Top Tech Story of the Day
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Facebook Boosts IPO Range To $104 Billion |
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Facebook Inc. boosted the price range on its initial public
offering to seek as much as $12.8 billion, signaling that Chief Executive
Officer Mark Zuckerberg expects demand for the social network to withstand
recent market turmoil.
The new range is $34 to $38 a share, a regulatory filing today
shows, indicating a market value of as much as $104.2 billion. That would make
Facebook, co-founded in 2004 by Zuckerberg, worth more than Citigroup Inc. and
McDonald's Corp.
Facebook, which has spent more than a week pitching the IPO to
investors across the U.S., raised the range even after the Standard & Poor's 500
Index yesterday slumped to the lowest level since February. That may spell
disappointment for investors if the slump persists, said Bruce McCain, chief
investment strategist at the private-banking unit of KeyCorp.
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Latest Tech News Headlines
 New MacBook Pro To
Feature Retina Display |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
The new 15-inch MacBook Pro will be a significant
departure from the current design, with a retina display and an ultra-thin
profile, 9to5Mac claims, citing sources from Apple's supply chain.
It will be so thin, in fact, that it won't have room for
an optical drive, just like its lightweight cousin MacBook Air.
Other design changes include a power button on the
keyboard itself (replacing the eject button) and, possibly, the lack of an
Ethernet port (replaced by an extra Thunderbolt port).
The MacBook Pro's new retina display -- the same
technology that's in the new iPad -- is described as "definitely the most
important Mac innovation in years" by the sources who've handled a prototype of
the device. The specifics are unknown, but users should be able to choose
between several Retina resolution modes.
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Samsung Expands List
For Android 4.0 Upgrade |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Samsung has expanded its list of devices that are set to receive
the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update. The list now includes several
T-Mobile devices, including the Galaxy S Blaze 4G, Galaxy S II, Galaxy Tab 7.0,
and the Galaxy Tab 10.1. However, when the upgrade will arrive for those devices
have yet to be revealed, and the list will continually be altered as updates are
confirmed or released.
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has so far only been available for
Samsung’s Nexus S 4G on the Now Network and will soon be available for the
Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch on the same carrier. For AT&T, the Galaxy S II, Galaxy
S II Skyrocket, Galaxy Note, Captivate Glide, and the Galaxy Tab 8.9 will be
receiving the upgrade.
Both the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 7.7 on Verizon will also
be getting the ICS update as will the WiFi versions of Samsung’s tablets,
including the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, Galaxy Tab 8.9, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
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Lenovo Launches
‘World’s Lightest’ Ultrabook |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Lenovo wants in on the Ultrabook game, and it’s got
something special to start playing: the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon.
Aimed at notebook users who want something lightweight
and durable that can perform, the X1 has a carbon-fiber exterior and packs
Intel’s latest processor tech, the so-called “Ivy Bridge” chips.
Lenovo claims the X1 Carbon is the world’s lightest
Ultrabook with a 14-inch screen, weighing in at three pounds and just 0.7 inches
deep at its thickest point. The carbon-fiber “roll cage” is said to be very
durable, able to withstand the standard scratches and dings that go hand-in-hand
with travel.
Adding to the road-warrior feature set, 3G connectivity
is built in, although no carrier partners have been announced. Also, the X1
offers optional Rapid Charge, with a battery that can soak up an 80% charge
after being plugged in just half an hour.
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more... |
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Facebook Buys
Lightbox Android Photo App |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Facebook moved quickly - again - to address concerns that it
wasn't doing enough to satisfy mobile users, buying the developers of the
Lightbox Android photo app.
Lightbox announced the deal in a blog post. However, the company
also made it clear that Facebook was not acquiring the company or the photos
that users had stored on the Lightbox website, just the developer team.
Lightbox also provided a download link so that users could export
their photos, if they so chose. Users will only be able to use Lightbox.com
until June 15. The company is not accepting new signups.
Lightbox is actually quite similar to Instagram, which Facebook
bought for $1 billion at the beginning of April. (Instagram was originally only
an app for Apple iOS devices, but later released an Android version that nabbed
1 million downloads almost immediately.
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Microsoft To Charge
$15 For Windows 8 Upgrade Deal |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Microsoft will charge users who buy a new Windows 7 PC
$14.99 for an upgrade to Windows 8, according to a report.
The cost of the upgrade was revealed yesterday by Paul
Thurrott, a popular blogger who writes SuperSite for Windows.
An earlier report by CNET had claimed that Microsoft
would charge a fee for the upgrade, but had not spelled out the amount. CNET
said that the program would kick off alongside the delivery of Windows 8 Release
Preview.
Microsoft has said it will ship the preview the first
week of June. If the company follows the same schedule it used in 2009 to
deliver Windows 7's release candidate, the most likely date is Tuesday, June 5.
Eligible customers must purchase a new Windows 7-powered
PC between June 2012 and January 2013.
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AMD's Fires Trinity
In x86 Notebook Battle |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Advanced Micro Devices officially launched its 32-nm Trinity
processors, going head-to-head in notebooks and desktops with Intel's 22-nm Ivy
Bridge CPUs. The AMD parts sport upgraded x86 and graphics cores that keep it
competitive in performance with some parts consuming as little as 17W, geared
for ultrathin notebooks.
AMD claims it has already shipped more than a million Trinity
chips to PC makers, overcoming difficulties it had delivering last generation
chips. "AMD has put yield issues with GlobalFoundries way behind them from
everything I have heard," said Nathan Brookwood, principal of market watcher
Insight65 (Saratoga, Calif).
"Six months ago, I would have been shocked if someone said [Intel
and AMD] would be ramping [their latest CPUs] in parallel, but that's what we
are seeing," Brookwood said.
Thin and light notebooks are one of the sweet spots in the
maturing PC market for both companies.
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Diablo III:
Long-awaited Video Game Sequel Launched |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Long-awaited video game Diablo III has launched, causing servers to struggle
under huge volumes of traffic.
Blizzard Entertainment said it would launch more servers to cope with the
traffic levels.
Around 1,500 fans gathered at a shopping centre close to the developer's
Californian headquarters to witness the midnight launch.
They have had a long wait as the previous game was released 12 years ago.
The mood was celebratory as fans gathered to see Blizzard artists sketch
characters, watch new footage and take part in quizzes.
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Microsoft Revamps Bing To Include Interactive
Social Sidebar |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Bing will soon include a search interface that offers social
search results in a separate column to the right of the returned links,
Microsoft said on Thursday.
During a press demonstration at Microsoft's San Francisco offices
Bing representatives described the new interface, which will shortly move from
private to public beta, as an attempt to offer more direct interaction with
"entities" and people.
"We're moving beyond the pages into entities. Those entities are
people, places, things and their relationships," said Qi Lu, Microsoft's
president of online services.
Using the new interface, query results for seafood restaurants in
San Francisco, for example, include a grey column along the side that displays a
"people you know who may know" section, with content on the subject shared by
the searcher's social network connections, and a "people who know" section that
highlights experts on the query topic across social networks.
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Facebook Moves Its
App Flea Market Indoors |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Looking to get a tighter grip on mobile and hoping to
corral the multitude of apps available for its platform, Facebook on Wednesday
launched its App Center, a hub for Facebook apps of both desktop and mobile
varieties.
"The App Center is built to drive growth for great apps,
whether they're built on iOS, Android or [the] mobile Web," Facebook
spokesperson Malorie Lucich told TechNewsWorld. "Many of the top iOS and Android
apps are integrated with Facebook, and the App Center gives people another way
to find them, and gives developers another channel to gain more installs, users
and engagement."
Developers will have to submit an app detail page to
show users what their wares do, but they won't have to modify their existing
apps. "We hope this will encourage developers to create new apps and more
categories of apps," Lucich added.
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Nintendo Slashes DS
XL, DSi Prices |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Nintendo has drastically dropped the prices of two of
its handheld gaming devices, the DS XL and the DSi.
The price changes, effective May 20, will take the price
of the DS XL to $129 from $169. The DSi will get a $50 discount, going to $99
from $149.
There was no further discount announced for the Nintendo
3DS, which now costs $169 — down significantly from its original price of
$249.99.
Nintendo has been struggling to turn profits of late,
thanks to less interest in its games and an increasingly strong and
sophisticated market for games on mobile devices.
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Kinect-Powered
Internet Explorer 9 Coming To Xbox 360 |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Given that Microsoft is the only console maker that also develops
a full-featured desktop Web browser, it's a bit odd that the Xbox 360 is the
only current-generation game console that doesn't include a Web browser. That
might be set to change soon, though, as The Verge reports that Microsoft is
working on a Kinect-compatible version of Internet Explorer 9 for the Xbox 360.
While Kinect reportedly won't be required to use the TV-based
browser, the peripheral will allow users to perform voice searches and navigate
using gestures. There's no word on when Microsoft plans to launch the new
browser, but it does seem like the kind of thing the company would announce
during its E3 festivities.
The Verge cites unnamed sources for the Web browser information,
but the site previously used similar sources in reporting the first details of a
subsidized Xbox 360 with a monthly fee, a program Microsoft officially announced
earlier this week.
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Google And Oracle
Each Claim Success In Verdict |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Neither one nor the other: a partial verdict in the Google versus
Oracle case has left uncertainty around the potential impact on Android,
especially with both companies claiming the ruling works in their favor.
Oracle’s demands for royalties to be imposed over nine lines of code the jury
deemed copied from Java in Android were promptly rejected by Judge William Alsup,
describing the request as “bordering on the ridiculous.” However, Alsup will
also rule on whether APIs can be copyrighted, a decision that could have a huge
impact on how Android licensing moves forward.
“We appreciate the jury’s efforts, and know that fair use and
infringement are two sides of the same coin,” Google said in a statement to
InformationWeek. “The core issue is whether the APIs here are copyrightable, and
that’s for the court to decide. We expect to prevail on this issue and Oracle’s
other claims.”
In Google’s eyes, APIs cannot be copyrighted, and thus
implementing them in Android counts as fair use. There’s at least one prior
ruling which supports that stance, too, with a decision in the European Union
earlier this month deciding that software’s functionality and the functionality
of its data are not covered by copyright protection.
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Apple Updates iOS,
Mum On Wi-Fi, Battery Fixes |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Apple has released an update to its iOS mobile operating system,
version 5.1.1, which it claims remove some bugs and improves reliability of some
options, but which does not address the wireless conductivity problems – well,
at least not overtly – that have had some fanbois fuming.
The update, released Monday, is for the iPhone 3GS and later, the
third and fourth-generation iPod touch, and the iPad and iPad 2 – presumably by
"iPad", Apple means both the original iPad and the third-generation iPad, aka
"The new iPad".
Not included among the listed fixes, you'll notice, are any
references to battery-life or Wi-Fi conductivity upgrades – two items that have
caused consternation among purchasers of the third-generation iPad.
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Twitter Refreshes
Mobile Site For Featurephones |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Twitter has announced a new version of its mobile website for
feature phones that brings it more in line with the website available to
smartphones. The new site features quick access to a user's timeline, profile,
mentions, and connections, as well as trending topics. Twitter claims that the
updated site uses one-third less bandwidth than the previous version. Users
should see the new site starting today.
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Apple Seeks To Claim
iPhone 5 Domain |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
You can never have enough clues about what Apple might have up its
sleeve for its next iPhone.
The latest tidbit comes in the form of a domain name - iphone5.com
- for which Apple has filed a claim with the World Intellectual Property
Organization. To date, Apple's smartphone line has counted up only to the iPhone
4S, but the company is widely believed to be getting ready to bring an iPhone 5
into the world.
Of course, ahead of the iPhone 4S launch last fall, a good many
people expected the next model to be the iPhone 5. By way of comparison, Apple's
latest tablet was generally expected to be the iPad 3, but ended up being called
just the new iPad.
While there are no specifications to be gleaned here, the WIPO
filing does at least suggest that Apple is considering the iPhone 5 name for the
next iteration of its market-defining device. Or perhaps it just wishes to take
that domain out of play, regardless of what it calls the device.
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