet Explorer users. What do you think? Source Eweek

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Google Supports Web Adoption Of Scalable Vector Graphics [SVG]

Google Supports Web Adoption Of Scalable Vector Graphics [SVG]

Ron Schenone

Scalable Vector Graphics have the support of most of the major browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera. But few web sites currently support this feature. Google and others are going to try and change this. So why should we be interested in this feature? SVG promises to change the way we view web sites: Bitmap images, such as this part of Wikipedia’s logo, don’t scale gracefully to different sizes. (Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET) SVG lets this Wikipedia logo be shown as many pixels wide as you’d like. (Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET) SVG Web can hand off SVG chores to browsers that support the standard. For those that don’t, it runs a Flash program to handle rendering, Neuberg said. “It will never match the performance of native support. It’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card, but it does help developers and users deploy content,” he said. At the conference, Google plans to show the fruits of work with Wikipedia to use SVG Web. Actual deployment of the technology is still one or two months away, awaiting more testing. I think that SVG promises to improve our visual experience on the Internet. I look forward to this new improvement. What about you? Comments welcome. Source.

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Google Now Offers To Translate Your Website - Expand Your Audience Globally

Google Now Offers To Translate Your Website - Expand Your Audience Globally

Ron Schenone

Google is now offering Website Translator Gadget that will make your website available in 51 different languages. Google admits that the translator is not perfect and is not a substitute for a translator. However they also state that the reader would get the ‘gist’ of what is on your website. According to the Google Blog it also states that: Today happens to be International Translation Day, and we’d like to take the opportunity to celebrate the contributions of translators all over the world. These translators play an essential role in enabling global communication, and with the rapid growth and ease of access to digital content, the need for them is greater than ever. We hope that professional translators, along with translation tools such as Google Translator Toolkit and this Translate gadget, will continue to help make the world’s content more accessible to everyone. I can see this as a valuable tool to increase traffic to your web site and help in communicating what you want those from other countries to know about your site.So if you have a website give this tool a try. Check out the link below for more information concerning the Website Translation Gadget from Google. Comments welcome. Source - Google Blog

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Can’t Wait for Your Windows 7 House Party?

Can’t Wait for Your Windows 7 House Party?

the oracle

Like some of you, I will be hosting a Windows 7 House Party, and just this morning (very early this morning) received a notice that my ‘party materials are on their way.’ Woo hoo! I am excited about the party, as it will be a good way for me to gauge how many of the people I might have as customers will be moving to Windows 7 very quickly. As I was looking around, I saw something I must have missed yesterday. There is an article on Ars Technica, that details a person who wrote to Steve Ballmer personally, about the Windows 7 House Party Program. Ain’t Nothin’ But A Houseparty! Just short of three weeks later, the Ars reader got what he was promised. That’s right, he’s the first one to get the free swag (we haven’t seen reports of anyone else receiving their pack yet); Windows 7 Party Packs are to be delivered to all chosen hosts by October 10, 2009. E-mails aren’t enough to prove that you got something for free though. We told him “pics or it didn’t happen” and he pointed us to his blog. Since we haven’t gotten our own Windows 7 Party Pack yet, we can’t compare for authenticity’s sake, but we doubt our reader faked these: The story is interesting, both in content, and in the fact that Mr. Ballmer would actually do something like this (we all know it is a golden moment for publicity, but still, many times, things like this would be put aside, never to be heard about by anyone) He must really want Windows 7 to succeed (like his job depends on it)! More than the story, there are a few pictures showing the copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, signed by the CEO, and other party materials. So, if you are interested in seeing what is coming, check it out! § Technorati Tags: Windows 7,Ultimate Edition,Signature Edition,Microsoft,swag,party stuff,Oct 22 - official launch • Fascinating.

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Toshiba to launch its first touch-screen tablet

The JournE Touch has 7-inch screen and is meant as a third device for consumers, for accessing the Internet or sharing content to other devices around the home.

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BMW's Augmented Reality Glasses Remake Mere Man Into Master Mechanic [Cars]

Mark Wilson

If BMW's research labs have a say, future service staff will learn the intricacies of working on German cars through a pretty handy looking augmented reality interface. Look beyond the cheesiness of the music, smug actor and his Oakley Thumps for a moment and actually examine the incredible practicality at work—highlighting/identifying parts of an engine and offering step by step instructions for completing complicated procedures. Give me a world UI like this, and I won't just change my own air filter. I'll be able to remove my own appendix. Oh, and my brain will never memorize how to do anything ever again, but let's forget that part... [BMW via MediaIte via Jalopnik]

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Apple Approves Line2, a Google Voice-esque Program For Toktumi [IPhone Apps]

Jason Chen

This Line2 app was just approved after a 3 month delay, partially caused by the Google Voice shenanigans Apple pulled back in July when they pulled out all the Google Voice apps from the App Store. This is really similar. Toktumi works similarly to Google Voice, letting you use one virtual number to forward to your real numbers. It doesn't support SMS, and it costs $15, but it supports business features like phone trees and other filtering options. The Line2 app is by Sean Kovacs, the guy who made "GV Mobile", the Google Voice app we still use on our iPhones now. It's strange that there's a double standard for these apps in the app store when they're so similar, but it could be the missing SMS functionality that makes Toktumi more appetizing for Apple/AT&T when compared to Google Voice. [Tech Crunch]

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