http://www.win7heads.com/ en Sat, 18 May 2013 09:18:04 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.win7heads.com/images/misc/rss.png http://www.win7heads.com/ http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172671-googles-blink-team-pulls-8-8-million-lines-webkit-code-one-month.html Thu, 16 May 2013 22:11:56 GMT ""

Google let us all know that it would strip out unneeded WebKit code to make its Blink web engine scream, but it never said exactly what kind of pace we could expect. The answer, it turns out, is "breakneck." The company's Alex Komoroske told Google I/O attendees that the Open Web Platform team has already yanked 8.8 million lines of programming from Blink in about a month, with 4.5 million of them scrubbed almost immediately. Removing so much cruft has reportedly improved not just the upcoming engine, but the engineers -- they're far more productive, Komoroske says. The team has already had time to explore new rendering techniques and garner code contribution requests from the likes of Adobe, Intel and even Microsoft. Although we don't yet know if all the trimming will be noticeable to end users by the time Blink reaches polished Chrome and Chrome OS releases, it's safe to say that some developers won't recognize what they see""


More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172671-googles-blink-team-pulls-8-8-million-lines-webkit-code-one-month.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172668-boeing-tapped-build-viasat-2-satellite-launch-set-mid-2016-a.html Thu, 16 May 2013 21:41:03 GMT ""

ViaSat-1 recently earned a Guinness World Record as the highest-capacity satellite in (or out of) the world, but it may need to hand off that title come 2016. ViaSat-2, the company's next-gen bird, will double the capacity of its predecessor while also extending coverage to a larger portion of North America, Central America and the Caribbean, along with the aviation and shipping routes between the East Coast and Europe. Boeing will manufacture the new equipment, which will be based on the 702HP satellite platform. Once in orbit, ViaSat-2 will serve residential customers, air travelers and government agencies alike, with a massive seven-fold increase in coverage""

More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172668-boeing-tapped-build-viasat-2-satellite-launch-set-mid-2016-a.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172639-google-nasa-team-up-d-wave-powered-quantum-artificial-intelligence-lab.html Thu, 16 May 2013 13:40:03 GMT ""

Google. NASA. Quantum computers. Seriously, everything about the new Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab at the Ames Research Center is exciting. The joint effort between Mountain View and America's space agency will put a 512 qubit machine from D-Wave at the disposal of researchers from around the globe, with the USRA (Universities Space Research Association) inviting teams of scientists and engineers to share time on the unique super computer. The goal is to study how quantum computing might be leveraged to advance machine learning, a branch of AI that has proven crucial to Google's success. The internet giant has already done some work with quantum computing before, now the goal is to see if its experimentation can translate into real world results. The idea, for Google at least, is to combine the extreme (but highly-specialized) power of the quantum bit with its oceans of traditional data centers to build more accurate models for everything from speech recognition to web search. And maybe, just maybe, with the help of quantum computers your phone will finally realize you didn't mean to say "duck."""

More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172639-google-nasa-team-up-d-wave-powered-quantum-artificial-intelligence-lab.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172638-nhk-has-theoretical-fix-oleds-theoretical-longevity-problem.html Thu, 16 May 2013 13:40:03 GMT ""
Japan's National Broadcasting Corporation, NHK, reckons OLED displays don't last long enough. And they have a point, because OLED pixels that are exposed to the air can lose half of their brightness in just 100 days. Commercial products are of course protected from the elements, but they're not perfect. This is where iOLED comes in. NHK inverts the anode and cathode layers in traditional OLED configurations, hence the added "i", and then adds an additional protective coating above the cathode. The result is a display that retains its brightness even when not fully sealed from the environment. Hopefully, this sort of solution will make its way into OLED TVs by the time OLED TVs are actually affordable, but in the meantime we're expecting to hear more about NHK's technology (and maybe see it in action) at Display Week later this month.""


More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172638-nhk-has-theoretical-fix-oleds-theoretical-longevity-problem.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172635-windows-phone-steals-third-place-blackberry-idc-smartphone-ranking.html Thu, 16 May 2013 12:25:04 GMT ""

First and second place in the smartphone OS wars is a foregone conclusion with Android and iOS (respectively) strongly entrenched, but the battle for third place is now full of intrigue. BlackBerry and Microsoft have each stepped up their games with their respective BB10 and WP8 OS's of late, but so far it's Redmond prevailing since last quarter, with a 3.2 percent share over BlackBerry's 2.9 percent. While those two are fighting for third place scraps, Android kicked up its smartphone OS dominance with 75 percent of the global market, which is a huge jump from last year, while iOS fell back slightly to a 17.3 percent share. Between them, those titans owned 92.3 percent of the pie, but it's arguably Windows Phone that has raised its game the most, with a senior IDC analyst claiming that this latest ranking "validates the direction taken by Microsoft and key partner Nokia."""


More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172635-windows-phone-steals-third-place-blackberry-idc-smartphone-ranking.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172602-googles-map-dive-takes-us-virtual-skydive-across-seven-instances-chrome-vid.html Wed, 15 May 2013 23:51:54 GMT ""

During Google's extended edition opening keynote this morning, there was a distinctive lack of skydiving. However, developers showed off lots of interesting things, including functionality highlighting the easy, real-time syncing of data across multiple instances of the Chrome browser -- whether on smartphone or tablet or desktop. The on-stage demo was a simple slot car racing game but, out on the I/O floor Google had a somewhat more advanced implementation: Map Dive. Running on seven separate instances of Chrome and relying on a 3D camera, Map Dive lets you experience the Maps API from a rather elevated perspective. Join us after the break for an arm-waving demo.[B]""


More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172602-googles-map-dive-takes-us-virtual-skydive-across-seven-instances-chrome-vid.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172589-apple-marks-50-billion-downloads-app-store.html Wed, 15 May 2013 21:01:20 GMT ""

You think 50 billion is a big number? It's certainly a bit bigger than some other numbers that spring to mind, such as 48 billion, and that in itself gives Apple something to celebrate. As is customary with these App Store milestones, whichever lucky jackanape triggered their download at just the right millisecond will receive a gift -- a $10,000 iTunes voucher, no less -- while 50 runners-up will get $500-worth of credit each.
But none of that is the really big, big news. What matters here is the rate of growth, which seems to have accelerated during the course of this year. It took 14 weeks for the App Store to get from 40 billion to 45 billion downloads between January and April, but less than 4 weeks to get from 45 to 50 billion. Now, we're totally dependent on Apple's internal stock-takers here, not to mention an erratic ticker ("for illustrative purposes only"), but if those numbers are even remotely accurate then they represent something of a popularity surge""


More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172589-apple-marks-50-billion-downloads-app-store.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172590-google-asks-microsoft-remove-youtube-app-wp8-takes-issue-lack-ads.html Wed, 15 May 2013 21:01:20 GMT ""
YouTube only recently came to Windows Phone 8 as a full-fledged app, but its availability may be short-lived. According to documents obtained by The Verge, Google has requested that Microsoft remove the app from it Windows Phone Store -- and disable installations on devices -- immediately. The reason? Apparently the app didn't get Goog's stamp of approval before going live, and it blocks the ads that typically run on YouTube. Naturally, ads are an important source of revenue for both Google and no shortage of third parties, so Mountain View may not be out of line for crying foul. And that's not the only strike against Redmond: according to the cease and desist letter, YouTube on WP8 lets users download videos, in addition to streaming content that's been restricted on certain devices. Oh, and all the above-mentioned issues violate YouTube's Terms of Service. Google is giving MS until May 22nd to remove the app""

More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172590-google-asks-microsoft-remove-youtube-app-wp8-takes-issue-lack-ads.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172575-google-cloud-messaging-now-part-google-play-services.html Wed, 15 May 2013 17:00:16 GMT ""
More goodies for devs here at I/O: Google just announced that Google Cloud Messaging -- the push-notification system that debuted last year -- is now a part of its Google Play Services, and it will get three new features, to boot. These include "persistent connections," which should help push out messages quickly, upstream messaging for sending data from your app to your servers and -- most importantly -- synced notifications across devices. This means that if you dismiss an alert on your phone, it will similarly hit the dust on your slate. Mountain View recently announced that Cloud Messaging will now integrate with all versions of Chrome and Chrome OS""


More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172575-google-cloud-messaging-now-part-google-play-services.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172567-google-there-have-been-900-million-android-activations-48-billion-app-installs-d.html Wed, 15 May 2013 16:24:20 GMT ""

What would a Google liveblog be without some updates on Android activations? Well, in case you're curious, the newest figure is 900 million. What's more, Google reports there have been 48 billion app installations to date, including 2.8 billion in the last month alone, with revenue per user 2.5 times what it was a year ago""


More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172567-google-there-have-been-900-million-android-activations-48-billion-app-installs-d.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172563-android-4-3-confirmed-developer-website-google-kicks-off-i-o-2013-a.html Wed, 15 May 2013 15:12:51 GMT ""

We've still got about an hour and 20 minutes until the Google I/O keynote begins, but we're already starting to get hints of what's to come. The company just revealed, in an indirect sort of way, that the next-gen version of Android will be Android 4.3 (as opposed to, say, 5.0). The name popped up on one of Google's developer pages, which ended up being cached despite the fact that it wasn't live for very long. Unfortunately, that page didn't reveal much in the way of actual features, so it's unclear whether the jump from 4.2 to 4.3 will be a minor one.""


More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172563-android-4-3-confirmed-developer-website-google-kicks-off-i-o-2013-a.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172520-researchers-develop-algorithm-protect-networks-cyber-attacks.html Tue, 14 May 2013 20:13:19 GMT ""

Amidst increasing concern about cybersecurity, researchers at North Carolina State University have taken one step closer to guarding America's infrastructure from Cylon attack. Well, almost. Dr. Mo-Yuen Chow and Ph.D candidate Wente Zeng have developed an algorithm that detects cyber attacks aimed at distributed network control systems (D-NCSs), which differ from their more vulnerable counterparts in that they don't rely on a centralized brain to coordinate the network's activities. Essentially, then, D-NCSs are nervous systems comprised of several mini-brains working together. In the event of a cyber attack, the algorithm isolates the infected brain before the contamination can spread across the network's pathways. This software solution will be a good first line of defense when vengeful A.I. inevitably rises up in revolt. In the words of Admiral William Adama, so say we all.""


More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172520-researchers-develop-algorithm-protect-networks-cyber-attacks.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172507-firefox-21-officially-released-desktop-android-version-also-gets-boost.html Tue, 14 May 2013 16:51:56 GMT ""

If you like the internet, especially updating things from the internet, today is a good day for you. Mozilla has released not one but two major versions of its Firefox browser, the first being the increasingly social Firefox 21 on the desktop. The browser's integration with Facebook is now extended to include other partners including Cliqz, Mixi and msnNOW -- a trio that doesn't quite offer the same recognition of that first network. However, an open Social API holds the promise for others to follow suit.""


More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172507-firefox-21-officially-released-desktop-android-version-also-gets-boost.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172489-microsoft-adds-built-google-talk-outlook-com-skydrive-com.html Tue, 14 May 2013 13:23:10 GMT ""

Make no mistake, we don't just like Outlook.com; we love it. The problem with Microsoft's revamped email service, though, is that ditching Gmail can be a tough sell, as it's meant giving up features like built-in Gchat. At last, though, Microsoft is adding support for Google Talk, which means you can keep sending your friends dancing-parrot videos even after you make the switch. (Outlook.com still does Facebook and Skype chatting too.) What's more, you'll find Gchat baked into SkyDrive.com -- a handy tool if you happen to be collaborating with Google users. As a quid pro quo, this feature is only coming to the Outlook and SkyDrive websites for now -- Dharmesh Mehta, Sr. Director of Outlook.com, told us Microsoft is still considering how GTalk might fit into its mobile apps. In the meantime, though, you can load up Outlook in your browser if you want a peek. And don't worry if nothing shows up right away: the company is warning users that the roll-out could take several days""


More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172489-microsoft-adds-built-google-talk-outlook-com-skydrive-com.html http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172481-nissan-plans-make-leaf-data-available-app-developers.html Tue, 14 May 2013 11:00:20 GMT ""

Those of you familiar with the Nissan Leaf will know about its Carwings system, which lets you check the vehicle's charge, turn on the AC, rate your driving efficiency against others and even read RSS feeds out loud -- all over an always-on cellular data connection. In fact, the RSS functionality raised some privacy concerns when it was discovered that Carwings embeds location and other data in the URL it sends to public servers (something that can thankfully be disabled by the owner). Nissan announced today that it plans to make telemetry data from the Leaf available to third-party developers for a fee -- this with the owner's consent, of course. The company already uses telemetry data for vehicle maintenance and products like Carwings, but hopes to broaden the ecosystem with apps. Examples include smart-grid integration (supplying power to a building for a reduced parking fee) and location-based services (real-time coupons as you drive by restaurants). It'll be interesting to see if there's enough interest from both developers and Leaf owners for Nissan to successfully monetize this idea""

More... ]]> Technology News win7news http://www.win7heads.com/technology-news/172481-nissan-plans-make-leaf-data-available-app-developers.html