Microsoft acceptance of Windows cannibalization

Microsoft says it's a "devices and services" company, although almost all its profits are coming from selling "packaged software" and "software licenses"--so what does the future hold?--

Microsoft must embrace 'grim option' of Windows cannibalization
Computerworld
Computerworld - Microsoft must be ready to accept, as has Apple, that it's better to cannibalize one's own sales than to let others do it, a research analyst said today. "This is going to be a tough shift for Microsoft, to ask them to now accept that ...

Microsoft asks US Attorney General Holder to ease what it can say about NSA ...
Washington Post
Technology companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft have come under fire for cooperating with the NSA's Prism program, in which the government seizes records including emails, chats and video calls. The system was exposed by The Guardian and ...

Google tests encryption to protect users' Drive files ...
CNET
Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said yesterday that there are "significant inaccuracies" in last week's news reports. He added in a blog post, referring to Outlook.com: "When we are legally obligated to comply with demands, we pull the specified ...

Apple Said Developing Ad-Skipping as Part of TV Strategy
Bloomberg
Almost three-quarters of consumers in a survey cited the ability to skip commercials as a main reason to use a digital video recorder, Google Inc.'s Motorola Mobility unit said in its annual media engagement barometer released on March 19. Apple has ...

Apple, Microsoft to leap on app auto-update bandwagon
Computerworld
Computerworld - By this fall, Apple and Microsoft will have followed in the footsteps of Google to automatically update apps on their mobile and desktop platforms, another step in the trend to take security out of users' hands. "This is one of the best ...

Google Glass Gets Patch To Avoid Hacks
Intelligent Enterprise (blog)
To wit, Google has patched a vulnerability in its wearable Google Glass devices -- best known for their optical, head-mounted displays with built-in cameras -- that could be exploited via QR codes to hack into and take full control of the devices.

Google Said to Weigh Supplying TV Channels
New York Times
“Google feels the need to beat Apple to the punch,” said one of the people with direct knowledge of the meetings, who like the others interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity. Apple's thinking, according to these people, is that any next-generation ...

GlassUp takes on Google Glass and Google legal
CNET (blog)
GlassUp doesn't have the features of the more expensive Google Glass, but it could be a worthy alternative, even if the startup can't use the word "Glass" as Google's lawyers have requested....

Spacewalk emergency among dangers of space station life
USA TODAY
NASA survived a close call at the International Space Station on Tuesday when a spacewalking astronaut could have drowned in his spacesuit helmet — an incident that ...

Gold on Earth formed in collision of exotic stars
USA TODAY
There's gold in them thar neutron stars! That's right, astronomers claim Earth's gold, the stuff of wedding bands and pricey speaker wires, originated in cataclysmic collisions of exotic stars. Neutron. Illustration of neutron star collision. (Photo: Dana Berry) ...

Intel Expands Perceptual Computing Efforts With Omek Buy
eWeek
Omek's middleware enables developers to build gesture recognition interfaces into their applications, creating touch-free computing devices. Intel's acquisition of Omek Interactive is the latest step in the chip maker's “perceptual computing” vision. Intel officials ...

Phone out of juice? Researchers can recharge with urine
USA TODAY
Talk about recycling — scientists at a British university have come up with a way to charge mobile phones with that most ubiquitous of by-products, human urine. Yes, it's pee power. The team ...

Rumor: Apple Delaying iPhone 5S Launch to Increase Screen Size
PC Magazine
Apple fans might have to wait even longer to get their hands on the iPhone 5S. According to aWednesday Bloomberg report, which cited a story from Taiwan's Commercial Times, Apple may push back the launch of its next-generation iPhone after the design ...

Google press event July 24 could bring Android news
PCWorld
Google has sent out invitations to a press event next week in San Francisco that reveal no details other than that Android and Chrome chief Sundar Pichai will host, signaling that some new mobile product or feature could be unveiled. "Please join us for ...

BitTorrent Sync Enters Beta With Mobile Apps, Archive
PC Magazine
BitTorrent Sync, which lets users coordinate files across multiple devices, continues its slow rollout, opening today in beta. The free service launched in the pre-alpha phase in January, and quickly garnered tens of thousands of users, before launching full ...

Patent reveals Apple's process for mass producing Liquidmetal alloy
Apple Insider
While Apple has yet to employ the unique amorphous alloy known as Liquidmetal in any of its products in a meaningful way, a newly granted patent details a way to mass produce the material in thin sheets. Liquidmetal. The method was revealed in an ...

Europe Wants More Concessions From Google
New York Times (blog)
BRUSSELS — Google must offer more concessions to European Union regulators to escape huge fines linked to the way it runs its online search business, the bloc's top antitrust official warnedWednesday....

Tech tables turned! Now it's the Puppet pulling Geppetto's strings
Register
When you wish upon a star ... you buy it for a load of VC cash. Ex-Microsofties drop cloudy-apps-for-idiots box ElasticBox · Puppet gooses admin tool performance with Enterprise ...

Artificial Intelligence Machines Operating at 4-Year-Old Level
PC Magazine
It appears that the threat of a worldwide takeover by artificial intelligence machines is not yet a reality, unless you consider 4 year olds an impending threat. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) recently IQ tested one of the "best available" ...

Scientists use iPods, car batteries to build a frog surveillance net
Ars Technica
Put this on your playlist: scientists at the University of Puerto Rico have developed a system to monitor wildlife in tropical rainforests, using captured audio in real time to remotely record the sounds made by animals. Using hardware that includes iPods, solar ...

Google Maps Updated for Summer Travels With Incident and Traffic Alerts
ABC News
You're not the only one who's preparing for some summer travels. In the past few weeks, Google has updated its Google Maps apps with new features, including live incident reports on road closures and new ways to find places to eat and visit. The features ...

Microsoft prods government on sharing request data
USA TODAY
Microsoft is pushing the U.S. Attorney General's office to approve the sharing of more information on how it handles customer data request from national security agencies. In a post published Tuesday, ...

Elon Musk's mission to Mars
The Guardian
Elon Musk has flown so high, so fast, it is hard not to wonder when, and how, he will crash to earth. How could he not? Musk is so many things – inventor, entrepreneur, billionaire, space pioneer, inspiration for Iron Man's playboy superhero Tony Stark – and ...

gas cloud 'stretched like spaghetti'
BBC News
The giant gas cloud heading for the black hole at the centre of our galaxy has begun its death spiral. The cloud, known as G2 is now being stretched out like a piece of spaghetti by the black hole's extreme gravity. This gravitational field has caused the head of ...

Apple TV's market share, revisited
Fortune
More people stream video over the Internet via Apple TV than with any other device. -- I took a crack at a pie chart like this a couple months ago with limited success, so I was pleased to see how the professional market researchers ...

Nasutoceratops: 'Big-nose, horn-face' dinosaur described
BBC News
An unusual new species of dinosaur, unearthed from the deserts of Utah, has been described by scientists. The 5m-long (15ft) beast is a member of the triceratops family, but with a huge nose and exceptionally long horns, palaeontologists say it is unlike ...

NY attorney general questions charities on superstorm relief
Asbury Park Press
NEW YORK — New York's attorney general says he'll ask at least 50 charities to be more transparent about what they're doing with hundreds of millions of dollars raised to help victims of Superstorm Sandy. In a report released Wednesday, Attorney General ...

Red Planet Riviera: Ancient Mars Ocean Found?
Discovery News
With the help of rover Curiosity, we now know that ancient Mars had large quantities of liquid water flowing across its surface. However, evidence for large bodies of water — i.e. oceans — has been hard to come by. But using high-resolution orbital data, ...

Heart of Space Weather Observed in Action: A Study
Nature World News
An overlap of data from two NASA spacecraft confirm a sighting of magnetic reconnection on the sun, a process of realigning magnetic fields that lies at the heart of space weather. The teal image, from SDO, shows the shape of magnetic field lines in the sun's ...

Verizon ready to show off Droid devices but not the HTC One,
Pentagon Post
The much rumored Motorola Droid Ultra, Droid MAXX and the Droid Mini are expected to be revealed on July 23rd at the Verizon Event which will be held in New York City. Verizon has however not issued any official statement about the details of the event ...

Want to upgrade smartphones early? Prepare to spend
USA TODAY
Earlier this month, T-Mobile introduced its Jump plan to let users snag the latest smartphones. After six months, users can drop their old phone and flip to a new device. On Tuesday, AT&T followed ...

GPS Reveals Hurricane Wind Speeds
National Geographic
GPS signals tell a lot about how fast the wind is blowing during a hurricane. Extreme winds and seaweed-filled storm surge during Hurricane Dennis. A truck in Key West, Florida is bombarded by wind and rain during a hurricane....

Ford Tries to Improve Disappointing Hybrid Fuel Efficiency with New Software ...
DailyTech
Ford has announced that it will be applying a software update to its hybrid vehicles with the intention of improving the real world fuel efficiency for owners. The software update will be made available for approximately 77,000 Ford Fusion, C-Max, and Lincoln ...

Facebook Inc (FB) Loses Instagram Designer Tim Van Damme
ValueWalk
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) lost yet another executive after Tim Van Damme, lead mobile designer at Instagram, decided to leave the company to assume a new role at Dropbox. facebook - tim van damme ...

Britain throws another £60 million at the Skylon spaceplane, hopes mid-life crisis ...
Engadget
After a series of successful tests on the Skylon spaceplane's SABRE engine, the UK government has decided to invest another £60 million to continue developing it. The scramjet-based tech could pave the way for cheaper space travel, since it carries little ...

Why WhatsApp's new subscription model makes perfect sense
GigaOM
The addictive communication app WhatsApp is a subscription service on both iPhone and Android now — and that's a good thing....

Self-Driving Cars Approved for Use On Public Roads in UK, Will Google Finally ...
Headlines & Global News
The British government has given the green light to Self-Driving cars to hit the streets of the country by the end of the year. The Department of Transportation is allowing the cars to operate on public roads in the UK provided they are equipped at all times with a ...

Mainstream group of scientists now say no consensus on sea-level rise
Catholic Online
Scientists from Germany, Netherlands, and the UK, have published a paper stating there is no scientific consensus that sea levels are rising. The paper was published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Will these predictions come true? Email. Print. Facebook ...

Acer may refresh new Windows 8 tablet to fix key problems
CNET
Though only a few months old, the 8-inch Iconia W3 tablet may be up for a revamp to address screen quality, says a Dutch Web site. Windows 8 Iconia W3 tablet.

Two Tales of Plummeting Prices
New York Times (blog)
Microsoft's Surface tablet, left, cost $500 when it was released in October, but it is now $350 on ...

Neptune moon: Tiny, dark, whizzing space ball captured on film (barely)
Christian Science Monitor
Finding moons should be easy, right? Look how bright ours is, glowing away up there. Skip to next paragraph. Gallery Planets. Related stories. Are you scientifically literate? Take our quiz · Five places we might find life in our own solar system · Ignoring Star ...

Xbox One, PS4 won't sell as well as predecessors, says research firm
GameZone
Despite the fact that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have begun selling out at various retailers, indicating consumers' excitement over the next-gen, a research firm believes neither will match the sales success of their predecessors. ABI Resarch expects ...

Russia Shocks With Antarctic Block
Discovery News
Russia on Tuesday blocked the adoption of two proposed Marine Protected Areas in waters off Antarctica. The proposals – for an MPA in the Ross Sea and a series of MPAs off East Antarctica – had been proposed ...

Government, Industry Join in Paying Lip Service to Piracy Fight
E-Commerce Times
The Obama administration and a gaggle of Internet companies have cobbled together a code of best practices to discourage online piracy, but the plan seems seriously lacking in teeth. The burden of proof is squarely on the shoulders of rights holders, who ...

Nokia Lumia 625, a low-end device with a 4.7-inch screen, passes certification in ...
LiveSide
Nokia Following the announcement of the flagship Nokia Lumia 1020 last week, it appears that the Finnish company is not done with their new Windows Phone 8 product lineup. Coming fresh from China today via Sina Weibo user @ictech are news regarding ...

HTC One S Android 4.2.2 update and Sense 5 hopes raised
Phones Review
HTC has a pretty poor track record with regards to updating older hardware with new versions of the Android firmware, as they took an age to start updating the current flagship model and have left devices such as the Desire HD behind. Now hopes are again ...

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