Central to the pitch will be a keynote to be delivered Tuesday by Windows Phone program director Joe Belfiore. Belfiore will no doubt discuss the status of recent updates for Windows Phone 7, including the NoDo patch, which mainly adds a copy & paste function. The NoDo rollout is now in progress but was delayed due to a glitch in an earlier patch that, ironically, was designed to ensure that future updates go smoothly.
Microsoft recently said it now has more than 11,000 apps for Windows Phone 7. While that sounds like a healthy number at first blush, it pales in comparison to the 350,000 iPhone apps currently available and the more than 100,000 apps now claimed by Google for Android. Windows Phone 7 also conspicuously lacks officially sanctioned apps from a number of major content providers, including The Wall Street Journal and Fox News.
Microsoft will try to change that at MIX 11 with a series of keynotes and sessions that aim to convince attendees that Windows Phone 7 will gain the critical mass that developers--particularly those from big publishing houses and studios who are faced with a mushrooming field of devices they need to support--require before committing to a platform.
Belfiore is also expected to provide news on Mango, an update that should be available later this year that adds Internet Explorer 9 and support for HTML 5 hardware acceleration to Windows Phone 7.
But developers' main focus will likely be on what Belfiore says, or doesn't say, about the status of Microsoft's recently announced partnership with Nokia. Nokia, which still ships more handsets than any other phone manufacturer, agreed to use Windows Phone 7 as the default OS for its smartphone lineup.
Neither Nokia nor Microsoft has provided a solid timetable on when Windows-based Nokia phones will show up in the market, and have yet to hammer out all the details of their alliance. Still, market watcher Gartner predicts the deal will eventually make Microsoft the number two player in the smartphone wars, ahead of Apple's iOS and trailing only Google Android by 2015, "solely by virtue of Microsoft's alliance with Nokia," according to a research note issued last week by the firm.
Belfiore's keynote session is slated for 9:00 a.m. PDT on Tuesday.
source : http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/microsoft_news/229401357
Adobe Systems announced an update to its Adobe Creative Suite 5 software, which for the first time will be available by way of monthly subscriptions.
Creative Suite 5.5, as the new refresh is called, features new tools that will enable users to more easily create content for smartphones and tablets and do more using HTML5.
The rollout of Creative Suite 5.5, which will take place in about a month, will be Adobe's first shot at a new software release schedule, with more incremental updates between fully new versions of its main product package.
"This launch marks a major change to Adobe's product release strategy for Creative Suite," the San Jose company said in a statement. "Adobe now plans to have milestone Creative Suite product introductions at 24-month intervals and -- starting with Creative Suite 5.5 -- significant mid-cycle releases designed to keep the worldwide creative community ahead of the latest advances in content authoring."
The Creative Suite subscription editions are new for Adobe too and will let customers try Adobe products by subscribing online without having to commit to spending hundreds or thousands of dollars to buy the software suites.
One of Adobe's most popular products, Photoshop, sits on the low end of the subscription model at a monthly price of $49, or $35 with a one-year subscription.
Adobe's Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium package -- which includes InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash Professional and Adobe FlashCatalyst, Acrobat X Pro, Illustrator CS5, Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended and Adobe Fireworks CS5 -- goes for $95 a month as part of a one-year plan or $139 month-to-month.
Adobe's top-of-the-line Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection can be subscribed to for $129 a month for a year or $195 month-to-month.
Creative Suite 5.5 is just a bit more expensive.
A traditional, non-subscription copy of Adobe's Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection software will sell for $2,599, about $1,000 more than a one-year subscription to the software. The Design Premium package will sell for $1,899, or $759 more than a one-year subscription.
If you don’t get out soon, you’re going to fall asleep. Or maybe explode. Or, worse, say something you’ll regret.
Good news, Dilbert: Your problems with the boss are over if you’re using Android, the world’s most popular mobile phone operating system. The platform offers hundreds of apps for spoofing phone calls or texts — or pulling other stunts that can help get you out of work.
Compare that to the limited variety of leg-pulling apps on Apple’s iOS platform, and you’ll see why Android is the mobile OS of choice for shirkers like myself.
April Fool’s Day is a good time to give these Android exploits a look. Get out of that work meeting by using an app to program your Android phone to send yourself a fake text or a bogus phone call.
I get them from Kim Kardashian all the time, forcing me to leave meetings to attend more, um, important business. Having to excuse oneself to go to the bathroom only works so many times when it comes to escaping a meeting.
Even better, hit the boss with pre-programmed fake text messages from Ms. Kardashian. That might get him to stop talking, or it might produce the sudden need to halt the meeting. Either way, the joke’s on him.
An Android application for bogus texting is “Fake-A-Text-Free.” The Android Market and third-party Android markets are littered with similar apps.
Then there’s the app “Fake Me Out of Here!” It’s for the truly lazy. No pre-programming is necessary for this app to make your phone ring with a fake call from anyone in your contact list.
But sometimes the boss just might have something relevant to say, but you still can’t stomach the thought of sitting through the meeting.If you haven’t played the “bathroom card” too many times, excuse yourself and leave your phone behind. Then secretly record the meeting. Sure, it might be illegal, but nobody has to know. Play back the recording a month later, and you’ll know why you exited stage left.
Some apps to help perform this nefarious deed are appropriately named: They are called “Informant,” “Secret Recorder” and, among others “Spy Recorder Voice Recorder.”
For the 007 diehards, why not secretly record video as well? Yep, there are apps for that.One of them is called “Spy Phone.” Position your phone, which looks like it’s off, at the correct angle and it starts recording video, and nobody will be the wiser. Another app, the “Android Spy Camera,” promises to secretly take pictures with “no flash and no shutter sound.” You better hope that app lives up to its promises or you may find yourself wishing you could attend a work-related meeting.
So what’s next? You’ve successfully left the meeting. Now it’s time to take this exploit to the next level.
Sure, you could hit the local tavern for the afternoon. But why be so sheepish? Don’t put your Maxwell Smart tendencies to waste.
Go ahead and hit the Bahamas. After your fourth beachside margarita, you’ll have completely forgotten about that work meeting.
Best of all, your boss won’t even know your lathering up with sunblock. That’s because he’ll think you’ve been abducted to one of the world’s most notorious prisons.
That’s right, go ahead and use FourSquare to check in, or Facebook to “like,” the Diyarbakir prison in Turkey by using GPS spoofing apps to fake your global positioning. Many apps allow for this digital teleportation, and they are apply named with titles like “Fake GPS Location,” ”My Fake Location” and, among others, “GPS Route Simulator.”Better yet, don’t even bother showing up to work. Send your boss a spoofed e-mail from your doctor, informing the Big Kahuna that you’ve got leprosy. There’s a bunch of apps for that. Search for them under “fake email” in the Android Market.
The practice, of course, is legally questionable.
What’s more, the e-mail spoofs might help you get a wage increase without having to explain your new tan.
Upon your return from Diyarbakir, send your boss a spoofed e-mail from your competitor with a message saying the company wants to hire you away.
Sure, it might backfire. Your boss might not give you a raise and instead point you to the door.
But don’t fret. You still got an ace up your sleeve: You used one of a host of Android apps, including “Call Recorder – Total Recall” or “HTC Call Recorder Widget” or tons of others to secretly record a telephone call between yourself and the boss. If you were able to catch him saying anything untoward — like dissing his boss — you might have all the leverage you need to keep yourself in clover indefinitely.
Sure, extortion and clandestine phone recording are illegal. But no worries, the cops might go easy on you if you can hook them up with Kim Kardashian.
Photo: Kardashian image/BiggerPictureImages.com/Flick
source : http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/android-exploits/
Apple has run out of original 16GB Wi-Fi iPads as online stock of refurbished and clearance first-generation iPads runs low, even as its successor, the iPad 2, continues to sell out.
The Apple Online Store no longer offers the Wi-Fi only version of the original iPad in its clearance section and has run out of the first-generation 16GB Wi-Fi iPad in the refurbished section, as noted by MacNN.
All three of last year's 3G iPad models remain on sale in the clearance section, priced at $529, $629 and $729 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models respectively. The refurbished versions of the 32GB and 64GB Wi-Fi iPads sell for $429 and $529, while refurbished iPad 3Gs sell for $479, $559 and $659.
Shortly after unveiling the iPad 2, Apple began offering remaining stock of the original iPad for a discount. Unopened models of the iPad are on sale for a $100 discount, while refurbished models sell for as much as $170 off the original price.
Apple also offered either a $100 discount or a refund to customers who purchased the first-generation iPad within 14 days of the iPad 2 announcement on March 2.
Analysts project Apple will sell a total of 40 million iPads in 2011, including both the first- and second-generation models. Greater than expected demand for the iPad 2 has impressed Wall Street, causing at least one analyst to revise his sales forecast.
by http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/31/apple_running_out_of_remaining_stock_of_discounted_original_ipads.html