Gadget and Techno Updates
Techno Updates
Zune HD gets official e-mail app 1.5 years later
Apr 3rd
Microsoft in a belated step has quietly brought out the first true e-mail app for the Zune HD. The official software gives the MP3 player checks for both Gmail and Windows Live mail as well as any mail account that uses a POP3 server for incoming messages. The app isn’t as full-featured as on Windows Phone 7 but lets users quickly mass-delete messages or filter by the folder or the status.
The app is free and live now in the Zune Marketplace either on the device or in the Windows-based Zune software.
We gave the app a quick test and found More >
Insiders blame Microsoft mobile failure on Windows ‘cartel’
Apr 3rd
An investigation into Microsoft’s high-profile mobile failures has blamed much of the company’s poor market share on an endemic culture that resists anything not part of Windows. CEO Steve Ballmer is said to be over-proud and overprotective of the Windows legacy he inherited from Bill Gates. The company’s Windows and Office teams often get first say over anything, Forbes was told, and were likened earlier by James Whittaker to a Mafia that killed Courier, Kin, or any project that would threaten Windows’ internal hegemony.
“[You have to] deal with the made men who run the relevant cartel,” he said. “And if More >
Apple patent hints iWeb may come to iPad
Apr 3rd
It may have been some time since iWeb, Apples simple WYSIWYG web page design tool, has received new features. However, it appears that Apple has at the very least considered bringing it across to the iPad. A new patent application has emerged that shows a version of iWeb for the iPad. It would join GarageBand, Keynote, Numbers, Pages and iMovie as productivity and creativity apps ported from its Mac OS X platform over to its burgeoning iOS platform.
Apples iWeb for Mac OS X, ships as part of its iLife suite of applications that comes bundled with the Mac OS More >
Apple posts first iPad 2 TV ad: ‘We Believe’
Apr 3rd
Apple on Saturday night posted the first-ever TV ad for the iPad 2 (below). The 30-second spot deliberately avoids the push on specs by its rivals and argues that “technology is not enough.” It’s through the natural interfaces of iBooks, GarageBand, and photos that technology “gets out of the way” and creates something special, Apple said.
It recalls a common theme Apple has used at the end of its keynotes. CEO Steve Jobs has usually cast the company as an “intersection of liberal arts and technology,” where creatives and those not locked into the engineer method can make good technology More >
Review: Olympus E-PL2
Apr 3rd
The Olympus E-PL2 is a still-rare sequel to a MILC (mirrorless interchangeable lens camera). It promises to once again offer a way for relative beginners to get into serious photography as well as a possible sidearm camera for veterans. Now in its fourth iteration, has this series of Micro Four Thirds cameras just scratched the surface or run its course? Our E-PL2 review finds out.