Microsoft’s next major release of its Windows operating system is one step nearer to its first beta release, according to site WinRumors.
Microsoft compiled 6.2.7947.0.winmain_win8m2_escrow.110218-1608 on Friday after pushing out a number of Windows 8 builds recently. Things are moving along nicely behind closed doors, and versions of the OS will soon be allowed out to Microsoft’s trusted partners for testing. Some of the recent Windows 8 builds which were compiled in the last couple of weeks were:
6.2.7925.0.winmain_win8m2.110207-1736With Microsoft working on an ARM-compatible version of Windows, it is possible that this could be the version first to testing, with the full desktop experience coming later. With recent leaks pointing toward a version of Windows 8 being ready for future tablets in early 2012, it’s clear that there is no time to waste for the Redmond outfit, especially if they hope to take on Apple and Google in the rapidly expanding tablet market.
6.2.7926.0.winmain_win8m2.110209-1755
6.2.7927.0.winmain_win8m2.110210-1740
6.2.7928.0.winmain_win8m2.110214-1825
6.2.7929.0.winmain_win8m2.110215-1802
6.2.7930.0.winmain_win8m2.110217-1825
Little is really known about Windows 8, though a more cloud-centric OS is expected especially considering the focus on tablets and other machines with no conventional disk drive. Microsoft is keeping its cards close to its chest thus far, though it’s clear the company sees Windows 8 as a pivotal software release, heaping more pressure on an already creaking development team. Still stung from the Vista debacle, MS will be hoping Windows 8 can build on the good faith the 7th installment of the OS managed to return.
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Samsung has shared some juicy info with the guys over at Pocket-Lint and it’s not your usual phone stuff. Turns out, Samsung will be taking advantage of it’s roots in the home entertainment world to enable TV like streaming on its upcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet and Galaxy S II smartphone.
There’s currently no confirmation whether the technology will allow streaming over 3G or whether the two interacting devices need to be on the same WiFi network. If, however, 3G streaming is possible then Samsung just found its differentiator.
More info as and when we have it!
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Update: Motorola has confirmed this, in a very roundabout fashion. The company's statement in full: "Motorola XOOM will include full support for Adobe® Flash® Player® for accessing the rich video and animations of the web, to be available after launch."
First, let's look at the clamshell model sporting a pair of 5.5-inch displays -- a device first hinted at in a 2010 Sony patent application titled "Electronic Book with Enhanced Features." However, unlike the patent's blocky illustration, we're told that Sony's clamshell -- known as the "S2" internally -- more closely resembles an oval cylinder when closed as depicted in the illustration above. Spec-wise, we're told that it will be very similar in performance to the S1 with a Tegra 2 SoC and WiFi + 3G radio on the inside and front- and rear-facing cameras on the outside. And like the S1 tablet, the S2 will be focused on delivering Qriocity media to the consumer. Sorry, no word on whether the S2 is PlayStation Certified. Obviously, the S2 won't be running stock Honeycomb -- instead, Sony is currently optimizing the Android OS to make the most of those two displays. One source reports having seen Gmail running on a demonstration prototype where the list of messages is displayed on one screen with the body of the selected message displayed on the other. Maps, we're told, will display the map graphic on one display with the detailed turn-by-turn instructions or Streetview displayed on the other. Likewise, the S2 will display a video and picture navigation menu on one half of the clamshell with the selected content blown-up to fill the screen of the other. We're also told that these apps will work in a variety of orientations. Sounds interesting, to say the least. Regrettably, our sources are less than enthusiastic. Click through to find out why.
Unfortunately, both of our sources are cautious about the prospects of the S2. One source claims that the gap between the displays should be made smaller noting that the whole project is being met with skepticism within Sony. Another source calls the S2 an outright "dog." Still, Sony's plan is to ship the WiFi + 3G equipped S2 to the US, Europe, and Japan before the holidays with a $699 targeted asking price.
Last up is a VAIO-branded 9.4-inch Windows 7 slider similar, we've been told, to Samsung's Sliding PC 7 Series and the ASUS Eee Pad Slider. It's design was described to us as "nice" and could easily be interpreted as a followup to the VAIO P series. Unfortunately, the hardware's good looks are undermined by a Pinetrail-class Atom processor. At the moment, the target price is set for $799 but will almost certainly increase, according to one source, by the time the slider is available for retail in the fall (possibly October).
So there we have it, a trio of leaked devices that mark Sony's entry into a soon to be (over?)saturated tablet market. With the exception of the Windows 7 slider, Sony is betting on unique hardware and a custom-built user experience to differentiate its S1 tablet and S2 clamshell from all the me-too Honeycomb slabs launching in the first half of the year -- a real gamble given Sony's notorious reputation for poorly designed UIs and software. Regardless, both of our sources seem genuinely excited about the S1 tablet -- a device that could be very compelling if it can deliver Sony's rich ecosystem of Qriocity and PlayStation services for music, games, ebooks, and video in a unified manner. And that's a big "if."
Microsoft has just pushed download links for Release Candidate version of Internet Explorer 9. This new version of IE 9, according to Neowin includes:
much improved tab functionality, from the new square-ish visual elements, and moveable tab bar elements to increase customization. It also includes features that enable a user to refuse tracking from advertisers.Internet Explorer 9 generally introduces tons of new features, including the new option to pin web apps on Windows 7 taskbar, full support for HTML5 standard, graphics rendering on the GPU level via Microsoft DirectX technology, completely revamped UI and more. More details on IE 9, along with screenshots can be found here.
Download links for Internet Explorer 9 RC:
Windows 7 (x86 version)
Windows 7 (x64 version)
Windows Vista (x86 version)
Windows Vista (x64 version)
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Update: Video time! Check it after the break.
Hardware
While many slate makers are moving towards the 10-inch form factor, we're still appreciative of the portability of the 7-inch variety. (Yes, so much so that some of us are even dying for a 7-inch iPad.) Like the Galaxy Tab or Archos 7, the Streak 7 lends itself much better to one-handed use than the iPad or any of the other 10-inch tablets we've tested. We loved being able to comfortably hold the 0.48-inch Streak up when reading a book in bed or wrapping both our hands around the 0.9-pound tablet and being able to use our thumbs to type.
Apart from the three capacitive buttons (back, menu, and home), mic, and camera on the front of the tablet, Dell's kept the design very clean. A plastic latch on the right edge, which can be hard to open if you don't have long nails, hides the SD and SIM card slots. The top of the device has a power button and volume rocker, and the left edge a 3.5mm headphone jack. Disappointingly, there's no HDMI output on the device itself; Dell will offer a separate dock that will attach to the PDMI port on the bottom of the device. A quick word on the PDMI port -- it is the same as the one on the original Streak, and because there's no other USB port on the tablet, you've got to have the cord handy to either charge it or connect it to computer to sideload files. Also, our review unit hasn't been charging via USB -- you have to plug it into the wall via its AC adapter. Yeah, it's pretty annoying.
Screen
Even more noticeable is how much brighter the Galaxy Tab's display is. Hands down, Samsung went with a better quality panel than Dell, and it really makes a huge difference considering, you know, the entire tablet experience is centered around the screen. That quality also translates to mediocre viewing angles -- when held horizontally at about 45 degrees, colors start to fade to black. Vertical viewing is better, although in comparison to the Galaxy Tab's screen, which can be seen at virtually every angle, it's yet again just second rate. Beyond all the actual viewing quality issues, the capacitive screen is extremely responsive, and it, along with the Tegra 2 processor, keeps it responding to our taps and flicks quickly. The accelerometer was equally as snappy, though we wish there was a quicker way to disable it than having to go through the display settings menu.
Software
The software experience is the exact same as that on the original Dell's Streak and Venue -- it consists of the Stage UI, which includes Dell's own full-screen widgets and launcher. The widgets are actually useful -- the Home pulls in the local weather and recently used apps, Social your Twitter or Facebook feed, Web a search bar and thumbnails of your bookmarks, and Gallery locally stored pictures. The good news here is that if they aren't your thing, you can easily delete them and customize the panes with regular Android widgets and apps. The launcher at the bottom provides easy access to the browser, app tray, and mail app. We've been trying to figure out how you can customize the launcher, but we haven't come up with a solution yet.
On the topic of that mail app, it nor any of the other native apps, like the calendar or messaging, have been revamped to take advantage of the extra screen real estate. Unlike Samsung, Dell's done no retooling here to take advantage of the larger screen, though considering the resolution is the same as the Streak, it may have just figured it didn't really need to. If we had to sum up the software package, we'd say that you're really just dealing with an oversized smartphone experience here, and while a few months ago that may have been enough for Android tablet seekers, that's about to change as soon as Google releases Honeycomb in the coming days or weeks.
Dell preloads the Steak with quite a few applications. Ours came with BrainPOP (a educational game for kids), Zinio (a magazine app), Kindle, Let's Golf, Blockbuster and Slacker Radio. T-Mobile also throws on its T-Mobile TV and Qik Video Chat apps. It also comes with Swype, though the size of the device lends itself quite nicely to regular thumb typing.
Camera
Performance and battery life
Beyond promising fast performance, Tegra 2 promises full HD playback, and the Streak 7 certainly confirms that. A 1080p clip of Justin Bieber's Never Say Never played with no stuttering or lag, however, that's obviously pretty pointless considering the lower screen resolution. That aforementioned dock with HDMI-out will be the solution for those looking to take advantage of that HD video. Streaming 720p video on YouTube also worked quite well and general Flash performance was pretty decent -- we were able to get some of the New York Times' Flash videos playing within a few seconds of loading the site. The Streak 7 notched an average of 35 MFLOPS in Linpack -- that's considerably better than the Galaxy Tab's 14 MFLOPS.
Sadly, that good performance news turns quite sour when it comes to battery life. There's no way to beat around the bush on this one: the Streak 7's battery life seriously disappoints. In our past few days of usage, the most we've been able to squeeze out of it was about six hours of juice. We powered on the device at 6 pm on Friday evening and after about five hours of intermittent usage on T-Mobile's 4G network -- checking Twitter, e-mails, looking up a few addresses on Google Maps, and surfing the web -- the tablet was totally dead. With just WiFi on, we got closer to six hours of sporadic use. Similarly, on our battery rundown test, which loops the same standard definition video with brightness set at 65 percent and WiFi on, the 2780mAh battery only lasted three hours and 26 minutes. That's half as long as the Galaxy Tab, and while that's to be expected since the Tab has a larger 4000mAh cell, it really is pretty inexcusable for a highly mobile device like this.
| Battery Life | |
| Dell Streak 7 | 3:26 |
| Archos 70 | 6:00 |
| Archos 101 | 7:20 |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab | 6:09 |
| Apple iPad | 9:33 |
T-Mobile HSPA+ speeds, pricing
T-Mobile offers its usual webConnect broadband plans for the Streak 7: 5GB a month for $50 for new customers and $40 for existing T-Mobile customers. There's also a 200MB plan for $30 a month. There are also prepaid plans which include $10 a week for 100MB, $30 a month for 300MB, and $50 a month for 1GB. As you may have guessed, you can't make phone calls over T-Mobile network with the Streak 7, but you can send text messages.
Wrap-up
For those, that need to have a 7-inch Android tablet right now, we'd suggest the $500 Galaxy Tab -- the screen is noticeably better and it lasts twice as long on a charge. (Keep in mind, we're not positive that the Tab will be upgradable to Honeycomb, so you're taking a risk there). There's also the $250 Nook Color, which is really aimed at reading and light browsing, but can be rooted every which way if that's your thing. However, with the Motorola Xoom, LG G-Slate, Toshiba Tablet, and a handful of other slates on the horizon, what we'd really recommend, is hanging tight and waiting for the Honeycomb tablet era to begin.
HP has been burning through US trademark filings over the past few months, presumably hoping to nail down as many possibilities for the new Palm webOS tablets as it can -- a "shoot first, ask questions later" type of situation. To that end, it's filed for three more under a very broad computing category that could definitely include the Topaz and Opal models we've been hearing so much about: "Touchslate," "Touchcanvas," and "Duopad." We're pretty lukewarm on the unwieldy "Touchcanvas," but we guess both Duopad and Touchslate could work under the right circumstances. Then again, what's wrong with Topaz and Opal, really?
Oh, hello. A trusted tipster just sent in these internal renders of HP / Palm's "Topaz" webOS tablet, which is one of two tablets currently being developed in Sunnyvale. That's right, two tablets: the 9-inch Topaz and a 7-inch model codnamed Opal -- a lineup that fits nicely into Palm's "Something big, Something small, Something beyond" tagline for its upcoming February 9th event. Looking at the render, we're seeing the no-button design we'd previously heard about (we're assuming the gesture area rotates with the display), a front-facing camera, a micro USB port on the bottom, and what appears to be a Vizio Tablet-style three speaker arrangement for stereo audio in both landscape and portrait modes -- that's two speakers along the left side and a third on the right. (That's just a guess, though.) We'd also note the back appears to be a glossy material, which might rule out a giant Touchstone for charging -- Touchstone backs have heretofore been soft-touch, but anything can change, we suppose.
We're told that units will start to arrive at Palm HQ in June as production ramps up for launch later this year -- a timeline backed up by an internal marketing slide we received that lists WiFi-only, AT&T 3G, and Verizon LTE versions of the Opal arriving in September 2011, and on AT&T LTE in July 2012. The slide also indicates the Opal will have a particular e-reading focus, which makes sense for a 7-inch device, and there's a mention of "premium audio," which nicely reinforces our speaker hypothesis. Unfortunately, we don't have any word on specs or pricing yet, but these things had better be packing some serious heat for cheap if Palm is really planning to wait until September to launch them -- they'll be going head-to-head with the Xoom, the PlayBook, and presumably the iPad 2. We're still digging for more, so keep an eye out -- things are going to get crazy leading up to February 9th.
And it only got worse -- from 2009 to mid-2010 the company continued to talk up its never-before-seen and highly-delayed chips. But then in June of 2010 the unthinkable happened -- AMD finally demoed its first Fusion Bobcat cores, and proved, at least from afar, that the soon-to-arrive ultrathin laptop solution would chew through Aliens vs. Predator, support DirectX 11, and use a lot less power than its previous platforms. It seemed almost too good to be true -- AMD looked ready to stick to its timing and deliver the first Fusion Brazos platform by early 2011.
So, what the heck does Fusion and AMD's history of promises about the platform have to do with HP's new Pavilion dm1z? Almost everything. HP's newest 11.6-inch not-quite-a-netbook (or a notbook as we like to call it) is the first Fusion system to hit the market, and with a dual-core 1.6GHz E350 Zacate processor and AMD Radeon HD 6310 GPU on the same chip it promises... well, everything AMD has promised for so long. According to HP and AMD, the system should last for over nine hours on a charge, play full 1080p content, and perhaps more importantly, not fry our laps as some previous AMD Neo-powered systems have done. For $450, it sounds like a true no-sacrifice system, but is it? Has AMD finally delivered an Intel Atom- / ULV-killer and has HP put it in a no-fuss chassis? We've spent the last week putting this system through the paces -- hit the break to find out if it has been worth the wait!
Look and feel
The dm1z isn't as thin and light as your average 2.8-pound 10-inch netbook or even the 2.3-pound, 11.6-inch MacBook Air, but it's still awfully portable. The chassis has a slight wedge shape – it tapers from 0.8 inches in the front to 1.2 inches in the back – and weighs just about 3.5 pounds. It was actually the perfect size for an airplane tray table; with the system fully open we still had room for our Diet Coke and delicious in-flight pretzels. HP's also put the edge space to good use – surrounding the system are three USB sockets, a combo headphone / microphone jack, VGA and HDMI outputs, and an Ethernet port, which is hidden behind a small, cheap-feeling door. There's also a 2-in-1 card reader on the left edge.
Keyboard, touchpad, and screen
Unsurprisingly, our major complaint about the system is related to the touchpad with its integrated mouse buttons. The good news is that the ClickPad has been improved, and HP has added a raised line to distinguish where the buttons start. That line absolutely makes navigating easier, but the 3.2 x 2.0-inch pad is still quite cramped, and because it is so closely located to the keyboard, our wrists repeatedly swiped at it and caused the cursor to jump around the screen. Luckily, you can turn off the touchpad by tapping twice on the small LED in the upper left corner. Disabling the pad and hooking up an external mouse solved those problems for us, but we assume most will be able to get by with the small pad -- it will just take a bit of finger and wrist adjustment. We should also note that multitouch gestures worked fairly well – dragging two fingers down the pad took us down this very webpage quite smoothly.
The 11.6-inch, 1366 x 768-resolution display is standard fare for a budget system. It's decently bright and 720p content looked crisp, but the viewing angles were mediocre. Watching the Green Hornet trailer with a friend was no struggle, but when we sat back from the system with the screen at a 30 degree angle, colors were quite distorted. We've come to expect that sort of screen quality from cheaper systems, but we can't say we expected the full and loud sound that came out of the speaker strip along the front edge of the system. Enhanced with Dolby Audio software, the speakers pumped out our new favorite jam (yes, this remixed version of Rihanna's "What's My Name") quite loudly. The sound is actually shockingly good for this class of laptop.
Performance and graphics
We're not ones for putting too much emphasis on synthetic benchmarks but in this case they speak for themselves. On the performance end, the 1.6GHz E350 processor and 3GB of RAM managed to pull in 2,510 on PCMarkVantage – that's 987 more than a dual-core Atom N550 netbook and 999 more than a previous AMD Neo processor (though, only a few more points than a dual-core Neo processor). Anecdotal performance was in line with that as well – the dm1z felt much faster than any Atom netbook and closer to a ULV laptop like the ThinkPad Edge 11. The Windows 7 Home Premium system saw zero lag while simultaneously running Microsoft Word Starter 2010, TweetDeck, Skype, Trillian, and Firefox with 10 tabs open. Throwing a 1080p video into the mix didn't slow the system either. The only time we really did see the system start gasping for air was when we tried to install Batman: Arkham Asylum while running a few other programs in the background. Swapping out the 320GB 7200RPM hard drive for HP's 128GB SSD option would probably speed things up on the install front, but that will cost you an extra $290.
| PCMarkVantage | 3DMark06 | Battery Life | |
| HP Pavilion dm1z (AMD Zacate E350) | 2510 | 2213 | 5:02 |
| HP Mini 5103 (dual-core Intel Atom N550) | 1523 | 143 | 6:16 |
| ASUS Eee PC 1215N (Atom D525 / NVIDIA Ion 2) | 1942 | 181 / 2480 | 5:42 |
| Acer Aspire One 721 (AMD Neo Neo K125) | 1814 | 1235 | 3:30 |
| Dell Inspiron M101z (dual-core AMD Neo K325) | 2572 | 1311 | 3:35 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X100e (AMD Athlon Neo) | 1511 | 1060 | 3:27 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11 (Core i3 ULV) | 2964 | 1105 | 4:42 |
| Lenovo IdeaPad U160 (Intel Core i7 ULV) | 3863 | 1175 | 3:10 |
| Alienware M11x (Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300) | 2689 | 654 / 5593 | 4:30 |
| Notes: the higher the score the better. For 3DMark06, the first number reflects score with GPU off, the second with it on. | |||
But the appeal of Fusion is that the processing power is matched by some really solid graphics muscle. And as you can see from the chart above, AMD's Radeon HD 6310M graphics absolutely wrecks Intel's GMA 3150 netbook and GMA 4500 ULV graphics solutions. It scored a couple hundred points less than some netbooks with NVIDIA Ion 2, but in everyday use, things ran just as smoothly. The dm1z was able to manage playing local and streaming 1080p video even when output to a 42-inch HDTV. And while the platform isn't intended for heavy gaming, it could still hold its own in Gnomeregan. Oh yes, we fired up WoW: Cataclysm and our gnome was briskly jumping around the screen around 28fps with the resolution set at 1024 x 768. For kicks we also installed Batman: Arkham Asylum, but Batman wasn't exactly happily throwing punches at 19fps.
So, what does it all mean? Basically, AMD's Fusion Zacate platform provides much better overall performance than Intel's Atom and AMD's previous Neo processors. In terms of graphics, the dm1z's comparable to an Ion 2-powered netbook, but the fact that it pairs a solid CPU with a discrete-like GPU makes it a much more well-rounded system than some of those Ion 2 or ULV laptops. In other words, when it comes to power and graphics, the Fusion-powered dm1z provides an almost perfect middle ground for those seeking something in between a netbook and a mainstream system.
Battery life and heat
So, what does it all mean? Basically, AMD's Fusion Zacate platform provides much better overall performance than Intel's Atom and AMD's previous Neo processors. In terms of graphics, the dm1z's comparable to an Ion 2-powered netbook, but the fact that it pairs a solid CPU with a discrete-like GPU makes it a much more well-rounded system than some of those Ion 2 or ULV laptops. In other words, when it comes to power and graphics, the Fusion-powered dm1z provides an almost perfect middle ground for those seeking something in between a netbook and a mainstream system.
Battery life and heat
Ready for more good news? The dm1z stayed quite cool during our usage. Nope, not once did it feel like it was overheating our reproductive organs like some past AMD-powered Pavilions -- in fact, it stayed at room temperature most of the time. Those pleasant temperatures can be contributed to AMD's platform improvements, but also to HP's CoolSense technology. HP has designed the vents to direct heat away from the body and has bundled the system with its Thermal Assistant software, which lets you control the settings in different scenarios. We did, however, notice that the fan noise got quite loud at times, notably when playing WoW or firing up a Flash video. It's not all that bothersome, but it is absolutely noticeable.
Software
Software
Wrap-up
community about the product's death. The theory is that Microsoft is throwing in the towel, focusing on the Xbox 360 and intends to let the best DVR software available become stale -- or worse, eliminate it from future versions of Windows altogether. After watching the Ballmer keynote at CES last week, it was hard not to get on this train as we all watched the 360, Windows Phone 7, and Windows highlighted on stage. But then something happened when the show floor opened: Windows embedded products were highlighted in private meetings and elsewhere. There was a buzz around Media Center embedded and even a price and ship date; meanwhile, home theater PCs got no love. So after years of trying, it appears that all hopes that HTPCs will ever emerge from their niche status are gone, but the same can not be said for Windows Media Center. The demise of HTPCs is not for a lack of effort
We've had a fascination with home theater PCs since the first time we saw video running on a PC -- remember Intel MMX? There's something empowering about seeing video run on a PC, and there's been a PC connected to our TV ever since. In fact, we use an HTPC now and have enjoyed its benefits for what feels like forever. But all that being said, we wouldn't offer to set one up for a friend, and we wouldn't give our mother one, ever. The problem is that while a computer geek can make an HTPC do just about anything, a typical user has a hard enough time using a PC to surf the web. There are just too many things that can go wrong, and with the exception of some very high-end models, commercial HTPCs are non-existent. HP stopped making 'em four years ago. Dell never even bothered. Nope, no matter how hard PC manufactures and Microsoft try, HTPCs simply will never go mainstream.
Microsoft has tried as hard as anyone to make this geek dream come true, with multiple versions of Media Center and money dumped into R&D trying to entice programming providers in the US and the rest of the world to bring their programming to Windows. We'd bet that if stock holders had any idea how much money was spent compared to the return, someone would surely get fired. Right about now, there are some people screaming at their computer, complaining that Microsoft never marketed Media Center. Seriously? A company as successful as Microsoft knows a thing or two more than most about marking a product. No, the problem is there's no mainstream market for an HTPC, so realistically-speaking, another few billion dumped into marketing wouldn't have changed a thing (c.f. Kin). Consumer electronics have to be like an appliance, they just need to work. Even some top brass at Microsoft use a TiVo as a DVR instead of a HTPC because they just work. This all makes it easy to understand why Microsoft has re-purposed its software and lined up new partners for an embedded version of Windows 7 Media Center.
Why an embedded Media Center just makes sense
The one thing that every single mainstream DVR and smartphone have in common is that they are all embedded. It's a match between hardware and software that is designed to do a few specific things and do them very well. Microsoft has been making embedded software for a long time, and odds are you've used it at an ATM or stood right in front of someone who used a Windows embedded machine to ring you up at a department store. What's new is that Microsoft ported its Media Center software to the latest embedded version of Windows and is giving hardware partners the chance to build a DVR without spending all the big bucks on developing software. This means that some entrepreneurial electronics manufacturer can grab off the shelf parts, add in a little of Redmond's software and deliver a dependable DVR to mainstream America -- in theory. And a number of companies have already stepped forward with plans. We've been seeing demos at trade shows, and at CES one company even announced it'd ship a product in the 1st quarter for $499. Still a little steep for the mainstream, but far less than the thousands that off the shelf HTPCs cost today. And besides, the first products to market typical cost more.
The bad news is that embedded also means restrictions, and while some are sure to hack their way to more functionality, it won't be as easy. For those not willing to meddle and risk their investment, there'll likely be sacrifices that will have to be accepted. It is impossible to know what exactly until the products hit the market, but the inability to install your favorite codec isn't out of the realm of possibilities, and installing software to automatically skip commercials is almost certainly a no go.
There is some more good news though. Embedded devices make more than just mainstream consumers happy, they also appeal to content owners. Netflix, VUDU, Blockbuster, cable video-on-demand have all been available to embedded devices for some time. Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verzion and DirecTV weren't showing their programming on a HTPC at CES this year, but they were showing 'em on a variety of other embedded devices. Of course, the PC is completely capable of delivering all this content and more, but media giants aren't going to spend their time and money developing software for a niche whose only measurable result would be to open up a new attack vector to circumvent DRM. So embedded doesn't just mean stability and affordability, it can also mean content.
Extenders vs set-top-boxes
Now, this is where things get interesting. Microsoft tried a few times to proxy the PC into the living room via Extenders and suffice to say the attempts all failed pretty miserably -- same goes for embedded devices, by the way. Maybe the hardware wasn't ready, who knows, but what we do know is that two Media Center PCs don't play well together with DRM'd content and if more than one Media Center in the house has a tuner, things can messy real quick. There have been a few recent changes in the content world that could really impact success here though. The first is the recent change to the CableCARD specification that allows a tuner to be shared over a network. Basically, this means that you can install six CableCARD tuners into a Media Center in the house and watch live TV on any other Media Center (set-top box or PC) in the house that's connected to the same network. That opens up some options, but there are still the DRM problem. Currently, shows recorded from cable marked as Copy Once by the provider are locked to the device they're recorded on, which frankly sucks. But connecting a few dots paints a rosier future.
InfiniTV 6 CableCARD tuner
What does Microsoft, Comcast, Timer Warner Cable, CableLabs, and just about every major movie studio have in common? They are all a member of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem and have vowed their support to UltraViolet. We know that joining a group and actually participating are two different things, but it isn't out of the question that UltraViolet's new DRM could be added to the CableLabs spec. This would mean that "each household will be able to create an account for up to six members who can access the household's UltraViolet Movies, TV... Consumers will also be able to register up to 12 devices." This new tech won't be ready until later this year, but it does offer hope that DRM might not always be this bad, some day.
Wrap-up
It's going to take more than Reycom, Acer / Gateway, and Haier to make this thing take off, but it isn't hard to let your imagination wonder on where this all could go. It would also be hard to argue that this isn't Microsoft's strongest position in the DVR market yet, and while anything could happen, we say long live Media Center with confidence. Who knows, if things go well, all the other previous promising developments for Media Center that never were, might find their way to market too. Then again, we've been wrong before.
It looks like Firefox is almost ready for the roll-out of Firefox 4. We can expect the release of browser before the end of the next month as the Firefox development should clear all existing hurdles by the beginning of February.
It was revealed in a post that there are about 160 hard blockers that can lead to rendering a product unshippable. All of them are left to fix. It was also noted that the number of remaining hard blockers led to two more beta releases before the browser moves to the candidate stage of release.
According to Sicore, the plug-in testing is very important for that reason one should not disable Flash, Silverlight as well as other plug-in platforms. A big attention is drawn towards issues that can raise hardware acceleration on Windows machines. Sicore finished his talk with the following words: “Firefox is going to kick ass.”
No doubts that Mozilla is going to offer Firefox 4 that will provide a boost to gain more browser market share. There were indications that the new release will come with “do not track” capabilities. Moreover, the new version of browser will be enabled with easy syncing of data across machines and browser. It will come with a feature, known as Panorama. Due to it working with multiple tabs will be much simpler. As for other new features, they will focus on ease of use.
Recently the company announced its first market share crown. It holds the second position across the world being behind the Internet Explorer of Microsoft. Firefox is followed by Google’s Chrome, Safari of Apple as well as Opera.
We do not know how figures can be changed after Firefox debuts. Only time will show us. According to the newest timetable, it seems like we do not have to wait too much.
The picture for the transparent displays is a little murkier -- both physically and from a business perspective. Though they're not as clear as regular glass or as crisp and bright as a traditional AMOLED display, you've got to marvel at what they're doing here: full see-through color at effectively small television sizes. Interestingly, Samsung tells us that they're really close to being production-ready with these -- possibly even close than the flexible screens -- but they're still looking for business cases that'd make mass-producing them a worthwhile venture. Follow the break for some video of these bad boys, along with a 7-inch Super AMOLED that's looking Galaxy Tab-ready (and some other goodies)!
