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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 16 Issue 23
Volume 16, Issue 23 Atari Online News, Etc. June 6, 2014
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2014
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1623 06/06/14
~ Blocking "Glassholes"! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Happy 30th, Tetris!
~ E.T. Is Heading Home! ~ Mario Kart 8 Big Sell! ~ New Mortal Kombat!
~ Sony Stops Selling PSP ~ HP Updates Chromebook! ~ Yosemite Announced!
~ Heartbleed Aftershocks ~ What From Sony at E3! ~ Win 8.1 Good News!
-* Google Boosts Encrypted Mail *-
-* Volume of Encrypted Email Is Rising *-
-* Cable Cos. Faking Net Neutrality Support? *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Allied invasion in Normandy,
"D-Day", during World War II. Many have claimed that this successful
strategy was the turning point for the Allied forces. We should honor
all of those who took part in this invasion, as well as all others who
took part in this war.
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Sony To Stop Selling PlayStation Portable!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" New Mortal Kombat Coming in 2015
Mario Kart 8 Sells Huge!
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
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Sony To Stop Selling PlayStation Portable
Sony Corp. is pulling the plug on its hand-held PlayStation Portable
video game machine after 10 years.
The Japanese electronics and entertainment company has been pushing the
successor machine, PlayStation Vita.
Tokyo-based Sony said Tuesday that PSP shipments ended in North America
in January, will end in Japan this month and later this year in Europe.
Discounts on Vita and downloads are offered to Japanese PSP owners, but
are still undecided for those overseas.
More than 76 million PSP machines were sold, as of two years ago, the
last time a tally was taken. The PSP went on sale in December 2004.
Machines devoted to games are struggling against the popularity of
smartphones and other devices. Sony reported a $1.3 billion loss for last
fiscal year and is expecting to stay in the red this year.
Some analysts say the Vita has not sold in significant numbers. Sony does
not release the cumulative global unit sales of the Vita and combines it
with PSP tallies.
Sony's handheld game machine also faced stiff competition from Japanese
rival Nintendo Co.'s 3DS. But Nintendo has also struggled to keep
momentum going for its game machines.
Get Over Here! New Mortal Kombat Coming in 2015
Scorpion, still angry.
Now that his stint overseeing weather conditions in the Northeast is
over, Sub-Zero is getting back to what he does best: kicking butt.
After weeks of winks, whispers, and hints, Warner Bros. Interactive and
developer NetherRealm Studios have officially announced Mortal Kombat X,
the latest in the long-running fighting game series. Its due to land on
the PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC in 2015.
So whats new? Well, were not really sure. The fancy debut trailer shows
off some familiar moves and classic MK brutality (that knee isnt going
to heal well), but other details are thin. Its also pretty clear that
that isnt in-game footage.
A press release notes that the new game will feature a new
fully-connected experience that launches players into a persistent online
contest where every fight matters in a global battle for supremacy.
Heres hoping that doesnt mean its an always online situation. Mortal
Kombat X will also add variations to each character that will presumably
change their move sets.
Its good news for gamers. Though the controversial fighting game
franchise had a rough go over the past decade, it made a big comeback in
2011s eponymous Mortal Kombat reboot. Critics loved the game, and it
sold more than 3 million copies.
Well learn more about Mortal Kombat X at next weeks E3 2014 conference
in Los Angeles.
Mario Kart 8 Sells Huge Over its First Weekend
Today, Nintendo revealed that its recently-released Wii U exclusive the
eagerly-anticipated Mario Kart 8 had a stellar first weekend on the
market. The game sold over 1.2 million units across the world, from North
America, to Europe, to Japan, making it a bona fide commercial hit. The
game launched on May 29th in Japan, May 30th in North America and Europe,
and May 31st in Australia.
Interestingly, this marks a continuation of Nintendo and its partners
releasing quality software on the Wii U. Mario Kart 8, according to
Nintendo, is the 14th Wii U game to launch in the US with an 85 or higher
on Metacritic. As for IGN, we absolutely adored Mario Kart 8, giving it a
9.0.
In a statement, Nintendo of Americas President and COO, Reggie Fils-Aime,
writes that, "The early response to Mario Kart 8 demonstrates that the
best days for Wii U are still ahead. This years E3 is just days away,
and it will be all about the future games for Nintendo platforms. This
milestone is a great place to start!"
Global sales of the Mario Kart franchise which began on the Super
Nintendo in the form of Super Mario Kart in 1992 have passed the 100
million sold mark as of late March, 2014. Mario Kart Wii remains the
best-selling game in the franchise by a mile, selling an astounding 35.53
million units, though Mario Kart DS isnt far behind at 23.56 million
units.
Five Things To Expect From Sony At E3
E3 is almost upon us! For Sony and its ascendant PS4, its going to be
hard to top last years show stopping performance, where both a $100 price
difference and a total lack of controversial DRM policies delivered a
knockout punch to Microsoft MSFT +0.68% and the Xbox One that its still
reeling from. That doesnt mean the company can rest on its laurels,
though: Microsoft will be coming out swinging, and Sony still has to put
on an exciting show to stay on top. Here are a few things we can expect
theyll be bringing to the table on Monday:
Uncharted 4: The unflappable Nathan Drake was the standard bearer for the
Playstation 3, and we can expect him to get a fresh PS4 makeover on
Monday. Like Halo 5, this game wont be out until 2015, but weve already
heard a lot of chatter that the graphics are going to blow our minds, and
this is Sonys chance to do just that. Expect a cinematic preview with a
bit of gameplay to follow, maybe even a live demo. Even if the game isnt
far enough along for that, Sony and Naughty Dog want to remind us all
that its coming.
Morpheus: Virtual Reality is that great swirling strangeness on the edge
of the videogames horizon, tantalizing us all with vague promises of an
entirely new world of play. We first saw Morpheus at GDC, but we dont
know much about it aside from the fact that it exists, and it works
about as well as the Oculus Rift. Were a ways off from a commercial
product, but it behooves Sony to keep this fresh in our consciousness.
Expect Shuhei Yoshida to look absolutely charming as we watch him wave
his way through an unannounced Morpheus title.
Some Vita, Not Much: Sony makes a handheld! Its called the Vita. Its
actually quite nice! Though strange. The Vita isnt exactly Sonys
proudest product right now, but it cant ignore the fact that it exists.
Id expect the company to play it up as a PS4 peripheral through remote
play, probably by announcing a new Vita/PS4 bundle with a few cross-play
games thrown in. The Vita also gets some attention in our next bullet
point, which is
Playstation Now: Im torn on what well see about Playstation Now: I
assume well get an update on how the beta is going and what magic we can
expect from the program in the future, but aside from that its hard to
say. I doubt well get an actual launch date or prices, but I wouldnt
be surprised if we get a small list of confirmed games (even ones that
dont start with Uncharted) and a relative timeline. Either way, this
feature is going to be very important to the Playstation ecosystem going
forward, and Sony will need to spend some time on it.
More Games: The Order: 1886 got delayed, but its still probably the
farthest along in Sonys first party stable, so Ill bet my hat (a
tasteful dark straw panama) that well be seeing more of that. Assassins
Creed is a Sony stand-by, so expect to see something from Unity. Aside
from that, Driveclub will definitely make an appearance, as will a
smattering of Indies. Other than that? Theres always room for surprises.
Happy 30th Birthday, Tetris!
Tetris should never have become a hit, let alone a global sensation. But
you just cant keep a great game down.
Today, Tetris celebrates its 30th birthday. Tetris creator Alexey
Pajitnov says despite the obstacles, he knew the legendary puzzler was
destined to be something special the moment he released in on June 6,
1984.
I felt it was a very addictive game when the first prototypes left my
computer, he told Yahoo Games. I couldnt stop [playing], and then I
saw my friends couldnt stop playing.
They certainly couldnt. Available on more than 50 platforms in more than
185 countries, Tetris has sold more than 140 million retail copies since
its debut, far and away the most of any single video game. Its a
pop-culture beast, counting the likes of Beyoncé, Patrick Stewart, and
The Simpsons as fans. Its in New Yorks Museum of Modern Art. Heck,
its even been played on the side of buildings.
But it almost didnt happen.
Initially written while Pajitnov was working at the Soviet Academy of
Sciences Computer Center in Moscow, Tetris began as a program to help
assess the power of a Russian computer called an Elektronika 60. The
name was a portmanteau of tennis and tetra, the Greek word for four
(there are four bricks in every Tetris block).
Pirated copies soon began spreading across Europe, prompting a
nightmarish licensing struggle between the Russian government and a
number of European game publishers. The big loser? Pajitnov, who got cut
out of millions in royalties raked in by the Kremlin.
That all changed thanks to Henk Rogers. As the owner of Bullet-Proof
Software, Rogers was responsible for bringing games from around the world
to Japan. He fell in love with Pajitnovs creation and went about
securing the Western rights for the PC and the original Nintendo
Entertainment System. But where he really saw potential for it was on the
upcoming Game Boy system.
To get those rights, he had to fly to Moscow and meet with
Elektronorgtechnica (ELORG), the state-owned bureau in charge of
importing and exporting software.
"I wasnt supposed to talk to any Soviets, and they werent supposed to
talk to me," he says. "I certainly wasnt supposed to do any business.
So when I knocked on the door, it was a big surprise to them."
The meeting consisted of nine people (including some Rogers says were
KGB types), who grilled him for two hours. One of those nine was
Pajitnov.
"Almost every week somebody came to knock on the door and ask for rights
to Tetris," he says. "But when Henk came, I realized that he was a game
developer and the right person for Tetris. That same night he came to
my house and I showed him my other games. It was very exciting."
Securing the rights from Russia was one matter. Persuading Nintendo to
bundle the game with the Game Boy was another. The companys original
plan, Rogers says, was to include a Mario title with its new handheld, a
proven method to attract players. But he strenuously argued with Minoru
Arakawa, founder and then-president of Nintendo of America, to opt
instead for Tetris.
"I told him, if you want little boys to play Game Boy, pack in Mario. But
if you want everyone to play Game Boy, pack in Tetris," says Rogers, who
is now managing director of The Tetris Company.
Rogers, of course, won the argument. The game went on to sell more than
35 million copies on the system, and its popularity has only increased
through the years. The game has sold brilliantly on mobile devices more
than 400 million copies while the Facebook Tetris Battle game has seen
over 20 billion games to date.
And once you start, Tetris is hard to stop. For years players have found
themselves seeing those pesky blocks fall even when they shut their eyes,
a legit (and nightmarish) syndrome known as the Tetris effect.
The flip side is that Tetris also might be good for you. In February,
Plymouth University found that playing Tetris for just three minutes can
help reduce cravings for food, alcohol, and cigarettes. Last year,
doctors at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre
found a variation of the game was effective at treating adult amblyopia,
also known as lazy eye.
Now if they can just come up with a way to get that pesky theme song out
of our heads
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Everything Found in the Atari Desert Dig and Where It's Headed
E.T. is finally heading home after a long pit stop in the New Mexico
desert, but strangely it seems that home could be the Smithsonian, among
other places.
In late April, a documentary film crew got permission to excavate a
section of a landfill in the town of Alamogordo where urban legend held
that a struggling Atari had dumped many truck-loads of games and
equipment three decades ago, including copies of its most legendary flop,
a game based on the blockbuster film "E.T."
This bit of postmodern archaeology turned out to be a success, and
according to city documents seen by the Alamogordo Daily News, a total of
1,377 games were found. Surprisingly, "E.T." was not the most popular
title unearthed. Only 171 copies of the game were found, compared to 190
copies of "Centipede." Other popular games dug up included 116 Defenders,
59 Missile Commands, 99 Warlords, and 53 Asteroids.
In total, 60 different game titles came out of the landfill, but there's
likely still much more underground. A consultant involved in the dig
reported to city leaders that there could be nearly 800,000 more
cartridges still buried in the landfill.
There appears to be a few reasons for leaving all those games in the
ground (the hole dug has already been re-filled). The same consultant told
the city commission that retrieving a relatively small amount of games
makes them more valuable, but also noted that the documentary companies
involved had to spend $50,000 just to dig as deep as they did.
"The dig was a lot deeper, a lot more than they thought they would have to
go," Alamogordo Mayor Susie Galea told Polygon later. "They thought it was
going to be 18 feet down and it was 30 instead."
Galea told IGN that the city will be setting aside about 500 of the
excavated games for museums, including the Smithsonian, and 100 will be
given to the companies producing the film, leaving about 700 for the city
to sell, possibly via a public auction.
The commission plans to meet June 10 to decide how to go about selling the
cartridges. Here's hoping they set aside a few for New Mexico residents at
a discounted rate.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Volume of Encrypted Email Rising Amid Spying Fears
The volume of email cloaked in encryption technology is rapidly rising as
Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other major Internet companies try to shield
their users' online communications from government spies and other snoops.
Google and other companies are now automatically encrypting all email,
but that doesn't ensure confidentiality unless the recipients' email
provider also adopts the technology.
In an analysis released Tuesday, Google Inc. said that about 65 percent
of the messages sent by its Gmail users are encrypted while delivered,
meaning the recipient's email provider also supports the technology.
That's up from 39 percent in December. Incoming communiques to Gmail are
less secure. Only 50 percent of them encrypted while in transit, up from
27 percent in December.
Encryption reduces the chances that email can be read by interlopers. The
technology transforms the text into coding that looks like gibberish
until it arrives at its destination.
Google and other Internet services rely on a form of encryption known as
Transport Layer Security, or TLS. Security experts say that encryption
method isn't as secure as other options. But encryption that is tougher to
crack is also more complicated to use.
Gmail, with more than 425 million accounts worldwide, was one of the first
free email services to embrace TLS. Yahoo, Facebook and AOL also are
encrypting their email services. Microsoft Corp., whose stable of email
services includes the Outlook, MSN and Hotmail domains, has started
encrypting many accounts as part of transition that won't be completed
until later this year.
Less than half of the correspondence from Hotmail accounts to Gmail wasn't
encrypted as of late May, Google said. Security is even worse at
Comcast.net and Verizon.net, where less than 1 percent of the traffic
coming to and from Gmail is encrypted, according to Google.
Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas said the Internet service provider plans
to start encrypting email to and from Gmail accounts within the next few
weeks. Microsoft reiterated that it is still rolling out encryption in
its free email services.
Verizon didn't have an immediate comment on Google's statistics.
The Google report comes a year after the first wave of media reports about
the U.S. government's intrusive techniques to monitor online
communications and other Internet activity. The National Security
Administration says its online surveillance focused on people living
outside the U.S. as the agency tried to defuse threats of terrorism.
After lashing out at the government spying, Google and other Internet
companies began encrypting email and other online services in an attempt
to reassure users worried about their privacy. The Internet companies are
hoping their efforts to thwart government surveillance will make Web
surfers feel comfortable enough to continue to visit their services. The
companies make more money from online ads if their audiences keep
growing.
Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked documents revealing
the online espionage, is among critics who believe the encryption methods
deployed by Google and it peers are inadequate. In a March appearance at
a technology conference, Snowden described TSL encryption as "deeply
problematic" because U.S. government operatives merely needed to obtain
a court order or hack into data centers to obtain users' emails and other
information.
Like many privacy activists, Snowden prefers "end-to-end" encryption, a
more complicated step that requires a key to decrypt the information
contained in emails. Theses encrypted keys are only held by an email
recipient, making it virtually impossible for an unauthorized user to
know what's in the message. This form of encryption takes more technical
expertise to do right and can cause more headaches if passwords are
forgotten because they can't be reset. That raises the risk of the email
being inaccessible even to the recipient.
Google hopes to make end-to-end encryption easier by releasing an
extension for its Chrome browser later this year. The company released
the coding for the planned extension to security specialists Tuesday in
an effort to detect any weaknesses before making it available to
everyone.
Google Boosts Encrypted Email, Says Others Lag Behind
Google wants to ensure that its customers' email messages remain private,
and has taken two more steps in that direction. With a work-in-progress
Chrome extension that encrypts any kind of Web-based email exchange, and
a transparency report that calls out other providers' lackluster email
privacy practices, Google is both promoting its own services and
thumbing its nose at its competitors.
The Chrome extension, not yet available to the general public, is called
"End-to-End," and Google detailed it in a blog post. This extension
will provide public-key encryption on both the sender's and the
receiver's side (hence the "end-to-end" moniker) via the OpenPGP
protocol for any data leaving your Chrome browser. If you send email,
transfer a file or share sensitive code via End-to-End, the recipient
will need to decrypt it. As such, Google envisions that End-to-End will
only be used for extremely sensitive information.
What sets End-to-End apart from other email encryption services is that
it will not require much technical know-how to use. Users will likely
still need to be tech-savvier than the average home user, which is why
Google hopes the tool will be of use to journalists, human-rights
activists and other people who need secrecy, but not necessary top tech
skills, in their professions. Interested users can download the alpha
version via Google's coding website.
Google has also released a transparency report on email security,
partially to boost its own Gmail service and partially to call out other
email providers. After measuring how many inbound and outbound Gmail
messages were encrypted in-transit, Google determined that Gmail is much
better at encryption than most other email and Webmail clients.
By default, Gmail sends encrypted messages and decrypts messages upon
receipt. This prevents unauthorized third parties from picking up and
reading email while it's in transit between servers.
However, not every email service encrypts its messages on a regular
basis, meaning that receiving them in Gmail is no more secure than
sending them in the first place. Likewise, Gmail messages to unencrypted
email services have no special protection; encryption is a two-way
street, and both parties need to cooperate for it to work. Google found
that 69 percent of outgoing Gmail messages were encrypted, whereas only
48 percent of incoming messages could say the same.
In terms of inbound traffic, email messages from Amazon, Facebook,
Twitter and Yahoo were generally quite safe, whereas Constant Contact,
eBay, Groupon and Hotmail were just begging to be spied upon. Yahoo
also scored well in outbound traffic, as did AOL and Craigslist.
Hotmail, however, was still unsecure, and both Comcast and Apple had
almost no encryption whatsoever.
It's important to remember that in a Google-led study, it's natural
that the results would favor Google. Still, Gmail does appear to be a
more secure email service than many of its counterparts, and the
eventual End-to-End extension could make it even more so.
Here We Go Again: New Vulnerability Discovered in Software That Gave Us Heartbleed
Security researchers have uncovered new bugs in the Web encryption
software that caused the pernicious Heartbleed Internet threat that
surfaced in April.
Experts said the newly discovered vulnerabilities in OpenSSL, which could
allow hackers to spy on communications, do not appear to be as serious a
threat as Heartbleed.
The new bugs were disclosed on Thursday as the group responsible for
developing that software released an OpenSSL update that contains seven
security fixes.
Experts said that websites and technology firms that use OpenSSL
technology should install the update on their systems as quickly as
possible. Still, they said that could take several days or weeks because
companies need to first test systems to make sure they are compatible
with the update.
"They are going to have to patch. This will take some time," said Lee
Weiner, senior vice president with cybersecurity software maker Rapid7.
OpenSSL technology is used on about two-thirds of all websites, including
ones run by Amazon.com, Facebook, Google, and Yahoo. It is also
incorporated into thousands of technology products from companies,
including Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, and Oracle.
The widespread Heartbleed bug surfaced in April when it was disclosed
that the flaw potentially exposed users of those websites and
technologies to attack by hackers who could steal large quantities of
data without leaving a trace. That prompted fear that attackers may have
compromised large numbers of networks without their knowledge.
Security experts said Thursday that the newly discovered bugs are more
difficult to exploit than Heartbleed, making those vulnerabilities less
of a threat.
Still, until users of the technology update their systems, there is a
window of opportunity for sophisticated hackers to launch attacks and
exploit the newly uncovered vulnerabilities, said Tal Klein, vice
president of strategy with cloud security firm Adallom.
Are Cable Companies Faking the Support for Ending Net Neutrality?
The debate over net neutrality is only getting hotter this summer, with
fiery support on both sides, or so it seems. According to a report in
Vice however, one side of the debate may be more smoke and mirrors than
real grassroots activism.
The idea is that many of the groups and industry organizations urging the
FCC to allow different speed lanes for the Internet are partly or mostly
created by cable companies to make it seem like there is a lot of support
when in fact there isn't.
Plenty of politicians are getting donations from big cable companies, but
that's a much more open and relatively transparent process from creating
and funding an entire fake advocacy group to promote your cause.
In case you missed John Oliver explaining it. The basic fight is over
whether the FCC should enforce net neutrality by declaring the Internet
as a public utility it can regulate or not. If it doesn't, then it can't
enforce net neutrality on cable providers and Comcast, Verizon or other
ISPs could do what they want in terms of providing bandwidth to different
websites.
ISPs don't want to be a utility for the simple reason that there's more
money in it for them if they're not. They probably recognie though that
most average people, when it's explained to them what's at stake, do not
want to have to deal with possibly unreliable service depending on
corporate machinations and would rather it all be equal and enshrined in
law to remain so.
To combat that opinion, ISPs are using a combination of tools, some less
savory than others according to Vice. Some include creating advocacy
groups like Broadband for America, which apparently gets most of its
funding from an ISP trade group. Members of that group used the
Broadband for America letterhead to try to convince the FCC to not make
the Internet a public utility, not exactly a public effort. The same
goes for the American Consumer Institute, which purports to advocate for
consumers but is again mainly funded, if indirectly by ISPs.
"Now lets hope the FCC does not make any further attempts to regulate
broadband services, particularly with 1930s-era style common carrier
regulation," wrote the ACI in a release after net neutrality was first
struck down. "That result would only further stifle innovation and
investment, and leave consumers much worse off in the end."
There's obviously a lot of money at stake and while Netflix and other
Internet companies have spoken up strongly for net neutrality, there's no
guarantee it will be restored. The fact that the FCC website actually
crashed from so many comments supporting it after Oliver encouraged them
certainly means the fight isn't over yet though. Like most political
influence fights, it will be a combination of money and organization
that wins it for either side.
But these kind of efforts don't exactly endear companies like Comcast to
its users. Having recently been rated worst company in America by
theConsumerist,you'd think they'd be at least a little more circumspect.
Mt. Gox 'Willy' Accounts Artificially Inflated Bitcoin, Gamed Markets
According to a report released by an anonymous writer who claims to have
interest in the bitcoin market, someone - either a hacker or an entity
inside the company - was able to create dummy accounts, referred to as
"Willy" by users familiar with their activity, and siphon coins away
from the market while also artificially raising the cryptocurrency's
value last November.
The report's writer used the information hackers publicly leaked during
the fallout from the Mt. Gox bankruptcy in February. By compiling all of
the relevant suspicious activity, a pattern became apparent.
"So basically, each time, (1) an account was created, (2) the account
spent some very exact amount of USD to market-buy coins ($2,500,000 was
most common), (3) a new account was created very shortly after. Repeat.
In total, a staggering ~$112 million was spent to buy close to
270,000 BTC - the bulk of which was bought in November," the writer
observed.
The writer went on to explain that the type of permissions the user was
given pointed towards Willy's creator having inside access to the
market's systems.
Whether the fraudster hacked the system or already had access was not
clear.
The report's creator believes that all of this activity had a few
consequences on the market, most of which turned out to be harmful on the
developing cryptocurrency.
"So if you were wondering how Bitcoin suddenly appreciated in value by a
factor of 10 within the span of one month, well, this may be why," he
wrote. "Not Chinese investors, not the Silkroad bust - these events may
have contributed, but they may not have been main reason."
Despite all of the bad news surrounding Mt. Gox, the value of Bitcoin has
surged 25 percent over the past week.
Apple Announces New OS X Yosemite With Major Design Update
Apple announced a new desktop operating system, named OS X Yosemite, at
its annual Worldwide Developers Conference Monday morning. The new
system, named after Californias famed national park, includes a more
dynamic design, a personalized daily control panel, and new search
options.
Apples Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi
introduced the new design, explaining that the company focused always
on clarity as well as utility.
The new design features a frosted-glass look, including a translucent
view for sidebars that, as Federighi says, helps maintain a sense of
depth and place as you move your windows over each other. This new look
is extended to apps like FaceTime, Contacts, and Reminders, and more
closely resembles Apples iOS operating system for tablets and laptops.
OS X Yosemite also includes a completely redesigned Spotlight search,
which you can use to search your computer and which now calls up a search
screen in the center of your monitor every time you want to find
something on your computer. (The look is similar to a popular app for
OS X called Alfred.) As before, it draws from the information stored on
your hard drive, but also search services on the Internet via Bing,
Wikipedia, or Yelp.
Additionally, people using the new OS 10.10 can switch to a dark mode,
which allows for you to focus better on one main component on your
screen, like Netflix or your work. The Mail app has also been updated,
and now lets you send attachments up to 5GB in size and draw doodles and
illustrations on photo attachments, too.
Apples OS X operating system is far smaller than Microsofts Windows,
despite the struggles of the recent Windows 8. According to analytics at
Net Applications, OS X accounts for under 8 percent of desktop computers,
while Windows runs on over 90 percent of all computers.
Apple also introduced iCloud Drive, a Dropbox competitor that lets you
store, access, and update files on other devices.
You will be able to control your entire schedule from an updated
Notifications Center, which provides a Google Now-esque look at your
Calendar, Reminders, Weather, Stocks, and any other widgets you want to
personalize it with.
Theres also a closer connection between the Mac and the iPhone, as my
colleague Rafe Needleman notes here. A project called Continuity fuses
many features of the iPhone and the Mac. You can now wirelessly connect
your iPhone or iPad to your Mac, via Bluetooth, and begin a task on one
device and complete it on the other. You can also view all of your text
messages to your phone on your computer now (not just iMessages from
other Apple devices) and make phone calls from your Mac, so long as your
iPhone is within Bluetooth connection distance.
The operating system will be released in the fall and will be free.
HP Updates Chromebook 11, Lowers Price
While the insides remain the same, HP is updating the look of its 11-inch
Chromebook with a fresh design, new colors, and a lower price of $249.
You should also expect less of a fire hazard, as the original Chromebook
had to be pulled from the market for its faulty charger. Will this
Chromebook be hotter (in a good way) than others in its price range?
Unlike the Google-influenced Chromebook 11, which had the same thickness
of 0.7 inches through the entire chassis, the newer Chromebook looks more
like HPs 14-inch version, which tapers in thickness toward the front.
However, the newer Chromebook is slightly thicker and heavier, at 0.81
inches and 2.69 pounds, compared with last years 0.71 inches and 2.2
pounds.
Also gone is the glossy white plastic with red, green, blue, or yellow
accents. Instead, HP will offer the Chromebook in either turquoise or
white, which will cover the lid, bezel, and bottom. The keyboard deck is
a silver color.
Internally, the new HP Chromebook has the same Samsung Exynos 5250
processor as its predecessor, which came out last fall. Like that system,
it also has 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of flash memory. It will have two USB
ports and a headphone jack, and its 11-inch display has a resolution of
1366 × 768.
HP estimates that the new Chromebook will last up to 6.25 hours on a
charge, which is just 15 minutes longer than the companys estimate for
the older Chromebook 11. However, we found that the earlier version
lasted just 3 hours and 54 minutes on the Peacekeeper Browser Test, well
below other Chromebooks of this size.
For now, the $199 Acer C720 Chromebook remains the best bargain, which
offers zippy Intel Celeron performance for less money. That Chromebook
also lasted about 6.5 hours on a charge, much longer than the earlier
Chromebook 11. We look forward to putting HPs new effort through its
paces once we can get it into the lab to see how much it has improved.
Microsoft Finally Has Some Good News for Windows 8.1
When Tim Cook took the stage yesterday, he was out for blood. One of his
most vicious attacks came in the form of an OS market share comparison,
in which he noted that while Mavericks had already been installed on
more than half of OS X computers, Windows 8 was still struggling to top
15%. Theres no doubt that Microsoft is struggling to convince users to
migrate, but the latest data from Net Applications has a silver lining:
Windows 8.1 has finally attained a higher market share than Windows 8.
As The Next Web points out, it has taken Windows 8.1 seven months to
overtake its predecessor, which has all but stalled out in terms of
growth. In fact, Windows 8 actually lost 0.07% of the market share while
Windows 8.1 snagged 0.47%, combining for a disappointing 0.40% growth of
all Windows 8 software.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Windows 7 has continued to grow at a faster rate
than Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 combined, bringing in an additional 0.79%
of the market to push the last-gen OS over 50% of the total share.
Windows XP has finally started its steady decline now that Microsoft has
ended support for the 13-year-old OS once and for all, but it still
retains over 1/4 of the market share.
OS X might not be in contention for the most popular operating system,
but keeping customers up-to-date with the latest software has given Apple
a major PR advantage over the fragmented Windows audience.
No Start Menu for Windows 8 Until 2015
While several rumors indicated that the Start menu might make its way to
Windows 8 this summer in Microsoft's next major update to the OS,
ZDNet.com reports that this addition has been postponed to 2015.
In early April, at its Build 2014 developer conference, Microsoft
demonstrated a new Start menu and other features designed to bridge the
gap between the classic Windows interface and the somewhat controversial
Metro interface of Windows 8. This had several tech journalists
speculating that a version of the Start button would be introduced with
the next major Windows 8 update - which is expected to be released this
August.
The rumor continued to swirl until ZDNet explained that, according to its
unnamed sources of Windows information, this type of menu will not make
its way to Windows 8 until the next version of Windows, which is
codenamed Threshold and due out in spring 2015.
This new operating system (Windows 9?) is expected to make its debut at
the next edition of Microsoft's Build developer conference, which will
take place in April 2015.
Project One-Ups Google Glass Bans By Wirelessly Blocking 'Glassholes'
Google Inc.s Glass headset computer continues to draw critics, as people
disturbed by the wearables ability to take hands-free photos and video
look to block its use in public.
A German artist has developed one solution to banning unwanted Glass
users, or "Glassholes," from public areas: a program that can detect and
kick them off of Wi-Fi networks. Julian Oliver has developed
Glasshole.sh, software he says detects a string of characters used by
Google Glass when it connects to a Wi-Fi network.
With Glasshole.sh installed on a mini-computer like a Raspberry Pi
connected to a USB Wi-Fi antenna, Oliver claims, the program can detect
Google Glass users on wireless networks. When a Glass user is connected,
the device impersonates the Wi-Fi network, sending Googles headset a
command that cancels its Wi-Fi connection.
It can also beep when a person wearing Google Glass comes within range.
Oliver told Wired Magazine that he developed a device when a fellow
artist was bothered by Glass-wearing folks attending his art exhibit,
thinking they might be recording. In certain situations and in specific
places, Oliver said, anyone with the headset could be a Glasshole
because you can't tell if they're recording.
Like cellphone-jamming devices installed in some libraries and public
buildings, Oliver said the use of Glasshole.sh was legal as long as the
user was the owner of the wireless network it's used on. Oliver didn't
respond to a request for comment on whether he was working on a similar
project: to jam smartphones placed in their owners shirt pockets or
hung around the neck, which can surreptitiously record surroundings.
Google followed up a sellout one-day sale last month by opening Glass
sales to anyone over the age of 18 with a U.S. shipping address to
purchase the $1,500 wearable. Google initially said it would offer
Glass while supplies last and has offered the device online since
May 13.
=~=~=~=
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