Microsoft starts selling its Surfaces through resellers

Microsoft is expanding distribution of its Surface tablet/PC devices via authorized distributors and resellers, company officials announced on July 1.

Starting in the U.S., Microsoft is authorizing CDW, CompuCom, En Pointe, Insight, PC Connection, PCM, Softchoice, Softmart, Software House International and Zones to sell Surface Pro and RT devices. "Over the next few months," Microsoft officials said they will authorize commercial distributors and resellers in more countries.

Microsoft also plans to expand its education offer for the Surface RT -- offering devices for $199 via qualifying schools and universities purchasing direct from Microsoft -- into the commercial channel starting with the U.S. resellers "in the coming weeks," officials said today.

Authorized Surface resellers will be able to offer Microsoft's extended warranty, as well as their own services, including asset tagging, custom imaging, kitting, onsite service and support, device recycling and data protection, according to Microsoft.

When Microsoft launched the Surface RT, it originally launched in eight markets, only three of which had physical stores. Microsoft officials said Surfaces are currently available in 29 markets and 10,000-plus physical stores worldwide.

Microsoft also unveiled on July 1 a new independent software vendor (ISV) program, AppsForSurface, which will be providing devices and funding for app design of key enterprise apps for Surface and Window 8. ISVs already signed up include Citrix, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Sage and healthcare developer Airstrip, Microsoft officials said.

Microsoft has been stepping up its Surface discount deals as of late. There's still no word on when the Softies plan to add new Surface devices to its current mix, but sources have indicated that Microsoft plans to field an eight-inch mini Surface device some time this year. There's no official word as to when or even if Microsoft plans to add Haswell-based Intel Surface devices to its line-up.

Update: It does look as though the 256 GB Surface Pro models will be added to the Surface stable. CDW has a page listing them for $1,199.99 (with no cover), with availability noted as four to six days. The 256 GB model debuted in Japan in June.

Source : zdnet

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These Pics Could Be the Colorful New Entry-Level iPhone

This could be the new low-cost iPhone, encased in plastic instead of metal and adorned with cartoonish colors.

So far it's an enigma wrapped in a rumor based on speculation, but there's a bit of evidence behind this alleged leak of the low-cost iPhone.

On Saturday, a picture of a green version of this alleged iPhone surfaced, but now there's an additional leak. In these pics from Chinese site Weiphone.com, the green shell has found a couple of friends in yellow and pinkish red, all adorned with an official-looking iPhone logo at the bottom and the iconic Apple logo in its usual position.

They're all shaped like the iPhone 5, and here's another tantalizing piece of evidence: Website NoWhereElse.fr [French] compared these shells with the alleged iPhone 5S motherboard leaked in mid-June, and found that all of the attachment points match up perfectly:

The idea of a cheaper iPhone is compelling — analysts say it could grab 11% of the low-end smartphone market within its first year on the market. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in April that an entry-level iPhone might ship this September, and he thinks its price tag might be around $300 unsubsidized. That price is a far cry from the $649 of an iPhone 5.

The lively colors will certainly appeal to those who have become bored with the choice of only a black or white iPhone. In addition, those who think the current iPhone 5 is too fragile might be attracted to this plastic casing, and such a construction could be significantly lighter at the same time.

What do you think? Are these leaked photos the real thing, or is it all a hoax? Let us know in the comments.

Source : mashable

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Install Android 4.3 On Your Samsung Galaxy S4 Right Now!

Download and try your hands on Android 4.3 on your UI topped Samsung Galaxy S4 with this leaked testware of Android 4.3!

Saturday, June 29, 2013:  Sammobile recently managed to get hold of the very first test build firmware of the upcoming Android 4.3 for the Google Play Edition of the Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505G). The developers of the website installed the firmware on their standard Snapdragon topped Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505) and reportedly experienced some amazing outputs. 

The Android 4.3 testware which is supposed to be tested on ther Google Play Edition of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is completely functional even on the basic Snapdragon layered version of the Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505). According to Sammobile, about 100 per cent of the sum features were working on the UI layered handset even without making any changes to the firmware.

The Sammobile has additionally shared the testware for the users to try their hands on! Below are the two links. You can install either one of the two and get going with the installation of Android 4.3 on your Galaxy S4.

1. Android-4.3-I9505GUEUBMFP-Odexed-I9505.zip

2. Android-4.3-I9505GUEUBMFP-Deodexed-I9505.zip

Things to know before you install the testware:

- The testware is not flashable via Odin.
- Installing a leaked version can void your warranty.
- You should try your hands on the testware only if you hold the skills to flash a custom ROM
- Try this at your own risk

Firmware details:
Android version: 4.3
Build ID: JWR66N
PDA: I9505GUEUBMFP
CSC: I9505GXARBMFP
Build Date: 26 June 2013
Changelist: 968842

Device Requirements:
- Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505)
- Custom Recovery

Instructions:
- Copy Google Play Edition ROM to your internal SD Card
- Enter Recovery (Power + Volume Up + Home)
- Do a Wipe/Factory Reset (Necessary due to new Android version)
- Flash Google Play Edition ROM
- Reboot your device!  

Source: efytimes.com 

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How to Update Samsung Galaxy Note 2 N7100 with Cyanogen Mod 10.1 Custom Jellybean 4.2.2 Firmware

New update from Cyanogen Mod has recently come for Samsung galaxy note 2 N7100. This new custom build has the latest firmware base as android 4.2.2 jellybean. More important factor about this release is the stability of this CM 10.1 build. According to developers review it’s the highly stable build of CM 10.1 ever for the galaxy note 2.

As a custom update, it need root access and unlock boot loader. So if you are an advance user and usually prefers custom updates then this firmware build will give you a lot.

Now I will mention you the easy tutorial to apply this update in your galaxy note 2.

Requirements for the Update

• Samsung Galaxy Note 2 N7100 with root access and bootloader unlocked
• CM 10.1 jellybean 4.2.2 firmware package [Direct Download]
• Google Apps package
• Follow preparing guide
• Enable USB debugging mode

Disclaimer: Follow this firmware flashing guide at your own risk. Androidflip won’t be responsible in case your device gets damaged in any other way during the process.

Instruction to Install CM 10.1 Custom ROM

1. First connect the phone with PC using USB cable and copy both the firmware and Google apps packages in phone’s SD card.

2. Disconnect the phone and boot it in recovery mode by-

• Turn off the phone
• Hold down Volume up+ Home+ Power button together to reboot

For primary users:- Follow below key configuration to work in recovery mode.
To move up/down- Use Volume up/ Volume down button
To Choose an option- Use Home/ Power button

3. In recovery mode first clear out the cache and wipe out the data using options wipe cache partition and wipe data/ factory reset respectively.

4. Now flash the firmware and then the Google apps packages (zip) using- install zip from sd card>> choose zip from sd card. 

5. After flashing these both packages, return to main recovery menu and select reboot system now so the phone can reboot in new firmware.

Note:- If your device get stuck between the process or failed to reboot to the new custom ROM, then just pull out the phone’s battery and reinsert it, and task the whole procedure again.

Custom Cyanogen Mod 10.1 Jellybean 4.2.2 firmware has installed now.

Have Fun :)

Source: androidflip.com

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OUYA Gaming Console Already Sold Out on Amazon

Well, that was quick. Just hours after going on sale in the U.S., Canada and the UK, the OUYA gaming console was already sold out Tuesday morning on Amazon, though other retailers still had it in stock.

Amazon, which was selling the device for $99, told customers that the item was temporarily out of stock. However, as of Tuesday morning, Target and Best Buy were still carrying OUYA. GameStop noted that the item was "currently unavailable."

OUYA launched on Kickstarter as an open gaming console that anyone could develop for or hack as they see fit, all for a $99 price tag. The Kickstarter hit its $900,000 funding goal in eight hours, and broke Kickstarter records after raising $8.6 million total. Earlier this year, OUYA's creators announced that the console would be widely available at retail stores in June.

Kickstarter backers, meanwhile, began receiving their OUYA consoles in April.

Source : mashable

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Why Businesses Should 'Act Human' on Facebook

No matter how much thought you put into your social media strategy, the real world can always interfere.

Robert Reimann spent more than a week hashing out a plan to boost sales and engagement on the Facebook page for his bike tour business, after being matched with Shane Johnston, a social media marketing consultant from Mashable's Small Business Panel. With Johnston's help, Reimann would launch a contest — along with Facebook ads to promote it — in order to attract more fans and build up an email list of customers, which he would then work to convert into sales.

Then the flood started.

Germany, where Reimann and his business BikeSherpa are based, was hit with severe flooding earlier this month that forced tens of thousands of residents to evacuate. While Reimann's home in Dresden wasn't damaged, he had to help his sister move all her furniture and evacuate from her house along the Elbe river. Reimann also had to scramble to come up with new bike routes and re-book hotels for customers who had booked bike trips around the city.

Faced with all of that, Reimann and Johnston were forced to put most of their social media plans on hold. However, Johnston pushed Reimann to make one subtle change to his Facebook strategy based on the natural disaster: Try connecting with fans by being more open about the experience. Based on the advice, Reimann shared an image of the flooding on the Facebook page with a note: "Time for a quick change of itinerary." The post received several comments and re-shares — more than most others he had shared in recent months.

"I think that the honesty part is really important," Reimann says now, reflecting on his decision to post about what he was going through during the flood. "I wanted to make clear that there is a flood going on here, and we are in a special situation. You're building trust by being honest."

When we first profiled Reimann's business a month ago, it had roughly 1,000 Facebook fans, very low engagement (with a PTAT of 4) and no established email list of customers. Given the extenuating circumstances of the flood, he and Johnston weren't really able to move the dial too much on these metrics, but they did lay some groundwork for what's to come.

Reimann started to craft a bike tour recommendation guide, which will be offered free as an incentive to anyone who signs up for the contest. Once that's done, they will throw up a landing page for the contest — Johnston has already created it, as you can see below — and run Facebook ads to advertise that landing page in order to attract potential customers and their email addresses. Importantly, the landing page is hosted on Facebook rather than offsite.

"It is best to keep people inside Facebook within your tabs whenever possible," Johnston says. "Whenever you send people to a link outside Facebook, many people will not click there, and therefore you lose conversions to leads."

As of right now, the plan is to start putting up ads for the landing page in the next week or so — after Reimann is done dealing with the aftermath of the flood — and continue advertising it for 2-3 weeks. The hope, Johnston says, is to bring in about 500 new leads, which drive "a couple" sales for the business — each bike tour can cost as much as several thousand dollars. Of course, all of that assumes Mother Nature doesn't get in the way again.

For now, Reimann says the most valuable thing he's gained from the program is the push from Johnston be be more personal on his Facebook. "Being more personal, being not afraid or not shy about being personal, that's what people want," he says. "Sometimes it really helps to have someone else whose opinion you respect tell you that."

Source : mashable

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3 Ways Paid Social Ads Can Explode Your Content

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Content marketing –- creating and distributing relevant content to attract, acquire, and engage your target audience –- has become a popular marketing tactic over the past few years. But although most companies understand how to promote their content via their “owned” channels, such as their Facebook Page, their Twitter account or LinkedIn Company Page, many are missing out on the opportunity to get their content in front of a larger audience through paid social promotions.

For example, let’s say you’ve spent time and money developing a great new how-to video or article –- how do you make sure people see it? Promoting it via Facebook Promoted Posts will put it front and center for your fans. Or, what if you’ve received a positive write-up in your local paper? You can make sure your target customers see it by making a small Twitter ad buy targeted at local followers of that paper.

Positive product reviews, media coverage, blog posts and educational content like white papers and presentations can all have tremendous value for your business. Here are three paid social ad tools that can dramatically expand visibility for this content.

1. Facebook Promoted Posts

With Facebook Promoted Posts, businesses pay to have their regular posts appear higher (and more often) in the news feed, so there's a better chance their audience will see them.

“Most small business owners don't realize the impact of just spending a little bit of money to promote posts,” said Anthony Kirlew, Chief Strategist at AKA Internet Marketing. “With all of the noise in the Facebook newsfeeds as well as the EdgeRank factors, the message of most small business Facebook pages is unseen. For a very small amount of money, companies can get the lift that leads to the exposure they are seeking on Facebook.”

To promote a post on your Page, simply create the post and click “Promote” at the bottom of the post. You’ll be prompted to select your audience – either people who like your page, or people who like your page and their friends –- and to set a budget based on how many people you want to reach. Compelling graphics and headlines are important for driving maximum engagement with Promoted Posts, so even if you’re promoting someone else’s content (such as a story about your company in the local paper), consider including your own graphic and headline to make it pop.

Galen Ward, co-founder and CEO of real estate search engine Estately, used Facebook Promoted Posts to seed viral sharing of its fun blog post, "37 Things You Should Know Before Moving to Seattle.” Ward’s strategy was to go narrow with the post promotion, crafting a post that would appeal to Seattle sports fans, and then promoting it to people who have the Seahawks as one of the interests on Facebook.

According to Ward, the company spent just under $100 and got 8,500 Likes and tens of thousands of visitors to the web site.

“We paid under $3 CPM and got around a five percent click-through rate — so for under $100 we got our post in front of over 30,000 people,” said Ward. “Without Facebook, it would have travelled through our limited networks, but with Facebook ads we got it in front of virtually every person who might be interested in it. And because the content was engaging and in front of the right people, it sparked a ton of viral sharing.”

Ward says they are now experimenting with spending $10-20 to promote each of their blog posts and will up the spend for posts that perform well.

2. Twitter Promoted Tweets

Twitter recently launched a self-service capability for Promoted Tweets, which are regular tweets that you pay to promote to more people. Twitter allows you to target people by geography, interest or gender, and you only pay only when people click, retweet, favorite or reply to your tweet.

Twitter’s pricing system is based on bidding: you set the maximum amount you’re willing to spend per follow or click, and Twitter will give you suggestions for what you should bid to optimize your campaign. Twitter tools allow you to see how each of your tweets is performing; after a few days of running promoted tweets, check back in to gauge how the campaign is working and whether you need to adjust your bid.

Online music publication Prefix Magazine used Promoted Tweets to increase brand awareness and drive more high-quality readers to their site, prefixmag.com. The site saw an immediate 49% jump in visitor traffic from Twitter compared to the week before the Twitter ad campaign. “When a tweet is resonating, I want to keep it resonating — to have that tweet snowball — and Twitter advertising makes that happen,” said Prefix Magazine’s Publisher Dave Park.

Daniel Rothamel, founder of artist management company Two Plus Media offered free downloads of “The Wretched”, a mixtape by his client NomiS, via Promoted Tweets. The $50 campaign, which targeted users in the U.S. interested in Christian and Gospel music, resulted in 7,900 impressions and 105 engagements on the tweet.

"One of my biggest challenges with promoting new artists is cutting through the clutter to find the people who are already interested in the music my artists create,” said Rothamel. “Promoted Tweets helps me target these people more effectively, giving me a greater chance at successfully turning them into fans."

3. LinkedIn Ads

To get your content in front of a business audience, consider LinkedIn Ads, which run on prominent pages on the LinkedIn.com website. Ads consist of a headline, a description (up to 75 characters of text), your name or company name, a small image and a URL. You can specify which LinkedIn members view your ads by selecting targeting criteria such as job title, job function, industry, geography, age, gender, company name, company size or even by a particular LinkedIn Group (such as “Corporate Real Estate”). Like with Twitter, you set a maximum budget and only pay for the clicks or impressions that you receive.

According to LinkedIn, the best-performing ads are relevant to the target audience and written with clear, compelling words. LinkedIn suggests that you highlight special offers, unique benefits, white papers, free trials or demos to get people’s attention, and include strong call-to-action phrases like Try, Download, Sign up or Request a Quote.

Internet marketing agency Cardinal Web Solutions used a LinkedIn ad featuring a company culture presentation to help generate interest in their job openings. According to founder and CEO Alex Membrillo, “The content included in the presentation has been very effective for attracting qualified candidates, and overall interest in our company has increased significantly.”

Marketing software company HubSpot is offering white papers and free educational resources via LinkedIn Ads to attract marketing professionals. The company says it first experimented with ad campaigns on social networks other than LinkedIn, but the campaigns did not yield satisfactory results.

"There's a lot of distraction on other social networks," said Dan Slagen, the company's head of paid marketing. "People are there for reasons besides improving their businesses, or networking with other professionals. We need to connect with B2B companies that are focused on lead generation, which means LinkedIn is the place for us.

According to Slagen, HubSpot’s LinkedIn Ads generate a click-through rate that is 60 percent higher than its average across other social networks, with much higher quality leads.

"There's no clutter on LinkedIn - members are there to do business," he added.

Getting Started

Ready to get started but still not sure which channel makes the most sense for you?

HipLogiq CTO and cofounder Adam Root recommends that small businesses consider all three networks, but use them for different purposes.

“My strategy is to use Twitter to gain new users, Facebook to build a community and LinkedIn to generate leads for the sales team,” says Root. “My logic in choosing this strategy is that Twitter is a good medium for targeting moments and encouraging action, Facebook is a great medium for building long-term relationships and LinkedIn is a business network with high-profile agencies in its user base that I’d want as customers.”

Source :mashable

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The little niceties of Apple's iOS interface

Out of last week's Worldwide Developer's Conference in San Francisco comes word of a new, clever, and perhaps useful feature in iOS 7: dynamic icons.

At The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), Steven Sande writes that developers have noted that the forthcoming icon for the Clock app will have a moving second hand and show the correct time down to the second. The current, static icon shows the time as 10:15 exactly. There's a screen shot of the new iOS 7 app, check it out.

Sande suggests that this API will be available to all developers and there's the notion that icons could become dynamic. This little touch is fantastic and I can see all kinds of uses for it, such as showing changes in content or news or weather. This could be used for many things beyond the longstanding badge concept for notification. So, for example, a time-delayed, multiplayer game could show whether you're winning or losing. This doesn't obviate the usefulness of badges, rather it could be complementary to them, depending on how the animation is accomplished.

There was a wider discussion on iOS 7 icons at several sites this past week, observing that some of the icon images on Apple's site differ from the ones in the beta version released to developers at WWDC last week. So, that could be another example of this dynamic quality, or just ordinary design differences.

Some call this "eye candy," as they have called the Mac or iOS interface. This has been the label hung on Apple products for decades, first by PC users about the Mac interface and now by other mobile device vendors about iOS. Somehow, there's the lingering feeling that something fun can't be really powerful or truly useful.

Instead, Apple has long known that these small niceties around details in the interface can have a strong impact on the user, creating a sense of fun and enjoyment. And loyalty.

Source : zdnet

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6 Spotify Apps You'll Use Every Day

With more than 15 million songs on Spotify, deciding what to listen to can be overwhelming. This list highlights the best Spotify apps for discovering new music, reading album reviews and exploring the social buzz of emerging bands.

What's your favorite app on Spotify right now? Let us know in the comments section below.

1. Fuse

Best for: Creative playlists

The Fuse Spotify app is a perfect resource for curated playlists. With a gorgeous, image-heavy layout, the app is fun to use and very visually appealing. Fuse's "What We're Listening To" playlist features over 200 tracks and is updated by staff members daily. You probably won't find new songs with this app, but you will enjoy the creative approach Fuse takes when compiling its playlists, such as "This Niles Rodgers Playlist is Like the History of Disco and Dance," "The Daft Punk Samples Playlist" and "Single Ladies: The Best One-Named Female Singers."

2. Blue Note

Best for: Perusing classic jazz songs

Blue Note is an essential Spotify app for jazz enthusiasts. The app features more than 70 years of music. Its interactive timeline and filters let you customize your browsing selection. "View" or "Read More" links bring you to a landing page with historical context and profiles of contributing artists. "Add as Playlist" and "Share" buttons make the interactive experience social, too.

3. TuneWiki

Best for: Looking up lyrics

Say goodbye to those "[song name] +lyrics" Google searches. The TuneWiki Spotify app generates lyrics for whatever track you're listening to, and then as the music plays, it automatically bolds the current line. The app struggles with more experimental music like Dillon Francis and XXYYXX; since the words are so muddled, it simply says:

[Instrumental]

(Instrumental)

{Instrumental}

And I have to admit, I appreciated the creativity in conveying the different sets of instrumentals.

4. Emerge

Best for: Tracking social buzz of emerging artists

The Emerge Spotify app uses data visualization to track new artists you care about. While most apps on the Internet try to cater to Millennials' notoriously short attention spans, Emerge takes a more long-term approach: It tracks social buzz and Spotify activity of 10 upcoming artists over a six-week period.

5. Pitchfork

Best for: Alternative music discovery

Pitchfork's publication is exceptional for finding new music, so it's no surprise that its Spotify app is equally helpful. You can browse album reviews in three ways: an all-inclusive stream, the best new albums, or Pitchfork-made playlists. Each album listed comes with a numerical rating, an "Add as Playlist" option, and a "Share Album" option, as well as a full-length, Pitchfork-style album review.

6. Rolling Stone Recommends

Best for: Reading reviews of new releases

The Rolling Stone Spotify app works hard in all the right places. The interface is hassle-free and the album and song reviews are hosted directly on Spotify. A large selection of the playlists are curated by top artists, from David Guetta to Tom Petty.

Source : mashable

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Apple VP Rushed iBooks Deal While Steve Jobs Was Alive

Apple senior Vice President Eddy Cue told a Manhattan courtroom Thursday that he rushed through the process of making deals with publishers — so that Steve Jobs could unveil the iBooks store on stage while the Apple founder was still alive.

Cue is at the center of an antitrust trial where Apple stands accused of fixing prices of e-books at an artificially high level. Department of Justice prosecutors have described Cue as "the chief ringleader" of a price-fixing effort, a charge he vehemently denied. The five major publishers involved in the lawsuit have all made out-of-court settlements with the DOJ.

But Cue argues he wasn't aware of any price-fixing deals the publishers may have been working on. He was focused on making a deal fast on behalf of his then boss, Steve Jobs.

It was late 2009, and Jobs was "at the end of his life," Cue said. Jobs, battling prostate cancer, would last another year before stepping down from running the company in January 2011; he died in October 2011. Each keynote presentation before then, including the unveiling of the iPad in January 2010, could well have been his last.

"I wanted to get it done in time for [the iPad launch], because that was important for him," Cue told the federal court. He had a couple of months to make the deals, and added that the pressure he felt was "tremendous."

Cue had something to prove: it was he who first insisted to Jobs that the iPad had the potential to be "the best e-reader the market has ever seen," he said. Jobs initially argued against it — but once he relented, he asked Cue to get the iBooks store ready for the January unveiling.

The deal Cue made allowed publishers to set their own prices (as opposed to Amazon, which bought books wholesale and set its own prices.) The government points to a clause in the deal that allowed Apple to lower the price of any given ebook if it was cheaper elsewhere.

This, the DOJ contends, gave the publishers cover to raise the prices of new and bestselling ebooks — and forced Amazon, which had long sold cheaper ebooks, to follow suit. The government has offered several emails from Jobs into the evidence, as has Apple. The case continues next week.

Source : mashable

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New MacBook Air (mid 2013) and AirPort Extreme teardown

Apple's new MacBook Air has hit the shelves, and one has made its way to the iFixit labs for dissection. Let's take a look at what's new in this device.

What's interesting about the new MacBook Air is that it is surprisingly similar to the previous-generation hardware. In fact, you can count the major changes on the fingers of one hand. These are:

• Larger capacity battery
• Smaller SSD module
• Updated AirPort card
• No separate platform controller hub
• New heat sink clamp

The battery is a 7.6 V, 7150mAh unit, compared to the 7.3 V, 6700mAh found in the version it replaced. This gives the MacBook Air increased battery life. with very little additional bulk.

In order to get the "up to 45% faster" flash storage compared to the previous models, Apple has switched from SATA to PCI-E. Interestingly, in order to deliver this Apple had to turn to its arch legal rival – Samsung. In fact, the flash storage is a triple win for Samsung:

• Samsung S4LN053X01-8030 (ARM) flash controller
• 8 x Samsung K9LDGY8SIC-XCK0 16 GB flash storage
• Samsung K4P2G324ED-FGC2 512 MB RAM

This is an interesting shift for Apple who has over the past few months been distancing itself from Samsung.

The revamped AirPort card features a Broadcom BCM4360, which supports 3-stream 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0.

Other chip highlights are as follows:

• Fourth generation Intel Core i5 processor, with integrated Intel HD 5000 Graphics
• Intel Z246TA38 Thunderbolt controller
• Linear Technology LT3957 inverting controller
• 4 x Elpida F8132A1MC DDR3L RAM, total of 4 GB
• Broadcom BCM15700A2
• Hynix H5TC4G63AFR 4 Gb synchronous DRAM
• MXIC MX25L6406E 64 Mb serial flash
• Texas Instruments TPS51980A synchronous buck controller

It's clear from this upgrade that Apple didn't feel the need to push the boat out in terms of upgrades in order to keep the MacBook Air current.

Like the previous generation, the 13-inch MacBook Air clocked in at a 4 out of 10 on our repairability scale (where 10 is the easiest to repair).

The iFixit team also got their hands on a new 802.11ac AirPort Extreme base station.

With this new device Apple has taken the power supply into the device, just as it did with the mac Mini.

The updated 802.11ac base station is designed to have multi-station WLAN throughput of at least 1 gigabit per second and a single link throughput of at least 500 megabits per second (500 Mbit/s).

On the logic board is a divers range of chips, including:

• Broadcom BCM53019 router SOC with gigabit switch
• Broadcom BCM4360KLMG
• Hynix H5TC4G63AFR 512 MB synchronous DRAM
• Micron 25Q256A 32 MB serial flash
• Skyworks 5003L1 WLAN power amplifier
• Skyworks 2623L high power WLAN power amplifier
• TDK TLA-7T201HF

There's also a free 3.5-inch slot in the AirPort Extreme big enough to take a hard drive, but there are no connectors on the motherboard to turn the AirPort Extreme into a Time Capsule equipped device.

The ease with which the AirPort Extreme can be dismantled earned it a repairability scale of 8 out of 10 from the iFixit team.

Source : zdnet

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Sony PS4 tech specs: HDMI mandatory, removable HDD

As most of you are well aware, Sony finally unveiled the PS4 hardware at their E3 press conference. We gave our first impressions on the new design in a previous report, but now we’re pleased to say that Sony has also released some updated details on the tech specs of their new console.

Unfortunately, Sony has also confirmed at the same time that the PS4 console will not come with a camera attachment included. Then again, some consumers may think this is a blessing in disguise and ultimately helped to keep the console at its low $399 price for gamers that didn’t want to primarily use their PS4 to play camera-based games anyway.

Microsoft may argue however, that in actual fact their $499 price doesn’t seem so bad compared to Sony’s now, with a Kinect camera included with the price. More on the price debate another time though, as Sony has provided a press release giving out some more technical information on their new system.

While you may not get a camera, you’ll be delighted to hear that Sony are finally going to provide a HDMI cable for free inside the box. Although the reasons for this are probably due to the fact that the PS4 requires a HDMI to operate now regardless. Also included inside the main package is an included headset, which we already know can be connected directly to the DualShock4 controller.

To remind you, the PS4 will come with 8GB of GDDR5 RAM and an x86-64 AMD Jaguar-based eight core processor. What you may not know already, is that the PS4 will come with a 500GB hard drive like the Xbox One. Unlike Microsoft’s console though, we can confirm that the PS4 hard drive can be removed and upgraded if necessary.

You’ll also want to know that Sony has priced their camera accessory at $59 or £54 in the UK, you can even buy one now online at retailers like Amazon if you want to get in early. For a full glance at Sony’s press release, you’ll find the following document here very useful.

Are you disappointed that a camera isn’t included, or is this actually a good move by Sony to secure that $399 retail price?

Source: product-reviews.net

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The Inside Scoop on Google's Visual Design Guidelines

A group of Google designers have shared the various quirks and guidelines behind the tech giant's visual aesthetics, giving us a glimpse at how Google works to keep a coherent look across its products.

In a two-part project posted on online portfolio site Behance, Google's Roger Oddone, Yan Yan, Zachary Gibson and Christopher Bettig said their "solid, yet flexible, set of guidelines" have been helping both internal designers and vendors produce work that supports the company's brand identity. The guide includes tips for designing logos, icons, illustrations and infographics.

According to the guidelines, Google likes its product icons to be "highly simplified, exaggerated and caricatured in nature so that they are appropriate for use at small sizes." The company's new icons are also geometric shapes that are front-facing, with straight, hard shadows.

The guidelines also detail specific color palettes that are acceptable to use in logos and user interface designs, with Google-specific yellow, blue, red and green colors and combinations.

Check out the Google-y guidelines yourself on Behance: Here's Part 1 and Part 2.

Google's simple approach to aesthetics has a modern feel that is somewhat similar to Apple's newly-unveiled look for iOS 7. Under the direction of well-known Apple Senior Vice President of Design Jonathan Ive, the aesthetic for iOS 7 ditches details like Game Center's green felt — a "skeuomorphic" look seen in earlier iOS versions — for a flatter, cleaner look.

"I think there is a profound and enduring beauty in simplicity, in clarity, in efficiency," Ive said, during a video played at Monday's WWDC keynote event in San Francisco. "True simplicity is derived from so much more than just the absence of clutter ... it's about bringing order to complexity."

That's why Ive said Apple applied a "coherent" look across iOS 7 and designed new typography and icons.

What do you think about the Google design guidelines? What about the aesthetics from Apple? Facebook? Other tech companies? Let us know in the comments.

Source : mashable

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Sony Finally Reveals the PlayStation 4

LOS ANGELES — During a press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Sony finally debuted the PlayStation 4, the latest version of its popular console.

Sony announced the the device during a press event in late February. The company began developing the PS4 shortly after it released the PlayStation 3 in 2006. While we learned a bit about the fourth-generation console in February, Sony didn't reveal it at the time.

The PS4 has an X86 processor, enhanced PC GPU and 8GB of high-speed unified memory. It also includes a dual-shock controller that includes a touchpad, headphone jack and share button.

The share button is particularly interesting. The PS4 has dedicated, always-on video compression, allowing you to share gameplay clips with friends on the fly. Using the button, you can also let friends watch you play a game remotely, or have a them virtually take over the controller to help you finish a level.

A new Remote Play feature also lets you play your PS4 games on the PlayStation Vita. Much like in the Wii U, Remote Play allows you to simultaneously watch television, while playing a game on Vita.

Earlier this month, Sony posted a YouTube video that showed blurry footage of the console. It marked the first time we were able to see something other than the system's controller.

The PlayStation 4 will be available "this holiday season" for $399.

Source : mashable

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Everything Apple Announced Today At WWDC [Round-Up]

Apple just finished its WWDC keynote and holy crap, there is a ton of new stuff coming to iOS 7 and OS X. A radical looking Mac Pro was also showed off alongside some MacBook Airs with all-day battery life.
To help save you some time, here’s a list of everything new Apple introduced today at WWDC 2013 that we’ll be updating throughout the day as new info become available.

iOS 7

• Completely redesigned interface
• New Lockscreen
• New translucency and Parallax allows you to see layers of info
• Weather app has interactive displays
• Calendar has new minimalist UI
• Multiple page support in Folders
• Notification Center now available on Lock Screen
• FaceTime audio calls
• Notification syncing
• Phone and Message blocking
• Activation lock disables phone if stolen
• iPhone beta available to developers today
• Coming this fall

Control Center

• Swipe up from bottom of device to access toggles quickly
• Turn on Airplane Mode, adjust brightness, AirDrop, etc.

Multitasking

• New interface shows app cards
• Multi-tasking for all apps with great battery life
• Puts apps into scheduled background cycles
• Adapts to network conditions

Safari

• New full-screen look
• Pull down from top brings up smart search field
• iCloud Keychain support

Camera

• Redesigned UI
• New filters
• Accessible from Control Center

New Photos App -

• Collect photos into ‘Moments’ based on location, date, or people.
• Look across photo collection by pinch-to-zooming through Photostream
• Share photos via AirDrop, Twitter, Facebook, iMessage, etc.
• See comments from people you’ve shared the picture with directly in image

AirDrop

• Share images with friends
• System-wide support with apps with share-sheets
• Works on iPhone 5, iPad 4, 5th Gen iPod Touch

Siri

• New interface with wave animation
• All new female and male voices
• Can now control more of your device such as adjusting brigthness
• Wikipedia and Bing search results integrated directly into Siri

iOS in the Car

• Get iOS on your car’s dashboard screen
• Get directions, play music, have iMessages dictated to you and more, eyes free.
• Supported by more than 12 car manufacturers in 2014

App Store

• Search for apps by age range
• Find apps based on current location
• Apps are updated automatically (John McCain is well pleased)

iTunes Radio

• Built directly into iOS Music app.
• Featured Stations stream music based on its theme.
• Share stations with friends, or create your own based on favorite artists
• Preview and purchase songs directly in the app.
• Support on Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, and Apple TV
• Free for all users
• Completely ad-free for iTunes Match subscribers
• Launches in the U.S.

OS X 10.9 Mavericks

• OS X names will now be California-themed
• New Finder Tabs
• Tags for files – keep track of files by adding a tag in OS X
• Multiple Displays – much more powerful. Menus and dock appears on both displays.
• OpenGL 4 support
• Time Coalescing - helps improve your CPU efficiency by up to 72%
• 1.5x faster at waking a system from standby
• Accelerated Scrolling optimized for Retina displays
• AppNap – lets you pause apps to prevent battery drain
• Developer preview available today
• Releases Fall 2013

Safari

• New Sidebar with reading list, bookmarks and shared links
• Big performance improvements
• 1.44x faster in SunSpider JavaScript benchmark than Chrome and Firefox
• Improved CPU energy uses

iCloud Keychain

• Remembers your website logins, credit card numbers, etc.
• Can suggest to auto-fill your forms for you with private info

Notifications

• Reply to iMessages, Email, FaceTime calls right from desktop
• Get push notifications from iOS apps on your Mac
• Tells you what you missed on your lock-screen
• Apps update in the background

Maps for OS X

• Street Maps
• 3D Flyover
• Info cards
• Turn-by-turn directions
• Send directions to your iPhone

iBooks for Mac

• Access to 1.8 million books in iBookstore
• Read books from your desktop or iOS
• Interactive books just like in iOS

iWork for iCloud

• Create iWork docs from a web browser
• Works on OS X or Windows
• New iWork releases coming to Mac and iOS later this year

Macbook Air

• All-day battery life thanks to Haswell processor
• 2X GPU execution units with 40% faster graphics
• 11-inch MBA will have 9 hours of battery life
• 13-inch MBA now has 12 hours of battery life
• 45% faster SSD storage
• Faster WiFi 802.11ac card
• 11-inch starts at $999 with 128GB storage
• Ships today

Mac Pro

• New unified thermal-core body
• Intel Xeon with up to 12-core
• Fastest ECC memory
• PCIe Storage that’s 10x faster than any previous Mac Pro drive
• Thunderbolt 2 support. 20GBps throughput
• Dual workstation GPUs
• 4k display support
• 1/8th the size of old Mac Pro
• Made in the USA
• Coming later this year

AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule

• New design
• 802.11ac Wi-Fi 
• Room for harddrive storage to beam files

Company Stats

• 600 million iOS devices sold to date
• 24th WWDC
• attendees from 66 countries
• 6 million registered developers
• WWDC sold out in 71 seconds
• 1 million daily vistors at the 407 Apple Stores in 14 countries
• 50 billion apps download from the App Store
• 300 million iTunes in the Cloud users
• 900,000 apps in the store
• 375,000 iPad apps
• 575 million App Store accounts (more accounts with credit cards than any store)
• $10 billion has been paid to developers ($5 billion just last year)
• 72 million Macs installed
• 28 million copies sold of OS X Mountain Lion
• 35% of Mac users are now using OS X 10.8

Source: cultofmac.com

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Report: Google Close to Buying Waze for $1.3 Billion

The bidding war for crowdsourced navigation app Waze has reportedly been won by Google, which will pay "more than $1 billion" for the startup, according to Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz. Update: The newspaper later added that the deal will be worth $1.3 billion.

The deal hasn't been finalized yet, but according to the report, Google agreed not to lay off Waze workers at its development center in Israel, and will allow the company to continue its development in Israel "for at least three years."

According to the report, the conditions of the deal will keep Waze CEO Noam Bardin at the helm of the company, and Waze will retain its brand and won't be integrated into Google.

A deal for the free social-powered navigation app for iPhone has been in the works for a few months, with the bidding for Waze reportedly involving Facebook and Google.

As Mashable reported on May 24, Apple was also rumored to be considering a bid for Waze earlier this year, but on May 28, Apple CEO Tim Cook denied that Apple made a bid for Waze.

We contacted Google and Waze for verification of the alleged deal, and Waze didn't immediately respond to our request for comment. Google replied, "We don't comment on rumor or speculation."

Source : mashable

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Facebook Starts Rolling Out Home Improvements

Facebook updated its Android app Tuesday, and enhanced Facebook Home, its all-encompassing skin for Android smartphones.

Facebook Home now has a dock, making it easier to access favorite apps.

The addition of the dock is the first of many improvements Facebook has planned for Home, improvements being made in part based on the reactions of early adopters to the launcher.

“We’ve spent a lot of time digging through the one star ratings,” Facebook's Director of Mobile Engineering Cory Ondrejka told a small group of reporters earlier this month.

Facebook already has plans to add folders for grouping your apps to Home as well.

In addition to the changes to Home, Facebook added the ability to send multiple photos in a single message, and the ability to change who can see something you’ve already shared to its traditional Android app Thursday.

The updated Facebook Home and Facebook Android app are available now from Google Play.

Source : mashable

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Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote to ship free with x86 Windows 8 tablets

During today's Computex keynote, Microsoft Windows chief Tami Reller just announced that new x86 Windows 8 tablets will include Office in the box. The executive didn't detail the software offering, beyond mentioning that Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote will all be included. Windows RT devices, for their part, will now also include pre-installed Outlook, beginning with the Windows 8.1 update, which is due to arrive as a preview version later this month.

Source: engadget.com

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Intel Scores Major Coup With Samsung Galaxy Tab 3

While Samsung's new Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 looks similar existing models in the Galaxy family, on the inside it's a bit different: The new tablet packs an Intel Atom processor.

This is a big win for Intel, a company that has continued to struggle to gain footing in the smartphone and tablet space.

Most Samsung products — including previous Samsung Galaxy Tab devices, as well as the Galaxy Note line — use ARM processors from Qualcomm or Samsung.

Intel claims that its Atom Z2560 processor (known as Clover Trail+) offers "double the compute performance and 3x the graphics capabilities" as its previous-generation Atom platform.

Intel also brings its own integrated graphics chip to its platform.

In terms of real-world results, we'll need to see some benchmarks (and try the device out in person) before evaluating if Clover Trail+ can take on the latest and greatest processors churned out by Qualcomm and others.

Still, getting Samsung to commit to using Intel on its tablet line — even if this isn't the higher-end Galaxy Note series — is a big coup.

I've long thought that Intel should go back to making ARM processors (ironically a business the company exited with the sale of XScale to Marvell back in 2006, right as the ARM-based market was poised to explode), but perhaps with enough traction and good will, the Atom platform can become a viable alternative for manufacturers seeking news chipsets.

Source : mashable

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Is Twitter Testing a New Look for Threaded Conversations?

It looks like Twitter is testing a new look for messages and replies on Twitter.com.

Twitter has offered users the ability to see previous tweets and replies for some time, but now it appears the service will make the thread of those conversations more visible in the general timeline.

On Friday, David Higgins ran across the new look:

Others have run across the new look on their feeds as well.

 

In the past, in order to view the full context of a Tweet reply, users had to click on the tweet in question to see its expanded view. Now, it looks like the context for some tweets will appear in-stream.

For now, it looks like Twitter is rolling out this UI update slowly. We reached out to the company but haven't received a response.

What do you think of this look? Let us know in the comments.

Source : mashable

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