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Posts Tagged ‘Enhancements’

Weekly Poll: What Companies Will Be at the Top of the Cloud in the Next 5 Years

We take a look at the future of cloud computing services this week. We want to know: What companies do you think will be at the top of the cloud world in five years?

This past week, we had 93 people respond to the question:
‘Is There A Place For Open-Source in the Data Center?” The respondents were pretty much in full support of the open approach. Of the 93 people who responded, 83 said, yes, there is a place for open-source. But we wonder what it will take to get such a movement to a pace of note. We do have faith in the open-source way but how will this effort transfer to the data center?

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The organizers have the right idea.

Michael Manos of Loose Bolts writes:

“If you think of the Linux movement, and all of those who actively participate in submitting enhancements, features, even pulling together specific build packages for distribution, one could even see such things emerging in the data center engineering realm. In fact with the myriad of emerging technologies assisting in more energy efficiency, greater densities, differences in approach to economization (air or water), use of containers or non use of containers, its easy to see the potential for this component based design.”

Let’s move on to this week’s question. It’s certainly true that cloud computing is one of the most category filled markets you can find. Platform-as-a-Service, Software-as-a-Service – the list goes on.

What companies do you think will be at the top of the cloud world in five years?opinion

We do see the same big name companies making their stake in the market, no matter what their category. It’s evident that there will likely be a handful standing over the next several years. Who will they be?

Discuss

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Freescale’s 7-inch tablet runs Android, Chromium OS or Linux, costs $200 (video)

Remember the $200 smartbook reference design that we saw at CES this year? Well, it’s back, it’s holding on to that same price and 7-inch enclosure, but this time it’s also showing off an expanded OS compatibility. Adapting the open source Chromium OS and another Linux variant to the ARM architecture of the prototype device was apparently not much of a hurdle for Freescale, who has an Android option in the works as well and claims to be just optimizing and enhancing the user experience at this point. Presumably one of the enhancements will be the installation of a capacitive touchscreen as the present demonstration requires either a mouse and keyboard or a resistive torture test to operate, but we’ll accept the company’s explanation that this is just a proof of concept and not the final product. Slide past the break to see some HTML5 video running on this bargain bin tablet, and hope that your friendly neighborhood OEM picks these designs up for some retail action.

Continue reading Freescale’s 7-inch tablet runs Android, Chromium OS or Linux, costs $200 (video)

Freescale’s 7-inch tablet runs Android, Chromium OS or Linux, costs $200 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm’s official webOS 1.4 changelog leaked?

You know what’s running out? February. That’s a little alarming considering that Palm had promised that totally rockin’ new cut of webOS, 1.4, before the month was out — but while we wait for this thing to actually happen, at least we’ve now got an official (or official-looking) changelog of the build out of the good folks at PreCentral. Besides a host of bug fixes, 1.4 is said to have performance boosts within the phone and calendar apps, a handful of messaging enhancements, new email sorting options, custom alert sounds for reminders (finally!), and — of course — the addition of video recording and Flash support on the Pre. Interestingly, it won’t have Flash out of the box — you’ll still need to download it from the Catalog, it seems. Head on over to PreCentral for the full log, and read really, really slowly just in case you’ve got a few more days to wait on this stuff.

Palm’s official webOS 1.4 changelog leaked? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pentax trots out gorgeous K-7 Limited Silver DSLR

Do Japanese gadget makers think we’re not superficial enough to appreciate specially repainted editions of their gear? Because we are, we totally are. Pentax is producing a mere 1,000 units of the above slice of DSLR beauty and predictably they all seem to be headed to the Japanese market. The Limited Silver variant of the K-7 adds a few enhancements, too, with a specially reinforced glass plate protecting the LCD and adding to the original’s robust weatherproofing, as well as updated firmware and photo processing software. The most intriguing addition is the inclusion of a “golden section ratio” focusing screen with curved guiding lines that are supposed to make image composition even easier. We’d say that’s just the sort of cosmetic enhancement you’d expect on a prettied up limited edition shooter, but that’d make our bitterness at not being able to buy one too obvious.

Pentax trots out gorgeous K-7 Limited Silver DSLR originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe: Flash 10.1 will require ’some enhancements to existing versions of Android’

Adobe, Google, and other members of the Open Screen Project are working together to make ensure the full Web experience can be delivered on largest possible number of devices. Support for full Flash Player 10.1 requires some enhancements to existing versions of Android. These enhancements are expected to be available as an upgrade to existing devices and for new devices starting in Q2 2010.

Adobe: Flash 10.1 will require ’some enhancements to existing versions of Android’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Transmission 1.8 released, now featuring support for magnet links

Filed under: Software, Freeware, Open Source

Transmission, the venerable BitTorrent client for Mac, has just received an overhaul in the form of a “huge listen-to-the-users release.” From the release notes the following enhancements are included:

• Added support for magnet links
• Added support for trackerless torrents
• Redesigned tracker inspector tab
• Quick Look restored for Snow Leopard users

According to the release notes there are over 100 changes that have been sourced from the users. Transmission is free and open source and can be downloaded here.

TUAWTransmission 1.8 released, now featuring support for magnet links originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Two GPS app updates for travelers

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, iPod touch

News in the GPS world keeps swirling around, and for downloaders it’s not too late to get some holiday GPS cheer. Here’s a couple of updates of note.

First, Gokivo [iTunes link] just announced a new pricing option that allows you to download Gokivo for just $0.99 for the first 30 days, and then pay $4.99 per month/$39.99 a year for service from then on out. We reviewed the app in November. It was middle of the road (pardon the pun) in performance and features, but it does have live traffic and text to speech for announcing turns, so it might be worth a look at this lower price.

Meanwhile, Navigon [iTunes link] has launched a version for Mexico at $49.99. The Mexico version includes many of Navigon’s premium navigation capabilities such as Google Local Search, Enhanced Pedestrian Mode, Speed Assistant, Route Planning and even a localized point-of-interest database. If you’re doing some driving south of the border, or happen to live down there, it should be on your list of travel options.

I expect the new year will bring a slew of enhancements and new products for the iPhone and iPod touch — who knows, maybe we’ll even get to see a tablet navigator before 2010 is through.

TUAWTwo GPS app updates for travelers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Unofficial Google Text-To-Speech API

Last month Google unveiled enhancements to Google Translate. Among the new features was a simple text-to-speech function. You can try it out, or watch this video to see how it works (skip to 0:45).

There’s no official API for the text-to-speech service. But Weston Ruter noticed that anyone can access the service in the same way Google does: “Looking at the Firebug Net panel for where this TTS data was coming from, I saw that the speech audio is in MP3 format and is queried via a simple HTTP GET (REST) request: http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?tl=en&q=text”

Translation: just change the URL to whatever you want it to say and you’ll get back a MP3 file. Example: copy the URL http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?q=I+love+techcrunch into your browser.

This is English only for now, and its limited to 100 characters. But unless Google shuts this down, third party applications can now use this in any creative way they want. Have at it.

Via Ajaxian.

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