Tiny, Cloud-Powered Desktops

When smart phones first took off, many software companies figured people might want to view files on the small screens, but few thought anyone would use them for  creating, editing, and commenting on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. "We were proven wrong," says Raju Vegesna of Zoho, a company that offers online office tools.

Businesses are demanding things like spreadsheet and document editing tools that work anywhere, on any device. In response, large and small companies are now providing cloud-based office productivity applications for smart phones and tablets.

It takes creativity to make them work. Web-based word processors such as Google Docs weren't naturally able to process touch-screen input. Google had to rework Docs to give the ability to edit from certain devices, such as those running recent versions of Android. Zoho is building apps for mobile devices to bridge that gap for its products, enabling those programs to interpret users' touchscreen "clicks." Meanwhile, IBM is testing software that can break up large spreadsheets into portions for different users, making them less unwieldy to update and edit on tablets.

Cloud-based office software has been around for several years, making shared editing easier because multiple users need only keep track of one file. But the cloud is even more important when people are working on mobile devices, which are switched or replaced far more often than are desk-bound PCs.

The cloud is the natural central storage site not only for the data but for the productivity applications themselves, says Rick Treitman, entrepreneur in residence at Adobe and director of product marketing for its Acrobat.com cloud-based office applications. Zoho's Vegesna notes that users expect custom apps tailored to the iPhone, the Android tablet, or whatever device they're working on.

Scott Johnston, group product manager for Google Docs and Sites, says that while the interfaces will look different on phones, tablets, and PCs, "I suspect we're going full-featured on every device." He believes that workers will eventually use tablets in place of laptops and demand productivity software that works just as well on them. Potential advances in touch-screen technology?such as ways to give users more tactile feedback?could also accelerate demand for such apps.

While Google, for example, offers primarily cloud-based apps with light offline capabilities, Microsoft recently launched a cloud-based version of its Office productivity software called Office 365, betting that users will see advantages in full-featured offline software that also allows for accessibility in the cloud. Microsoft reasons that people want more features than most cloud apps offer, and to be able to work when network access is unavailable.

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KFA2 intros GTX 560 Ti that supports five displays

The crew over at KFA2 (a part of Galaxy) has unveiled a set of Nvidia graphics cards that feature improved support for multi-display configurations: a GeForce GTX 560 Ti that drives up to five screens and a GeForce 210 that handles four. Marketed as the "KFA2 GTX 560 Ti MDT X5" and "KFA2 210 MDT X4", the cards are equipped with the ViewXpand VMM1400/1402 chipset, which lets you "stack, clone and even create a virtual single display across multiple screens" -- an appealing trait for gamers and workaholics alike.

Besides the extended display support, both cards closely follow Nvidia's reference specs. KFA2's GTX 560 Ti features 384 CUDA Cores, GPU/shader clocks of 822/1645MHz, a 256-bit memory interface, 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM clocked at 4008MHz. There are six display outputs are spread across one DVI, one DisplayPort and four mini-HDMIs. Meanwhile, the GeForce 210 MDT X4 has 16 CUDA Cores, GPU/shader clocks of 589/1402MHz, a 64-bit memory interface, 1GB of DDR2 VRAM running at 800MHz, and two DVI ports.

Most of Nvidia's modern GeForce products only support two monitors per card. The almighty dual-GPU GeForce GTX 590 bucked that trend, but still only supports three displays. If someone wants to game on three or more displays, surely they'd be running a multi-GPU solution anyway, so what's the point you ask? In my case, I have two desktop displays running off my GTX 460's two DVI connectors with a TV wired to the mini-HDMI port.

Because the card only supports two screens, I have to use the Nvidia Control Panel to manually disable one of the desktop monitors and enable the TV along with changing the default audio device. Naturally, that has to be reversed when I want to sit back at the desktop. Losing access to the secondary monitor is no big deal if I'm away, but the process is far more cumbersome than it needs to be (and I've since automated it with AHK).

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44947-kfa2-intros-gtx-560-ti-that-supports-five-displays.html

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KFA2 intros GTX 560 Ti that supports five displays

The crew over at KFA2 (a part of Galaxy) has unveiled a set of Nvidia graphics cards that feature improved support for multi-display configurations: a GeForce GTX 560 Ti that drives up to five screens and a GeForce 210 that handles four. Marketed as the "KFA2 GTX 560 Ti MDT X5" and "KFA2 210 MDT X4", the cards are equipped with the ViewXpand VMM1400/1402 chipset, which lets you "stack, clone and even create a virtual single display across multiple screens" -- an appealing trait for gamers and workaholics alike.

Besides the extended display support, both cards closely follow Nvidia's reference specs. KFA2's GTX 560 Ti features 384 CUDA Cores, GPU/shader clocks of 822/1645MHz, a 256-bit memory interface, 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM clocked at 4008MHz. There are six display outputs are spread across one DVI, one DisplayPort and four mini-HDMIs. Meanwhile, the GeForce 210 MDT X4 has 16 CUDA Cores, GPU/shader clocks of 589/1402MHz, a 64-bit memory interface, 1GB of DDR2 VRAM running at 800MHz, and two DVI ports.

Most of Nvidia's modern GeForce products only support two monitors per card. The almighty dual-GPU GeForce GTX 590 bucked that trend, but still only supports three displays. If someone wants to game on three or more displays, surely they'd be running a multi-GPU solution anyway, so what's the point you ask? In my case, I have two desktop displays running off my GTX 460's two DVI connectors with a TV wired to the mini-HDMI port.

Because the card only supports two screens, I have to use the Nvidia Control Panel to manually disable one of the desktop monitors and enable the TV along with changing the default audio device. Naturally, that has to be reversed when I want to sit back at the desktop. Losing access to the secondary monitor is no big deal if I'm away, but the process is far more cumbersome than it needs to be (and I've since automated it with AHK).

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44947-kfa2-intros-gtx-560-ti-that-supports-five-displays.html

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Reports of Flash's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

On Monday, Adobe announced Edge, software for developing interactive content and animations using the open Web standard HTML5. Since this standard competes directly with Adobe's Flash, which can also be used to create multimedia but requires a browser plug-in, some see this as a sign that Flash's days are numbered.

But Adobe is far from abandoning Flash, and by offering tools for developing with HTML5, it could help maintain its position in Web development. Edge also highlights some of the things that Flash can do, but HTML5 still can't.

In many ways, Edge mimics Adobe's existing development tools for Flash. It has the same method of editing animations as Flash development tools, making it easier to compose and edit animations. In its current beta version, however, animation is about all Edge does, whereas Flash can be used to create interactive content, and video as well.

Ironically, Adobe's release of an HTML5 tool illustrates Flash's ease of use. HTML5's support for video and audio is still inferior to Flash, and HTML5 is nowhere near being able to support the kind of games widely available in Flash, says Al Hilwa, director of application development software research at industry analyst IDC. "Designers are finicky, so there's going to be a subsegment of Flash developers who will hang on until HTML5 evolves until it's where Flash is today," he says.

Adobe's commitment to HTML5 has surprised many people. The company has pushed hard to promote Flash in the face of resistance, most notably from Apple, which doesn't allow Flash on either the iPhone or the iPad. Yet conversations with outside developers, and with Adobe itself, reveal a counternarrative: Adobe doesn't make money on Flash; it makes money on the tools for developing Flash content. The company has long been opportunistic about jumping to whatever platform developers favor.

"Adobe can't dictate what technology people use," says Devin Fernandez, product manager of Adobe's Web Pro group. "But we know that what we can do is optimize our tooling for whatever people want to use."

When it comes to jumping to whatever technology is hottest, "I'd say they have a great track record in that regard," says Martijn Laarman, senior developer at Dutch Web development studio Poort80. Flash began life as FutureSplash, which was created to compete with Macromedia's Shockwave plug-in. Macromedia later acquired FutureSplash, dumped Shockwave, and was itself acquired by Adobe.

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Can Video Kill the Credit-Card Form?

The days of tediously having to punch in credit-card details whenever you make an online purchase may be numbered, thanks to a new payment system that turns any webcam into a credit-card reader.

Created by San Mateo, California-based Jumio, the new system, called Netswipe, not only makes online transactions simpler, but also improves security, says company CEO Daniel Mattes. The company's management team includes Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin.

Netswipe prompts customers to hold up their credit card to their webcam. An on-screen video feed guides them to hold it within a template so it can capture the details. "It takes about a quarter of a second to read," says Mattes. To complete the transaction, the customer types in the three-digit verification number on the back of the card.

For security reasons, Jumio does not store an image of a user's credit card, or the credit-card details.

Mattes says Jumio has spent the last two years developing the algorithms and secure video streaming technology that makes this possible. The company has worked with multiple universities and computer vision institutes and has accrued more than a million training samples to ensure its card reading and verification is fast and accurate.

Steven Murdoch, a computer security researcher at Cambridge University, says the system could be more convenient, but adds: "It has some issues, too, though, in that someone with a picture of your card might be able to use it as a counterfeit card."

Mattes says the system is designed to make this near impossible. "Jumio's technology analyzes credit cards to determine whether they're plastic and not paper," he says. This involves scanning the numbers and letters on the card to determine whether they're properly embossed, and checking card-specific features such as holograms.

Five large online merchants are preparing to implement Netswipe, Mattes says, and smaller companies can sign up to use it. "Smaller merchants simply need to embed a single line of code on their e-commerce website to offer their clients the option to pay with Netswipe," says Mattes. A mobile app version will be available in the next few months.

A number of other startups hope to shake up the payment industry. For example, Square has developed a small magnetic credit-card reader that plugs into the audio jack of an iPhone, iPad, or Android device. Not requiring the merchant to pay for extra hardware could be a significant advantage for Netswipe, says Murdoch, but he adds that, like Square, "one of the most important factors in whether Jumio succeeds is what deal they can negotiate with the banks which process the merchant side of the transactions."

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Have you seen the BBC?s cool interactive trailer for its new nature documentary?

The BBC has launched an impressive interactive trailer which explores behind the scenes of a new nature documentary.

One Life was released in cinemas across the UK on the 22nd of July, and the film is a ?celebration of the most brilliant and imaginative stories of survival from the natural world?.

A product of BBC Earth Films, One Life uses cutting-edge cinema techniques to capture animal behavior and ingenuity in their natural environment.

The interactive trailer, however, is particularly impressive. Visit the One Life website, and you can ?drag up? on any screen to view snippets about the animal in that particular scene, or you ?drag down? to go behind the scenes and watch videos and interviews with the makers of the film.

London-based creative agency The Brooklyn Brothers was responsible for coming up with the concept of making the trailer the actual website for the film, and the company worked in conjunction with Stink Digital towards creating the final site. Lawrence Weber, from The Brooklyn Brothers, said:

?Rather than making a website, and putting the trailer on it, we thought it would be good to make the trailer the actual website, so it?s a linear journey from start to finish.?

BBC Earth Films, which is part of BBC Worldwide and represents the BBC Natural History Unit, is one of the world?s biggest natural history production houses. It was the same house that produced the likes of Deep Blue in 2004, and Earth The Movie in 2005.

Meanwhile, here?s the non-interactive version of the trailer, direct from YouTube:

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/08/04/have-you-seen-the-bbcs-cool-interactive-trailer-for-its-new-nature-documentary/

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Gaming 30 ? Randomly Random

Gaming 30 ? Randomly Random

Posted on 31st Jul 2011 at 11:23 by Podcast with 18 comments

Joe is joined by Paul and Clive to muse about whether Battlefield 3 will really be better than Modern Warfare 3. The hype indicates that the former will be the better game, but Joe thinks they will be much of a muchness.

He?s also changed his mind on Rage, after being allowed to play the first three hours of the game and loving every minute. Previously, Rage has not received much praise, but it apparently plays brilliantly. Listen in to find out why.

We then quickly segue to the news that we could soon be playing one of the most highly anticipated games of the year: Deus Ex: Human Revolution is ready to ship. Yay!

We also grapple with the subject matter that was raised in the game's latest trailer (see the link above), and also discuss the confusing matter of the book of the game. The book is a prequel to Human Revolution, which is itself a follow-up prequel to the sequel of the original. Or something like that.


We also discuss whether DLC is necessarily a bad feature, and whether there?s any harm in long-term plans for a game that incorporates DLC, expansion packs or episodic updates. Is DLC evil and lazy, or is it just a bit of extra fun for a small fee?

We also answer a piece of reader-mail ? Mathew Whinney was so impressed with the visuals of Final Fantasy 13 on the PS3 that he asked why we don?t see the same level of graphical awesomeness on the PC. We try our best to answer this without subverting this gaming podcast into a hardware one. To be honest, we're not sure we succeeded.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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EA founder: Apple heading towards inevitable decline

Electronic Arts (EA) founder Trip Hawkins believes Apple is headed toward a decline. It's of course perfectly reasonable to assume that Apple, like every company before it, will not dominate the markets it's in forever, but Hawkins sees Apple's decline as beginning relatively soon.

"If you look at any institution in history ? look at the Roman Empire ? anything in history, and what it looks like when it's peaking," Hawkins told Edge. "Look at Apple, and how can you say it's not peaking? The CEO is still alive, let's start there. They invented this tablet thing that's going to be really big. They've done really well by reinventing the phone. They breathed new life into the Mac. They've got this super-high marketing. All these things are about as good as they ever can be ? how much better can it really get? The thing is, it may take another year or two before it starts to decline, but it has to ? everything does. Everything revolves so much around Steve, and no matter how good his lieutenants are, they're not Steve. None of us is going to live forever, though I hope he lives for a really long time."

Hawkins is no longer at EA: he is currently working at a video game development company called Digital Chocolate, which he also founded in late 2003. The firm focuses on developing games for handheld devices, so Hawkins' opinion comes from his work on Apple's iOS platform. He has no plans on ditching said platform, but he does wish Cupertino wasn't so insistent on having a closed system.

"Digital Chocolate's games will always be in the App Store," Hawkins said. "But I think it would be an incredibly positive thing for the industry if Apple decided to support all of the web standards, because then Apple could be the best about everything. Right now they make a conscious choice. They want you to be in the App Store rather than the browser, so they cripple the browser. They've created this outlet and they had to have an excuse to keep you there, so they're like, 'Oh it's nothing against Flash; we just prefer HTML5'. Well, Flash can actually make a really good game, and with HTML5 you can't do that. But give HTML5 another few years to mature, and that could solve the problem. Or Apple could be more generous about deciding to support more de facto standards like Flash, or at least let it run its course."

So we're back to the old Flash versus HTML5 debate. Apple believes that HTML5 is the future. It is probably right, but many don't like the way it is imposing these beliefs on developers that depend on the company's mobile ecosystem.

Of course, Apple's unwillingness to support Flash and its overall closed model has not stopped the company from selling millions of iOS devices. Some would argue the company would be doing even better if it were more open, while others insist that it's this closed system that is what keeps Cupertino at, or near, the top (depending on who you ask).

There's no question that Apple has been doing tremendously well in recent years. Hawkins, however, thinks the company has reached its peak, or will in the next couple of years. What do you think?

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44943-ea-founder-apple-heading-towards-inevitable-decline.html

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EA founder: Apple heading towards inevitable decline

Electronic Arts (EA) founder Trip Hawkins believes Apple is headed toward a decline. It's of course perfectly reasonable to assume that Apple, like every company before it, will not dominate the markets it is in forever, but Hawkins sees Apple's decline as beginning relatively soon.

"If you look at any institution in history ? look at the Roman Empire ? anything in history, and what it looks like when it's peaking," Hawkins told Edge. "Look at Apple, and how can you say it's not peaking? The CEO is still alive, let's start there. They invented this tablet thing that's going to be really big. They've done really well by reinventing the phone. They breathed new life into the Mac. They've got this super-high marketing. All these things are about as good as they ever can be ? how much better can it really get? The thing is, it may take another year or two before it starts to decline, but it has to ? everything does. Everything revolves so much around Steve, and no matter how good his lieutenants are, they're not Steve. None of us is going to live forever, though I hope he lives for a really long time."

Hawkins is no longer at EA: he is currently working at a video game development company called Digital Chocolate, which he also founded in late 2003. The firm focuses on developing games for handheld devices, so Hawkins' opinion comes from his work on Apple's iOS platform. He has no plans on ditching said platform, but he does wish Cupertino wasn't so insistent on having a closed system.

"Digital Chocolate's games will always be in the App Store," Hawkins said. "But I think it would be an incredibly positive thing for the industry if Apple decided to support all of the web standards, because then Apple could be the best about everything. Right now they make a conscious choice. They want you to be in the App Store rather than the browser, so they cripple the browser. They've created this outlet and they had to have an excuse to keep you there, so they're like, 'Oh it's nothing against Flash; we just prefer HTML5'. Well, Flash can actually make a really good game, and with HTML5 you can't do that. But give HTML5 another few years to mature, and that could solve the problem. Or Apple could be more generous about deciding to support more de facto standards like Flash, or at least let it run its course."

So we're back to the old Flash versus HTML5 debate. Apple believes that HTML5 is the future. It is probably right, but many don't like the way it is imposing these beliefs on developers that depend on the company's mobile ecosystem.

Of course, Apple's unwillingness to support Flash and its overall closed model has not stopped the company from selling millions of iOS devices. Some would argue the company would be doing even better if it were more open, while others insist that it's this closed system that is what keeps Cupertino at, or near, the top (depending on who you ask).

There's no question that Apple has been doing tremendously well in recent years. Hawkins, however, thinks the company has reached its peak, or will in the next couple of years. What do you think?

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44943-ea-founder-apple-heading-towards-inevitable-decline.html

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Apple preparing video streaming service called iTunes Replay?

Apple is rumored to be close to introducing a new re-downloading and streaming service called iTunes Replay, according to sources at App Advice. The service, which is said to work alongside iCloud, could be coming within a few weeks. 

It is believed that the new service will allow users to re-download and stream movies they have bought from iTunes. A common complaint with current iTunes practices is that users must either store or delete downloaded movie purchases. Paying full price for a movie and only watching it once before deletion is wasteful, but keeping videos on a hard drive can quickly consume a lot of storage space.

Such a service would be particularly beneficial to iPad and iPhone users. These devices feature limited capacities and as such, can only carry a set amount of video content at any given time. Furthermore, streaming content would help Apple further compete against services like Netflix.

Apple already has re-download services in place for music, applications and books. Earlier this week the company added TV show re-downloads to Apple TV and iOS devices.

It?s possible that iTunes Replay could launch alongside iCloud which should be pushed to users this fall with iOS 5. iCloud was unveiled at Apple?s WWDC in June and is described as a synchronization platform between devices and will replace MobileMe. Users will be able to sync things like mail, calendar, bookmarks, documents, photos, music and apps automatically across all devices.

A beta version of iCloud was made available to developers on August 2. iOS 5 is expected to be available sometime this fall, likely coinciding with the release of the iPhone 5.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44946-apple-preparing-video-streaming-service-called-itunes-replay.html

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