In a continued push to include apps from more countries in the Windows 8 store, the tech giant is reaching out to developers across the world. Developers in 38 countries around the world can now submit Metro-style apps for Windows 8 to Microsoft’s Windows Store. The tech company announced today that it is forging ahead [...]
Several AT&T stores report that the Nokia Lumia 900 are selling out fast. The Nokia Lumia 900 is reportedly high in demand. (Credit: Josh Miller/CNET) Although it’s still too early to tell if the Lumia 900 is both Nokia and Microsoft’s saving grace, numerous AT&T stores reported that the demand for the device is surpassing its supply. According [...]
T-Mobile USA is struggling to hold on to customers as subscribers ditch it for carriers with the iPhone and other cool Android handsets. But the HTC One S may finally offer something worth staying for. T-Mobile USA may not have the iPhone or a slew of other cool Android phones, but next week it will start selling the [...]
The follow-up to the Transformer Prime gets a little upgrade and a significant price drop. It looks as though we’ll have another new big-name tablet hitting stores in a little more than a week as a new Asus Transformer Pad 300 has started popping up for preorder at some online retailers. The Taiwan-based tablet maker has apparently [...]
In a continued push to include apps from more countries in the Windows 8 store, the tech giant is reaching out to developers across the world.
Microsoft's Windows Store (Credit: Microsoft)
Developers in 38 countries around the world can now submit Metro-style apps for Windows 8 to Microsoft’s Windows Store. The tech company announced today that it is forging ahead with its goal to “deliver a global service” with its app store.
“We want to support developers regardless of where they are, and give customers apps that match their interests, including local offerings,” Antoine Leblond, Microsoft’s vice president of the Windows Web Services team, wrote in a blog post.
The Windows Store, which launched in preview mode in February, offers both free and paid apps, with the paid ones ranging in price from $1.49 to $999.99. Reportedly, developers will also be able to create trial apps that expire after a certain amount of time. Microsoft will initially take a 30 percent cut of sales, dropping to 20 percent if an app racks up more than $25,000 in sales.
Before today, the store supported app submissions from developers with dedicated app catalogs in France, Germany, India, Japan, and the U.S.; those in other countries could use the “Rest of World” catalog. In the company’s next preview release, it will add 33 app submission locales for developers, bringing the total to 38 countries.
“When you’re building a service at the scale of Windows, it needs to grow gradually and deliberately,” Leblond wrote. “Running the Windows Update service with hundreds of millions of client connections has taught us a lot about building, scaling, and securing such a service.”
Even though still in the Windows 8 pre-release time frame, Microsoft says there have been millions of app downloads “by people in more than 200 markets.”
Other changes the tech company is making to the Windows Store is it is expanding the number of market-specific app catalogs from five to 26 and adding seven new languages to the pre-release developer portal.
Read more: Microsoft’s Windows Store goes global with 33 more countries
Several AT&T stores report that the Nokia Lumia 900 are selling out fast.
The Nokia Lumia 900 is reportedly high in demand. (Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Although it’s still too early to tell if the Lumia 900 is both Nokia and Microsoft’s saving grace, numerous AT&T stores reported that the demand for the device is surpassing its supply.
According to an informal Gizmodo investigation, 36 stores sold out of the handset within the first few days of its debut, especially in the cyan color:
“Ten stores had run out of cyan entirely but had the black model available in limited quantities,” the publication reported.
“Many told us stock would be replenished by the next day, with just two saying they’re receiving shipments daily.”
But consumers shouldn’t be too optimistic about these numbers. After all, these stores could have had a small supply right off the bat.
“Locations that had been cleaned out only started with three or four of each color, and reinforcements have apparently been scarce,” Gizmodo reported.
Whether or not the carrier is planning to sell out the device to build up hype, or it’s just genuinely caught off guard by the demand, it’s good to see that any Nokia phone is selling out at all in the U.S.
Read more: AT&T stores report Lumia 900 shortage
T-Mobile USA is struggling to hold on to customers as subscribers ditch it for carriers with the iPhone and other cool Android handsets. But the HTC One S may finally offer something worth staying for.
T-Mobile USA may not have the iPhone or a slew of other cool Android phones, but next week it will start selling the HTC One S, one of HTC’s premiere smartphones that may finally give its subscribers a phone that excites them.
The new HTC One S will go on sale in T-Mobile stores and online April 25 for $199.99 with a two-year contract. The smartphone, which was unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, is the first on T-Mobile’s network to sport the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich software. It also supports the latest version of HTC’s homegrown Sense 4.0 software.
With a 4.3 AMOLED screen, the device is smaller than the HTC One X that will soon appear on AT&T’s network, but it offers many of the same features, such as an 8-megapixel camera with rapid shutter speed that allows users to take several pictures by pressing and holding a finger on the picture icon. It also supports Beats audio, which enhances the sound quality for music as well as video that’s played on the device.
And even though T-Mobile doesn’t offer 4G LTE service, it does offer enhanced 3G service called HSPA+, which delivers 4G-like speeds. The latest version of technology T-Mobile is using can theoretically offer download speeds up to 42 Mbps. And the new HTC One S will operate on that network where it’s available.
CNET Reviews editor Brian Bennett was so wowed by the device, he called it the “best phone you can get on T-Mobile (for now), wrapping Android 4.0, 4G data speeds, and a beautiful 4.3-inch AMOLED screen into one svelte package.”
There’s no question that T-Mobile has been in sore need of cool new phones on its network. While AT&T and Verizon Wireless announced devices like the Motorola Razr Maxx, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and Nokia Lumia 900, T-Mobile subscribers have been left in the cold.
Read more: Is the HTC One S T-Mobile’s savior?
The follow-up to the Transformer Prime gets a little upgrade and a significant price drop.
(Credit: Asus)
It looks as though we’ll have another new big-name tablet hitting stores in a little more than a week as a new Asus Transformer Pad 300 has started popping up for preorder at some online retailers.
The Taiwan-based tablet maker has apparently dropped the “Eee” from the name, and the new Transformer will join the Galaxy Tab 2 to make its debut on April 22, according to a report from PC World.
Like its predecessor, the Transformer Prime, the new tablet features a quad-core processor and snaps into a keyboard dock (sold separately) to become a full-fledged Android laptop, but at a lower starting price than the Prime.
Retailers including BJs and Office Depot show a price of $399.99 for the Transformer Pad 300 with 32GB of memory, 1GB of RAM, and an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor — once it comes into stock.
Other key specs include Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Bluetooth, front- and rear-facing cameras, a 10.1-inch display, Wi-Fi, 4G, and 10 hours of battery life that extends to 15 hours with the additional battery in the optional keyboard dock.
With the new 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2 looking at a $250 price tag and this reduced cost Transformer Pad matching the price of the10.1-inch Galaxy Tab 2, it looks like the strategy more slate makers are adopting to compete with Apple’s iPad this season is to undercut the dominant tablet. The recently released New iPad features some key upgrades — most notably the high-resolution Retina Display — but the price point remains the same, starting at $500.
More Android 4.0 tablets seem to be popping up every day, with the potential for a Google tablet and a Kindle Fire follow-up in coming months. Heck, the way things are going, it wouldn’t even be that far out to expect a Boeing tablet this year.
Read more: New Asus Transformer Pad 300 tablet coming April 22 for $399
Chip giant will launch a special Atom chip for servers to take on its nemesis ARM.
Intel server. (Credit: Intel)
Intel announced its first Atom chip for microservers at a major company confab in Beijing today.
The new Atom, codenamed Centerton, is a system-on-a-chip, which makes it even more power efficient than less-integrated older Atom chips.
Centerton’s power envelope — what the industry sometimes calls TDP or thermal design power — is six watts. While not as low as the power envelope for Intel’s smartphone Atom, six watts is still a lot more power efficient than Intel’s more mainstream chips. Those have power envelopes of 15 watts or higher. To date, Atom has been aimed at small devices like Netbooks and tablets.
Centerton was mentioned in a keynote speech by Intel Vice President Diane Bryant at the Intel Developer Forum being held in Beijing.
The chip has two processor cores and will be available in the second half of the year.
And to say that it’s not a direct response to chip rival ARM would be at the very least disingenuous. Hewlett-Packard said last year that it would bring out a server based on an ARM chip from start-up Calxeda, sending shock waves through the server industry. There’s also the case of SeaMicro — which had been designing microservers using Atom chips but was recently purchased by rival Advanced Micro Devices.
Intel describes microservers as “an emerging…server designed for unique data center workloads in which many low-power dense servers may be more efficient than fewer, more robust servers.”
And more Intel microserver chips are on the way. An Ivy Bridge based Intel Xeon “E3 LV” chip is on track for the second quarter of 2012. And a 15-watt Sandy Bridge chip will be available in the second half of this year, too.
The big question, of course, is who is going to use the chip? That will be announced later but possible customers could be any of the world’s largest server suppliers, including Hewlett-Packard. Customers are planning designs for this processor now, Intel said.
Read more: Intel’s ‘Centerton’ is first Atom chip for servers
A new survey shows that 49 percent of the world’s top 100 blogs use the popular Web publishing platform.
In fact, 49 percent of the top 100 blogs in the world use WordPress, according to a new survey by Pingdom. In distant second place are custom blogs with 14 percent.
“The last few years we’ve really focused on both the usability and flexibility of WordPress, which has resulted in accelerating growth in both big and small sites,” WordPress founding developer Matt Mullenweg told Pingdom. “I expect even higher adoption among the largest sites and blogs over the next year.”
What WordPress has done over the last year to improve usability and flexibility for bloggers includes adding a new feature called WordAds, which lets users make money by allowing ads to appear on their blogs and by creating free mobile apps that let users make text and image updates to their blogs via a mobile device.
Many of the users that once enlisted the previously popular platforms TypePad, Moveable Type, and BlogSmith have now migrated over to WordPress. Pingdom found that over the last three years WordPress has enjoyed a 32 percent increase in users.
Read more: WordPress is reigning champ for blogging platforms
A new game has rocketed up the most popular paid apps list at the iTunes app store, and its simple addictive gameplay is a recipe for success.
Swipe across multiple trolls for huge combos, but watch out for bombs. (Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)
Skylanders Cloud Patrol (99 cents) is a target-shooting game unlike any other at the App Store, with just the right mix of cute graphics and addictive gameplay to keep you coming back for more.
The concept is simple: Tap to fire your weapon or touch-and-slide across evil little trolls to create combos as you complete short quick levels. The game is based around the super popular Skylanders franchise — toys and videogames about a group of little monster heroes who defend the skies from darkness.
In the game, you move quickly through levels by clearing floating platforms of trolls. They’ll pop up from behind rocks, fly in using jetpacks, and jump in from off screen as you frantically try to shoot them by tapping. Touching and dragging across several trolls targets them all in a combo, giving you more coins to add to your total.
But there are also bombs that will pop up or fly around screen and if you pass your finger through a bomb, your game is over. So while it’s a shooting game at its heart, Skylanders Cloud Patrol is also about going for your top score in trying to clear as many levels as possible.
Read more: Skylander Cloud Patrol might be the next big game on iOS
Samsung announced two new extensions to the Galaxy Player multimedia device family: the Player 4.2, 3.6
The Samsung Galaxy Player 4.2 (Credit: Samsung)
We first spotted the successor to the Samsung’s line of handheld, portable media devices at last year’s Mobile World Congress. Despite the fact that the Players have a form factor of a mobile phone, they do not come with any contract or data fees.
Today however, Samsung officially showed off these WiFi enabled alternatives to the iPod touch during a press event in San Francisco.
The 4.2 has a resolution of 800x480p and has front-facing speakers so you can play music while placing your Player upward. Because it is Bluetooth 3.0-enabled, playing music wirelessly with other audio equipment comes easy. It’s equipped with a gyro censor inside for playing games. Speaking of which, it’s preloaded with three games: Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, FIFA 12, and the ad-free version of Angry Birds. It will be available for pre-order on May 4 in two flavors: black and white. Its retail release date is May 13 for $199.99.
The Samsung Galaxy Player 3.6 is another device that gives users a standard, multimedia, music-oriented experience. It runs on Android Gingerbread and has the same CPU, camera, and memory specs. Its display has a resolution of 480x320p, and has a retail price of $149.99. It is available now at Best Buy.
Read more: Perfect for music lovers, Samsung announces Galaxy Player 4.2, 3.6
Nokia confirmed a problem with the Lumia 900′s ability to access data and is taking drastic actions to make up for it, offering a $100 credit to existing and new customers through April 21.
Nokia is offering new and existing customers a $100 credit for its Lumia 900. (Credit: CNET)
Nokia is taking extreme measures to rectify a glitch found in some Lumia 900 smartphones, offering new and existing customers a $100 credit for their troubles.
Some early Lumia 900 customers found that their phones failed to get a data connection, an issue Nokia confirmed and said it is fixing. As a peace offering, the company is offering this promotion both to appease existing customers and entice potential new ones, with the $100 fully covering the $99.99 handset.
There’s a lot riding on the launch of the Lumia 900, which Nokia is banking on heavily as its comeback vehicle in the U.S. There were a lot of expectations built up ahead of its launch on Sunday. The drastic measure taken by Nokia only further underscores how important the device is to the company and to the Windows Phone platform.
“We wanted to send a message that we’re not only solving the problem in an expedited fashion, but that we’re going above beyond and beyond to not only fix the issue and give you something for your inconvenience,” Chris Weber, head of Nokia’s North American business, said in an interview with CNET.
The glitch was a result of the way the phone manages memory and is a software issue, Weber said, stressing that it was not a hardware issue or a problem with AT&T’s network. Weber declined to comment on how many phones were affected. He said it was a limited number, but that it was big enough to warrant this action.
Nokia has identified the problem, and phones with the fix will appear in stores over the next few days, he said. Customers can either swap out their phones at AT&T stores or wait for a software update on April 16 that will resolve the issue.
Weber said he would recommend all Lumia 900 customers download the update whether they are experience data connectivity issues or not.
Tech companies have reacted in a variety of ways to resolve issues with their products. Apple, for instance, resolved its iPhone 4 Antennagate controversy by giving away free bumper covers to its customers. Research in Motion gave away free apps and technical support.
Weber said the promotion lasts until midnight on April 21. Consumers who place their order before that time will be eligible for the credit, even if they don’t get the phone in time or it is out of stock.
But to essentially underwrite the entire cost of the phone is a fairly aggressive approach for Nokia. Not only are existing customers compensated, but potential new customers have an excuse to try out the Lumia 900 with minimal financial risk. Weber declined to say how much this promotion would cost, noting that it would depend on demand for the phone.
Nokia badly needs the Lumia 900 to be a hit. Weber said he was seeing great consumer buzz and excitement over the product, but declined to provide details on sales figures so early into the launch.
Read more: Nokia Lumia 900 glitch triggers free phone giveaway
Malware infecting more than 600,000 Macs worldwide is designed to steal users’ personal information.
Apple quietly announced today it is working on a tool to detect and remove the Flashback malware currently infecting hundreds of thousands of Mac around the world.
“In addition to the Java vulnerability, the Flashback malware relies on computer servers hosted by the malware authors to perform many of its critical functions,” Apple wrote on its Web site. “Apple is working with ISPs worldwide to disable this command and control network.”
Apple did not indicate when it expected the tool to be released to the public, and a company spokesman could not provide an estimate.
The malware made headlines last week when a Russian antivirus company revealed that more than 600,000 Macs were infected with the malware, which is designed to steal personal information. The malware was initially found in September 2011 masquerading as a fake Adobe Flash Player plug-in installer, but in the past few months it has evolved to exploit Java vulnerabilities that went unpatched in Mac systems.
Several experts have since said that the infection is the biggest yet to target Apple’s Mac platform, which has grown in recent years alongside the popularity of the company’s mobile devices.
Anti-malware makers have made efforts to build detection and removal tools for Flashback into their products, though one of the most readily available methods has been a manual process that involves plugging code strings into a built-in system utility. For its part, Apple issued an update earlier this month for OS X 10.6 and 10.7 that brings Java up-to-date and patches these vulnerabilities to keep computers from being infected in the first place.
Read more: Apple working on Flashback removal tool
