Microsoft Windows 8 FAIL, part 2

The Flaw in Microsoft’s Windows 8 Logic | TIME.com: " . . . . Another thing we keep hearing is that touch is not great for precise cursor positioning, especially in spreadsheets, desktop publishing documents and any other application where pinpoint cursor control is key to the program. This is one of the major reasons we are not seeing any serious demand for touch-based laptops or PCs from IT departments . . . One of the more interesting things we have observed when a touch-based system has gone into IT and SMB segments is that the attach rate for a mouse goes up exponentially. . . ."

Microsoft Finally Reveals That No One Wanted The Surface RT ...
By Matt Burns
It's Microsoft punching down where it should have just walked away from the fight. While Intel is quickly bringing most of the advantages of ARM chips to its x86 line, Microsoft decided it couldn't wait and built a product that ignored Windows' ...
TechCrunch

Microsoft skids on Surface, earnings disappoint
Boston.com
The shipments gave Microsoft a meager 2 percent share of the tablet market. Apple Inc. remained the leader with 39.1 percent and was followed by Samsung Electronics Co., AsusTek Computer Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Acer Inc. Microsoft also saw revenue ...

Google Inc. Announces Second Quarter 2013 Results – Investor ...
July 18, 2013 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2013. “Google had a great quarter with over ...
investor.google.com/earnings/2013/Q2_google_earnings.html

Google rakes in over $14 billion in revenue during Q2, increased ad ...
By Terrence O'Brien
Of that massive haul, all most all of it (93 percent) was generated directly by Google properties, most notably massive advertising networks -- $12.1 billion of its gross was thanks to advertising. Motorola's efforts equate to just less than $1 billion ...
Engadget RSS Feed

Google Results Show Struggle With Mobile
New York Times
Google reported second-quarter results that missed analysts' expectations for revenue and profit. They showed that its desktop search business continues to slow and ad prices continue to fall as it struggles to make as much money on mobile devices....

Could digital technology transform public services? | Annika Small ...
Annika Small: Innovations such as Room for Tea and Tyze are providing new solutions to social care.
www.guardian.co.uk/.../digital-room-tea-tyze-public-services

Microsoft attacks iPad to unload Surface RT inventory
CNET (blog)
In a new ad, Microsoft compares a Surface RT to an iPad. An Apple Siri-like voice, representing the iPad, says, "This is not going to end well for me." Microsoft's Surface RT.. . . .

Apple purchases mapping company Locationary: report
Christian Science Monitor
Apple purchased Locationary, a data management company that aggregates information about different places, such as local businesses, according to All Things Digital. Skip to next paragraph. Enlarge. Related stories ...

I. LTE, Post-Paid Adds Continue Strong Growth
DailyTech
Outside of the wireless carrier business, which it owns a 51 percent stake in (with Vodafone holding the remaining 49 percent), Verizon grew its wireline revenue by 9.4 percent. Over 140,000 fiber-optic (FiOS) video customers and 161,000 FiOS internet ...

7 of the World's Longest-Running Experiments
National Geographic
When physicists at Trinity College, Dublin, started a viscosity experiment in 1944....

Curiosity Rover Samples Air for a Taste of Mars History
Scientific American
LASER BEAMS: A laboratory demonstration of the sample chamber within the Curiosity rover's Tunable Laser Spectrometer, one of the two instruments returning new data on Mars's atmosphere. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech ...

Snow's Up! Frosted Star System Discovered
Discovery News
Math and science majors are popular choices for incoming college students, but new research shows students quickly change majors when they realize they're gonna have to work really hard. And, as Trace tells us, this attitude has serious consequences.

Huawei Spies For China, Former NSA Director Says
Intelligent Enterprise (blog)
Michael Hayden, a former NSA and CIA chief, accuses Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei of engaging in espionage on behalf of the Chinese state....

Apes, like Proust, remember things past
Los Angeles Times
Great apes have a lot in common with Marcel Proust, it turns out. Their long-term memories can be provoked by the equivalent of dipping a madeleine in a cup of tea. In this case, chimpanzees and orangutans remembered how to find tools that would help ...

Apple 'iPhone Lite' pictured in two versions -- report
CNET (blog)
Another day, another rumor about Apple's plans to launch a "lite" version of its iPhone. Apple could be planning to launch two versions of an "iPhone Lite," claims a report out of China that was discovered by Phone Arena on Friday. The report, which ...

Apple, Samsung's latest phones face antitheft stress test
CNET
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman are testing the latest security features of Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S4 to see whether they can stop thieves who have made off with said ...

Amazon scores victory against Pinterest over control of .pin
CNET
In March, Pinterest filed an objection with the World Intellectual Property Organization, arguing in part that domain names on .pin -- clothes.pin, say, or whatever Amazon has in mind -- would cause confusion around the term "pin." But WIPO was ...

Google Chrome For iOS Promises Data Cost Savings
InformationWeek
Chrome for iOS version 28.0.1500.12, available from Apple's iTunes App Store, takes the unusual step of offering users a way to avoid using the app. In Chrome's Settings menu, there's a GoogleApps submenu that includes switch buttons to open URLs ...

Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo join new push for disclosure on data-gathering
San Jose Mercury News
Apple (AAPL), Facebook, Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO) joined other tech companies and civil liberties groups Thursday in asking the U.S government to reveal more information about its Internet surveillance efforts,. A sign stands outside the National ...

Apple purchases Locationary to make accurate crowd-sourced Maps
Computerworld (blog)
GigaOm notes: "Locationary CEO Grant Richie told us a couple years back that the dirty little secret of location-based services, like the ones that Google, Yelp and CitySearch use, is that some of their information is incorrect, based on outdated and ...

Apple Acquires Locationary - John Paczkowski - News - AllThingsD
By John Paczkowski
Apple has snapped up the crowdsourced location data start-up for an undisclosed sum, the latest move in its efforts to beef up its new mapping service. ... Microsoft Misses, Takes a $900 Million Charge on Surface RT Stock. July 18, 2013 at ...
AllThingsD

Amazon Rejected as Domain Name After South American Objections

By By ERIC PFANNER
A group of Latin American countries succeeded in blocking Amazon.com's request to use the domain name .amazon, citing its importance to the identity of the Amazon basin. Read more… ...Daily Report: Apple Ruling Strengthens Amazon's Powerful Hand ... scuttlebot News from the Web, annotated by our staff. Google, Microsoft spend billions a quarter on data centers. gigaom.com |Microsoft & Google together spent $3.4 billion on infrastructure, mostly data center gear, last quarter .
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